Review: Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott

is a group of bacteria found naturally in wet soil and decaying plants.

Goodreads rating: 4.18/5

My rating: 4.3/5

Stella is a control freak with cystic fibrosis and Will is a stubborn and careless being with B Cepacia cystic fibrosis. While Stella is at the hospital to treat a sore throat and fever, Will is there for a new drug trial. Inevitably, they meet and despite fighting themselves not to fall in love with each other, they do. If Will so much as breathes on Stella, she could get B Cepacia and lose her spot on the lung transplant list. Their biggest struggle is having to stay 6 feet apart when all they want to do is get close to each other. With their broken lungs having stolen so much from them, they decide to steal a foot of distance back to avoid breaking their hearts.

For those who aren't aware, cystic fibrosis (CF) is a disease the affects the lungs and digestive system, causing the body to produce thick and sticky mucus that can clog the lungs and obstruct the pancreas. B Cepacia is a group of bacteria found naturally in wet soil and decaying plants that colonizes in the lungs, causing infection and inflammation that deteriorates lung function and pneumonia. B Cepacia can be transmitted by saliva and because the bacteria can live on sinks, counter-tops, utensils, and personal care items for up to two hours if bacterial droplets are dry and up to 24 hours if they are wet, they can be indirectly transmitted. Knowing that, it is easy to understand how dangerous it would be if Stella and Will had not kept their distance.

Although terminally-ill-teens-falling-in-love YA novels seem to be on trend, I wouldn't strike them off. At best, they still serve as a good medium for awareness. I wouldn't have known about CF and B Cepacia if it weren't for this book.

Did you know that the book is actually based on the movie and not the other way around? I watched the movie and if you're not a book worm but are curious about the story, I'd say just watch the movie. There wasn't much difference between the two and I felt a lot more emotional when I watched the movie. I'm not sure if it's because I listened to an audio book rather than read the book but it didn't cause me to shed a tear. One of the differences between the book and movie include the ending; they end slightly different and I preferred the movie's ending because it simply made more sense. The book's ending left me wondering, "okay, so what happened next?", it felt incomplete, which in my opinion, is not a great way to feel at the end of a book. Poe's, Stella's best friend who also has CF, back story isn't mentioned in the movie and if you're not in the mood to read the book to find out more about him, a little Google search will keep you informed. In the movie, Stella also mentions being clinically OCD which isn't in the book and a minor difference in the details is Will's eye color - his are blue in the book and Cole Sprouse, who plays Will in the movie, definitely does not have blue eyes.

With the whole book being only a 6-hour read, it was a very easy one. The story was told from both Stella and Will's perspective and the language used was straightforward. As for the content, I particularly enjoyed the amount of grand gestures and surprises planned by both the main characters. I guess the screenplay writers, Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconi, get the credit for that. Having said that, this story was Rachael Lippincott's debut novel and was published in 2018. She hasn't published anything since then so it would be interesting to see what kind of stories she can come up with.

This story is about friendship, loss, love and sacrifice for the sake of it. In regards to love, I've learnt that you can't tell your heart who to love so to watch two people fall in love when they know they shouldn't is heart breaking. The story also gives us a glimpse of the crazy things people do for the sake of love and how just caring a little more can make a huge difference in someone's day, if not life. We are so blessed to be able to breath air properly and touch whatever and whoever we want, this story makes you appreciate those little blessings that most of us take for granted.

If you're a sucker for romance and don't mind having a good cry at the end, I'd recommend this story. And trust me, you wouldn't be missing out on anything by watching the movie instead of reading the book.