Five feet apart by Rachel Lippincott - Book Review

Stella Grant has been in and out of hospitals her entire life, due to cystic fibrosis, a rare disease affecting her lungs and digestive tract, but she likes to stay in control by making lists and posting about her illness on her Youtube channel.

All in an effort to keep herself healthy and stay on top of the lung transplant list until she meets Will Newman, a boy who doesn’t care about lists, or his medication and only wants to live his life outside hospitals.

Five feet apart doesn’t seem like such a big deal until the two of them fall in love, and five feet seems more like a punishment, but crossing that line could mean risking both of their lives. 

Although five feet apart is her debut novel, Lippincott proves that she understands the YA genre better than most, and she uses her voice as a platform to shine a light on a relatively unknown illness.

Her style requires a little polishing, but she more than makes up for her lack of experience with her emotional maturity and awareness of the responsibility she’s been given.

It’s not hard to relate to Stella, the young teen who’ll do everything she can to stay alive, including avoiding life. Inversely, it’s also easy to relate to Will who is tired of being in hospitals all the time and only wants to spend whatever time he has left in the outside world.

They are our ill-fated star crossed lovers. Both her leads are complex and nuanced, and she gives them a solid cast of supporting characters to make the story feel more nuanced.

Considering the sensitive subject matter, Lippincott was able to deal to handle it with both grace and compassion without detracting from the urgency, and the importance of it.