I am always super keen to read books with chronic illness and disability rep and this one features two teens with cystic fibrosis.
I’m also super wary of books with disability rep because a lot of hurt can easily be spread — whether intentionally or not. I tried to find some #ownvoices reviews for CF but didn’t come across any (let me know if know of any and I can link to them!). So I went into this book cautious but hopeful. And I do think it was a good story…
…but I was also worried about some things (I felt) were problematic. Not having CF, of course, I’m just coming from this from a place of someone knowledgeable on disabilities, but not chronic illnesses. So pls bear that in mind.
Also it has a curious origin story! As far as I understand, it was written off the screenplay. The movie came first! I’d still like to see the movie and I was totally picture Will as Cole Sprouse (Jughead vibes lmao) the whole time. This book was made for his attitude haha.
EDIT UPDATE! I since have watched this CF vlogger do a reaction to the trailer and they seemed super positive about the rep! So that’s definitely great. I would be curious, however, to know what a CF person thought of the ending though.
➸ The story…
Ok we all know it’s here to tug on heartstrings. It’s classic YA #sicklit (totally brought back TFIOS vibes) and it’s easy to be invested in the story! Plus it’s short, written in an easy manner, and honestly I just whipped through it.
Will and Stella were both intriguing protagonists. They had the potential to be unlikeable, with Will all into self-destructive “screw the world!” vibes and Stella being obsessively controlling. But when you stop to think about why they were like that?? I really felt for them.
On the outside we have Will being a privilege little brat and skipping expensive treatments and declaring he’s running away from hospitals as soon as he’s 18…but the kid is super super depressed. He’s basically been told he’s going to die, but also hi, here are hospital walls for the remainder of your short short life. There’s no cure for his strain of CF, so yes: he’s got a countdown on his head. And with Stella: she’s trying to hold her parents’ marriage together and wearing herself out being positive and perky because people find that more “inspiring” than if she shows she’s actually struggling. It’s the “Ooh look at this suffering girl, doing great no matter what!” She’s basically made herself inspiration porn just to try and cope. It’s so so sad and exhausting.
You kind of expect how the plot will unfold…I mean, forbidden romance. CF patients are highly contagious to each other and need to stay away. Will and Stella flirt around the edges of the rules. They’re each other’s only “option” in a long hospital stay where they’re lonely and their families don’t “get” what they’re going through. I don’t like instalove in books, but this also made sense for their situation.
➸ Let’s talk about the themes though…
I’m uncomfortable with some of the themes, though of course this is just my interpretation.
1) This whole “can you love someone you can’t touch?!”…I truly find it frustrating that people can say love must rely on physical interaction. So many people are have severe touch-aversion. So many people have epic internet friendships.
2) The message of “you’re not living unless you’re EXPERIENCING THE WORLD!” This is such a danger zone ugh I will throw up a little. They did this in Everything, Everything and I’m still upset. Don’t tell kids and teens that they’re not “living” unless they’re having abled experiences. You can have a beautiful and fulfilled life, even if you’re not able to go places. Now obviously this book is about chronic illness and two kids who are facing short life spans too. That’s horrible and unfair and I ached for them. Plus they wanted to travel and see the world, and if you WANT that, then having your body rob you of that opportunity is super unfair. However society has a history of saying people who are ill/disabled have “lesser lives” and it’s truly a message we need to stop insinuating. I also don’t feel comfortable with plots that end up to the “I’d rather have LOVE than have LIFE”. Anyway, long ramble, but this is just to say: it’s fair to hate your illness, to hate how it can wreck your life. But it is not fair for books to keep on hammering in this line about how life isn’t worth living if you can’t do everything. I just would like to see these themes explored with more nuance.
3) Also full warning for a very problematic trope. There’s no excuse for this being in here.
While there was plenty to like about Five Feet Apart, with characters who had complex emotional reactions…I’m too cautious of some of the messages it promotes. But Will and Stella both had amazing character arcs though and it does bring aaaall the feels.
Thanks Simon & Schuster for the review-copy! Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott was published January 2019.
Can you love someone you can never touch?
Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.
The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.
Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.
What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?
Goodreads | Booktopia | Simon & Schuster | Book Depository
➸ YOU SHOULD ALSO TRY…
have you read many books with chronically ill characters? are they stories you like or…too sad?! are you going to see the movie for this one?
OMG that problematic trope needs to die 1000 deaths and then be cremated, and its ashes buried 70km under the River Styx. Also, I’ll probably just watch the movie. Because Cole Sprouse.
It would be nice to stop seeing it keep coming up that life isn’t worth living unless you’re abled…but I’ve since seen a CF vlogger reacting to the trailer and saying it has good rep, so like hopefully that out-weights the parts I am uneasy about.
Oh, no I mean the one you hid about the POC/queer character. THAT trope needs to die 1000 deaths, etc. etc. River Styx. (Sorry, that was being lazy… but it is 2am and I need to go to sleep.)
I liked the book 🌚 Well, I know it was problematic, true yeah. However, I too was skeptical of it as it did turn out like TFIOS + EE 😕 so I went on YouTube and there was this recommended video of a cystic fibrosis patients reacting to the movie trailer and they found it extremely accurate and very relatable. So that’s there. As for the problematic rep, I don’t think I have any problem with that tho 😅 it made me very sad tho.
