Introduction

Love can happen to anyone at anywhere, even at a hospital. Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott ( co-authored with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis) is such an endearing, engaging and modern-age young adult novel. Talking about the difficulties of life and love while struggling with a inherited chronic disease, is artistically presented in this book. This novel appeals a demand for its readers to think the priorities of a normal life, that often a person with persistent sickness fails to enjoy. The Book Five Feet Apart is adapted into a movie under the same title with Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse as lead characters.

About The Authors

Rachael Lippincott is the coauthor of All This Time, #1 New York Times bestseller Five Feet Apart, and She Gets the Girl and the author of The Lucky List. She holds a BA in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mikki Daughtry is an American screenwriter and Young Adult Fiction  author. She is best known for writing, along with writing partner Tobias Iaconis, the films The Curse of La Llorona  (2019), Five Feet Apart  (2019) and Nightbooks  (2021).

Storyline of The Novel

The story evolves around two teenagers Stella Grant and Will Newman. Stella is a chronically ill teen with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). She’s been in and out of hospitals for lengthy treatments most of her life. A rule-follower and control freak, Stella is careful to take her medications on time and do whatever is needed to maintain her treatment regimen. Only then can she hope for a lungs transplant. She maintains a website through which tens of thousands of viewers follow her journey. Her friend, Poe, who also has CF, is a patient at the same hospital. They communicate frequently, but often via text. Individuals with CF must remain 6 feet apart at all times to avoid sharing life-threatening germs. Will  is a new patient at the hospital. His wealthy mother has arranged for him to participate in clinical trials all over the world. Nothing has helped. Will’s problem is worse than Stella’s and Poe’s. On top of CF, he has a condition called B. cepacia, which will deplete his lung function rapidly. This condition makes him ineligible for a lung transplant and far more dangerous to other CF patients.

Stella and Will meet at the hospital, and almost immediately fall in love with each other. If Stella catches this disease, she will get crossed off the list of people that can get new lungs and start a new life. This makes the relationship between the two very difficult since they must refrain from touching or even approaching each other closer than 6 feet. The more the two fall in love, the more tempting it is for them to break the rules and come closer, hold hands, or even kiss. Poe is a secondary character that is best friends with Stella and provides great support for her. The two have been friends since the age of 6, and are very close emotionally, but haven’t ever been close physically because of CF.

Analysis of The Storyline

Rachael Lippincott delivers an intriguing, emotional, well-plotted and well-written read here with relatable and likeable characters that readers can’t help but to fall in love with. The story is told in alternating perspectives between Stella and Will in a thoroughly enjoyable narrative manner. They complimented each other so well that both of their situations and feelings towards each other ring true.

While there are predictable elements in Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, as a whole it is tender, emotional and heartfelt. Its easy to root for these characters. The romance may be sudden but given the circumstances, it makes sense and their interactions felt genuine. With heart and humour, Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott is a good read.

Criticism of The Storyline

The book flows very well and is very fast-paced. It is fun to read and is entertaining enough to read in one sitting. The authors used modern and teenage language by incorporating informal conversations ( and sometimes slangs) which adds lucidity to the novel and overall improves the readability. The authors did a good job explaining the disease that the two protagonists have which makes the book easy to understand even to the readers with no prior knowledge of the Cystic Fibrosis disease.

Five Feet Apart is a book that will move you to tears at times. It is heart-felt and gives light to the seriousness of Cystic Fibrosis. The authors included a lot of detail, writing about the daily struggles and tasks that the patients if CF have to go through. Every author tries to write in a way that makes it so the reader can live through the book and Lippincott, Daughtry, and Iaconis do a beautiful job at this. The reader can really feel the emotions of the characters and this is why the book is so gripping. You’re so engrossed in the story that you must know how it ends, with the hope that Stella and Will can conquer anything. This book is touching and definitely worth reading.

Conclusion

This book is recommended to modern-age readers and fans of YA romance because the book tells you that even if you stand different and have difficulties to deal with in your life and health, you can still find love, even at places it is least expected to be found in general. This book is a definitely good romance novel that takes two people that think that they don’t have anything in common to them falling in love.