R. Lippincott, M. Daughtry, T. Iaconis: Five Feet Apart | Lina
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?
From the moment I saw this book I knew that, no matter whether I end up liking it or not, I simply needed it on my shelf because of that absolutely gorgeous cover. The color scheme, the flowers, those little silhouettes of Will and Stella, even the font—I am officially in love! Combine that with the amazing movie trailer and the fact Will is played by Cole Sprouse, and you can probably understand why I wanted so hard to like this. But unfortunately, for me it ended up not living up to the hype.
“Everyone in this world is breathing borrowed air.”
The idea behind the Five Feet Apart “project” was to raise awareness about cystic fibrosis, a still incurable genetic illness that primarily affects the lungs, and the impact it has on lives of those who suffer from it—and I thought that part was rather well done. I can’t really say whether the way the illness was portrayed was completely accurate or not, but I liked the way in which it was approached. It doesn’t poeticize illness or use loads of purple prose and deeper-than-thou metaphors in order to create a more r. Instead, the writing is pretty straight-forward and without pretensions, and what little medical terminology was used was all clearly and concisely explained. I think that simplicity is what makes the book feel all the more real and makes you understand how grave the situation can be and is for some people out there.
The story is told from the perspectives of two “CFers”—Stella and
Will, both in different stages of illness. Stella I’ve taken an instant liking
to at the beginning, even though she was a bit basic. I could understand how
her illness and what happened with her sister shaped her into the person she is
today, a bit of a control freak and almost blindly following the rules, and I
was curious about her backstory. But as the story progressed she became more
and more annoying and by the end of the book I didn’t really care about what
happened to neither her nor Will.
My main problem with Stella was the whole “loosening up a bit”
part of her arc—I understand it was necessary, but at times it seemed like the authors
went a bit overboard with it, *spoilers* especially with the way she acted
when the long-awaited transplant finally came. Refusing something that could
change and prolong her life and which she has been waiting
for her whole life just because—a guy she likes can’t get the same treatment?
So she’d rather die? Or what? I’m sorry, but I did not sign up for that
bullshit.
Will, on the other hand, annoyed me pretty much straight from the beginning. I couldn’t pinpoint why exactly until it hit me—he’s yet another “artsy wannabe rebel” and honestly, at this point I can’t stand those type of characters anymore. We really should’ve left that trend in 2018. Or 2008. e_e Anyways, he is in this super expensive and hard-to-get-in treatment program but pretty much doesn’t care about his health and neglects his treatments because “tHaT mAkEs HiM fEeL iN cOnTrOl”. I have to admit that he does partially lose that attitude later in the book, but still, I can’t say I particularly liked him. There was literally nothing that made him stand out from the crowd of other YA-romance male protagonists.
The romance was cute, but considering this is primarily labeled as contemporary romance novel, I expected a bit more of it. They were cute together, but that’s pretty much all to it. I wasn’t really invested into the ship at any point, especially towards the end when that one really emotional thing happened but was lost in the midst of their personal drama and what-not.
Overall, Five Feet Apart is a solid contemporary novel—short, relatively fast-paced and easy to read. Nothing outstanding, but it’s not all that bad either and, combined with the movie, I’m sure it will succeed in raising awareness of CF (and, hopefully, funds for further research). For me, a little bit of contemporary is exactly what I’ve needed after reading so much fantasy, and I’m not sorry I picked it up. I haven’t seen the movie yet though, but I’ve heard that the romance is better executed there, so fingers crossed for that.
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