Five Feet Apart

by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, and Tobias Iaconis

Don't miss the new bestseller from Rachael Lippincott and Mikki Daughtry, All This Time, publishing September 2020 and available for pre-order now! 

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Five Feet Apart is now a major motion picture on Netflix starring Cole Sprouse (Riverdale's Jughead) and Haley Lu Richardson (The Edge of Seventeen and Recovery Road)!
In this moving story that’s perfect for fans of John Green, Nicola Yoon, David Levithan and Jenny Han, two teens fall in love with just one minor complication - they can’t get within five feet of each other without risking their lives.

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Can you love someone you can never touch?

Stella Grant likes to be in control - even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.

The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.

Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.

What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?
 

• ISBN10: 1471182312
• ISBN13: 9781471182310
• Publish Date: 10 January 2019 (first published 20 November 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[anastasia]

I’m so sad after reading this.

[kiracanread]

An incredibly heartwarming and heartbreaking story of two teenagers with cystic fibrosis. This book brought awareness to cystic fibrosis itself, and what young people have to go through.

[Sam@WLABB]

No lie, I hardly survived this book. I don't think I stopped crying the entire time. CF is such a heartbreaking illness, and seeing these two suffer was tough. As if the story wasn't tragic enough, it got even more tragic at times. I will say, I appreciated the ending. It was bittersweet, but a nice way to send me off to dry my tears.

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[writehollydavis]

An enjoyable read that made me tear up and hold my breath. Fans of The Fault in Our Stars will enjoy this contemporary romance about the ups and downs two sick kids endure and what they'll do to fight for love and their own lives.

[Stephanie]

I wasn't a fan of one of the narrators and the story was just alright, nothing too moving about it. It was interesting learning a little about Cystic Fibrosis though.

[boghunden]

Oh boy. This was something.
Sadly, it didn't do much to me. I didn't connect with either character. I found Stella to be annoying and wanting to have things to be her way. I get her need to be in control, what with CF and all, but it doesn't give her the right to treat others like she did.
Will wasn't much better. He was the stereotypical sick bad boy. It was hard to read about him being this stupid.

The ending was too sugar sweet for me. I just couldn't.

I loved Poe most of all, he was the one who did it for me. That being said, I still didn't even care that much when he died...

I guess this book just wasn't for me.

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: Admittedly, Five Feet Apart wasn't on my radar. When it first published last year, I read the synopsis and move it. The reason I went back on that decision not to read it was that one of the Popsugar Reading Challenge 2019 prompts is to read a book coming out as a movie this year. Then when the audiobook was available for loan on Overdrive, I decided to give it a go anyway.

While I thought the characters were sweet, I'm always wary about the capitalisation of terminally ill teens. Yes, it's important to give them a voice, for them to be visible in literature. But there's a fine line between careful representation and irresponsible misrepresentation.

The flippancy about cystic fibrosis starts with the title itself, as I found out. It is mentioned in the book that cystic fibrosis patients should keep a minimum of six feet between them, the title already alludes to callous attitudes. Given how dangerous cross-contamination is between patients, I found that a bit hard to swallow.

I get that it's easier to relate to people who are faced with the same circumstances. In that regard, it makes sense that patients are inclined to form deep friendships and form romantic attachments. Still, I found Five Feet Apart concerning at times, what with the romance throwing caution to the wind, and some very reckless behaviours. That's why I had mixed feelings about the book.

[Artemis]

It's basically a cystic fibrosis version of "A Fault In Our Stars". It was somewhat cute and easy read but I also know young girls will be driven to read this after seeing Cole Sprouse in the film trailer. I wish it explained more about CF, went a little more in depth into the day-to-day of CF patients and families.
Original 4 stars because it was enjoyable and I could easily see it play out as a movie, but down graded to 3 because I just wish there was more substance to it.