Five Feet Apart by Rachel Lippincott
Can you love someone you can never touch?
Stella Grant like to be in control of her life and her Cystic Fibrosis.Even with her lungs not allowing her to control them, she has spent most of her life in and out of hospital. However at this point in her life what she needs to control the most is making sure that she keeps away from anyone and anything which could pass an infection to her immune system and this could jeopardise the chance of having a lung transplant.
Then Will Newman comes into the story and the only thing that he wants to control of is getting out of hospital - in effect the polar opposite to Stella. He couldn't care less about his medical needs including medication, treatments and the new drug trial that he is on. He is about to turn 18 and he will be able to control his own treatment and he can unplug the machines and see the world.
Will is exactly the person who Stella needs to stay away from. If he even accidentally breathes on her she could lose her place on the transplant list. This could also mean that both of them die and the only way that they can stay alive is to stay apart. However the six feet distance doesn't feel like they are being safe it makes them feel that they are being punished. If they could still keep a foot of space between them that their condition has stolen from them - would it really be that dangerous.
Well let me say first off all. This is not the book to read if you are even a bit emotional and get invested in the characters which you are reading about. Tear started flowing from page one for me and it only took me two sitting to read it. I felt sorry for the characters and i don't know how they could function - and then i realise that children and young adults are living with this daily. I loved hearing Stella and Will's point of views and loved the way this was written through both of the points of view. Even through the whole story is based in a Hospital Rachel manages to expand this situation to make you feel that you could be living in a community with the characters. I also wanted to wrap Stella up in my arms when she experiences the death of a fellow CF patient, Poe. This is a star crossed lovers story to match Romeo and Juliet - a must have read for young adult and romance novels.
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