Review: Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott

Title: Five Feet Apart

Author: Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtery and Tobias Iaconis

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What's it about?

Five feet Apart bounces between two points of view, that of Stella and that of Will as they try to make the best of their latest hospital stay.

Stella is 17, a control freak and determined to help put her broken family back together. To do so, she needs to be healthy, something she has never really been. Stella has CF (Cystic Fibrosis), a disease that is not only fatal, it effects every single moment of her day. CF lives in the lungs, decreasing the function of them which makes it hard to breath, catch your breath or be very physically active (of course, this is a super simplified definition). Sadly, those with CF are required to stay at least 6 feet apart from each other and not because of Covid, becuase those with CF can actually infect each other and cause the other's case worse then it already is.

So when Stella enters the hospital that's been her second home since she was six for, what she calls, a tune up, she doesn't expect much more then a normal, month long stay. She's even lucky enough to be staying there at the same time as her best friend in the world, the only one who actually understands what it's like to have CF because he has it, too. Poe. Things get even more complicated when she finds her self desperate to ensure that the new boy, Will, actually takes his treatments instead of shoving them off every chance he gets. But, nothing is that simple and Stella soon finds her interest in Will's life far more personal then his medical care and she's determined to keep Will in her life, and her heart, even if it kills her.

Will is done. He's sick of hospitals and feels invisible behind his illnesses. Yes. Multiple becuase not only does Will have CF, he also has another disease called B. cepacia, an infection that only amplifies the struggles of CF and knocks him out of the running for a lung transplant. He's put on an experimental treatment and is counting down the days until he is 18 and can legally take control of his own medical care. He's sarcastic and flippant, while underneath there's a scared little boy facing his own mortality and now he's fallen in love with Stella, a girl with CF. A girl his very presence in her life could kill. He's torn between chasing his love and living his life to it's fullest while he can, and protecting the person who has become the most important person in his life.

Favorites:

Favorite Character: The simple answer is, I don't have one. Now, hear me out. It's not becuase there are none that are good enough, it's because they characters are imperfect. They are flawed (crazy, huh? Human characters flawed?!). There are points where I don't like one of them so much, and times when I adore them. This applies for about everyone in the book. They are complex and hurting. They feel the need to protect themselves and, in the process, they sometimes do stupid things. But then, there are those moments that just melt your heart. When I sat down and thought about who my favorite was I found that my favorite fluctuated from one to another depending on what part of the book I was on.

Favorite Character: See above...unless you count CF and B. Cepacia. Because if they count, they are my least favorite characters for sure!