My review of Five Feet Apart:
Oh you want more? Sorry, I am a bit rusty on my review writing.
Five Feet Apart is written by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, Tobias Iaconis which means it took three people to write this The Fault in our Stars rip-off.
Stella has cystic fibrosis; she has a popular vlog, is developing an app for monitoring her drug regime and is well-liked at the hospital she has been treated at her entire life. Her healthy older sister died in a freak accident and now Stella is perpetually afraid about what will happen to her parents when she dies. Will also has cystic fibrosis but also has a serious infection that I have forgotten the name of because I read this three weeks ago. CF patients must stay 6 feet apart at all times because, even without the additional infection, they could pass their unique strain of CF to another person. This poses the question of- why is there a CF floor of the hospital? Why not just put them in various other wards so they are more than 6 feet apart?
So, because YA, Will and Stella have a meet-cute but dislike each other at first since Stella is very Type A and Will has a wannabe James Dean vibe going on. Eventually, like 30 pages later, they fall in love and also decide to screw medical advice and “reclaim twelve inches” by staying only five feet apart. Naturally YA shenanigans ensue.
“If this is all we get, then let’s take it. I want to be fearless and free,” she says, giving me a look, daring me. “It’s just life, Will. It’ll be over before we know it.”
I think my problem with this, besides being obvious tragedy porn, is that these two knew the risks and put each other at tremendous risk because of 18 year old hormones. Sure TFIOS has some issues but Hazel and Augustus were never going to give each other their particular strain of cancer! I just did not connect to either character enough to care about their choices more than just to roll my eyes because apparently I am a million years old and just want you to get off my lawn.