Five Feet Apart

3.01/5 stars Everyone in this world is breathing borrowed air.
Hi, my name is Emi and I don't remember how to write a review so I'm gonna bullshit this so let's go!

Here's a fun boring ass fact about me that no one asked for, considering it's been almost a year since I wrote my last review so nobody remembers me anyways, let alone cares, but this is my review so I'm writing whatever the eff I want. You're probably not even reading this so whatever. But anyways, my favorite movie genre is sad teen movies where someone is definitely is gonna die but like the entire movie we pretend that nobody is going to die and then act surprised when they do.

Wow, I'm sorry, you can totally tell it's been a year since I've written a review. Sorry about the mess that is my words. I'll try to do better.

But to recap, I love ya adaptions that follow this simple formula:

1. “Based of the bestselling novel by John Green Author McAuthorface”
2. Teen might die? Or just died? Or if they do they thing they die.
3. Teen fall in love with another teen, who also might be dying (that part is optional)
4. “You can't be in love with teen! You/they/both of you die!” -grown adult that is like a parent figure to teen
5. someone dies and we cry
6. voice over that tells you an important lesson in life and we cry more
7. the end.

Honestly, that is such a formula for a perfect Emi-certified movie. I can't tell you how much I've seen Me and Earl and the Dying Girl or If I Stay or the AwesomenessTV miniseries Zac and Mia. I'm watching Everything Everything as I type this the plot twist at the end gets me everytime! I never see it coming Honestly, if you need a recommendation, I'm your girl.

Now, last year when I learned there was a new movie coming out that ticks off every box of my perfect movie checklist, I was like:



so the first chance I got, which happened to be thousands of feet in the air surrounded by strangers, and like do you know how hard it is not to cry surrounded by stangers? But like, not to toot my own horn, but like i did it. But then I realized, wait is this even a book? I've been book dumb for like two years at this point but like I've never heard of a book called Five Feet Apart about Cystic Fibrosis. Bc if it had existed, I'd have read it. But like, google exists so once I made it to land again, I searched that stuff and realized that hooray, there is a book, but also that this isn't a book to movie adaptation, but a movie to book. At least, that's the vibe I'm getting. According to the Five Feet Apart wikipedia page, the script was written pre-2017 and the book was published in 2018. Weird, I know, but like whatever. It's something I can read, so I one day shipped it off Amazon then proceeded to not touch the book until almost 6 months later.

Not that you wanted the whole story, but you got it. You're welcome.

Let's proceed to the actual book review if any of you are still here:

but this book is about a girl, named Stella, who has Cystic Fibrosis and super structured and planned out and runs a youtube chanel and codes apps and lots of other things that make me jealous bc she's more talented that me and she checks into her home away from home aka the hospital where she's super popular with everyone and she meets new CF patient Will who's the exact opposite of her and doesn't really care about living anymore and that drives Stella up a wall so she convinces him to start doing that and after two dates they love each other and she almost destroys her only chance of extended her life for him.

Like seriously girl, you've waited you whole effing life for a pair of lungs and you almost give it up for a guy? girl, you are more important then that guy you've known for two weeks

So because this was a movie-to-book kinda thing, that's what this book felt like. Things that were important were discussed very briefly, and not so important thing took paragraphs to describe. Most of the dialogue from the movie to the book are the exact same. Word from word. So while watching someone act it out on the movie, it was fine. It written down was the cheesiest, most cliche thing ever. It's the kind of dialogue that makes you shake your head and yell into the abyss that nobody talks like that. Stop making it a thing.

I'd find examples, but my books on the other side of the room so it's not happening. Just trust me.
And the characters are super cliche. Bad boy with soft heart. Talented friendly girl who has life totally planned out. They fall in love.

But like, also, I am a sucker for romance stories at this stage of my life when all my friends are married with babies and I still live with my mother.

I'm tired, so I'm done now. But congrats to me I wrote a review even though it sucks and only 20% of it was actually talking about the book. Whatever. Thanks for reading. You the bomb.com.
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This review is also featured at Behind the Pages: Five Feet Apart

Stella was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when she was six years old. Saint Grace's hospital has become a second home for her through the years as she continues to battle the terminal disease. In order to feel in control of her life, she makes to do lists to follow and has a meticulously organized med cart. She's also developed an app to alert people with strict medication regiments when to take their medication. Her carefully ordered world is about to turn inside out as a new CFer arrives at Saint Grace's.

Will is cynical, sarcastic and tired of battling CF. He's contracted B. cepacia, an antibiotic resistant bacteria that has taken him off the lung transplant list. He's toured the world from the seat of a hospital bed as his mother has dragged him from place to place to undergo new treatments. Nothing has been able to rid his body of the B. cepacia and he wants to just live his life to the fullest before he dies. The strict regimen of medication he must take to breath is annoying and he can't be bothered to finish his treatments. Until he meets Stella and learns what it means to want to live.

I will admit I had never heard of this book before the movie announcement. Do not approach this book thinking it is going to be another Fault in our Stars. Stella and Will are vastly different characters than what you experience in Fault. While they are teenagers, Rachel Lippincott was able to show how coming to terms with a disease like CF makes them mature in ways other teenagers have not. Grappling with how their family will handle death and the amount of responsibility an individual can feel when they can't control the disease was heartbreaking. It brings to light the amount of weight someone can feel when they are simply trying to stay alive.

People with Cystic Fibrosis cannot touch one another. The safe distance to stay apart is six feet as long as no one coughs or sneezes. The germs one person with CF carries can kill the other. Someone with B. cepacia is especially dangerous because there is no treatment for it. Once you contract B. cepacia you are off the transplant list and your already short life expectancy is reduced. The relationship between Stella and Will is without touch, it has to be for their own safety. I enjoyed the ways the two characters developed a relationship without relying on touch to facilitate it.

While this can certainly be a hard book to read due to the emotional weight, it is beautifully written and I highly recommend it. I hope to see more novels by Rachel Lippincott in the future.

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers tells the story of Stella and Will. Stella has admitted herself into the hospital she's been treated in most of her life. She has cystic fibrosis and now she has a fever and sore throat that has landed her in the hospital again. The staff and other CF patients know her well but she meets a new patient, Will. Eight months ago, Will found out that he has a fatal illness to go along with the CF he already has and he's in the hospital for a drug trial. He's tired of being trapped in hospitals and just wants to enjoy life. Will seems to not care about getting better while Stella is compulsive about her strict medical routine. The more I read, the more the story revealed about Stella's and Will's lives and their families. The daily CF routines are difficult and time-consuming and if there's no improvement, the patient struggles to see any benefit. Full of loyalty and friendship, Five Feet Apart lets us see deeper into the difficulties of having cystic fibrosis and the tragedy of young people knowing nothing else but medical treatments and a short life span hovering in their futures. Heartbreaking, hopeful and inspiring all at the same time, five stars! I think that everyone who needs a good cry and a way to hope should read this one. I didn't realize how much I needed this book until after I finished it and the impact it has had on my life.

Una vez comencé este libro, supe de inmediato que era un romance juvenil, y por lo mismo, esperé que fuera predecible. Y lo fue, pero al mismo tiempo no lo fue. Tiene algunos giros inesperados que le dan agilidad a la lectura y al viaje que uno como lector toma al empatizar con los personajes. Pero lo más importante de este libro es que cumple con su objetivo de visibilizar la lucha de los enfermos de fibrosis quística.