I found that CF vlogger reacting to the trailer too!! So I am glad that it apparently is good rep. I wonder what the vlogger would think of the actual movie or book and the ending? I’d be really curious for a CF person’s analysis on the whole thing. It seems like it’s good rep but just maybe some problematic themes going on? But then I might be totally wrong!!
Why, even now, is this still a thing. Seriously. Can we just be done with it already please.
Problematic trope aside, this is a book that has peaked my interest, mostly because I feel like we need more chronic illness rep; it makes me so sad though, that whilst this book sounds like its doing some things right, it’s still doing some things wrong – the whole YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT DOING ALL THE THINGS thing, it just makes me so so cross: again, can we please just get past that already and accept that living is living, you know?
I feel like it’s a very mixed bag of good vs bad. I definitely still think people should read it, but just be ready to analyse maybe? I went on to find a CF vlogger saying the trailer looked great and giving reactions, which was cool. They seemed like it was really positive rep. I’d be curious to know what a CF person would think of the themes/messages, because obviously I’m looking at this from a place of non-experience. But yeah…agh. I just find so much of the tropes ableist and it bugs me.
tbh I wasn’t interested in this book until I saw that Cole Sprouse was playing Will. xD I wasn’t planning on reading bc it seems pretty cliche and is giving me serious Fault in Our Stars vibes. But uGHHH I hate it when people put problematic themes like that in books. I definitely am not the most comfortable being touched, and it’s a desire of mine to remain abstinent until marriage, if that happens in my future. There are plenty of ways to love someone without touching them! *rips out hair*
Exactly right?! And I mean, I also was thinking more about the “can you love someone if you can’t touch them” thing and being like…ok what about internet friendships? I fiercely love my internet friends and I probably will NEVER see them face to face. It’s just so frustrating when people say love can only be physical affection.
Yes! Internet friends are so so amazing, and I’ve gotten so much support. I hate how physical touch becomes the norm when there’s so many other ways to connect with people. 🙂
This is an interesting one, as I was just talking about the movie with my cousin, who has CF. She thinks it’s a good rep, and that the movie will build awareness of a disease that many, many people don’t know about. She’d agree that having to constantly be in the hospital and not in close proximity to other people (CF patients or not) is beyond hard, and so often feels unfair, and sometimes just not worth it. And she has tried to live life to the fullest – she travels whenever she’s well enough to, she has lots of friends and a great husband, and there are days when (even as an adult) she wishes the meds could just go out the window. So they’re keeping her alive, blah, blah. 🙂 And there are many CF patients whose parents are paranoid of their kids even doing something like walking down the street without them, so unfortunately some kids don’t get to do much of anything, even if they’re healthy enough. Luckily, my aunt and uncle were never like that (my cousin was always on the go as a kid), but that isn’t the case for everybody. The biggest thing she wants is to be seen as more than the disease, and this is where I see the movie potentially falling flat.
I actually ended up watching a CF vlogger reacting to the trailer, and they were pretty stoked too! So maybe I’m way off with my analysis here. I think all the characters’ arcs and thought-processes made sense. Like they’re a bit of eye-roll worthy tropes at face value, but like you said: I mean teens…in hospital all the time…low life expectancy…why wouldn’t they fall in love so fast and think this is their everything? I just get so frustrated when people act like being disabled or ill means your life is trash. 😒
I think with many people who are chronically ill, the desire to live more, faster, younger is a real thing. And when all you want is to be “normal,” then something as simple as not being allowed to stand right next to another person or touch them can seem like the worst punishment ever. I know there were times my cousin really struggled with needing to take her meds and follow the treatments – she was very lucky to have parents who helped encourage her to live her life in spite of the disease, and not just become the symptoms. Plus as someone who honestly isn’t comfortable with some of the things my own disability keeps me away from, I can see where the perspective that having a limited life would be “bad” starts. In some ways, I don’t mind not participating in certain social or cultural events or routines that would make my sensory processing go haywire; but there have also been plenty of instances when I really wished I could just tell the spectrum to bugger off for a day or so. So I really get where a story like Five Feet Apart is coming from.
I’m also very cautious of sicklit, not only can it have problematic messages (often unintentional) I feel like they also don’t always have the best rep. However if done right without problematic messages I feel like it can be really good.
I don’t have this on my tbr right now because I don’t really gravitate towards romances, especially ones that are like “we love each other but we could die because of it” cause if I were in that situation you better bet I’m staying six feet away from my lover or never going outside. Like if the person really loves me maybe not endanger us and just send me a book or something and I’ll be happy. However I do think it’s origin is very interesting, like it’s based off a movie but came out before the movie
Agreed! Like I doubt people go in trying to be offensive, but often it comes down to not having sensitivity readers. However since writing this review, I DID find out there was a CF person consulting on the movie? So maybe I’m way off…but I’m still really uncomfortable with so many of these themes. 😥 And just having zero interest in life because LOVE IS MORE IMPORTANT just…ugh. It’s Romeo/Juliet stuff, I guess?
I’m not a huge fan of #sicklit because it feels like I’m reading the same book over and over again and also I feel like the books are usually problematic and offensive, even to a person who doesn’t experience those struggles. Argh! But I do admit to becoming addicted to the sad/tragic air to them?? Haha, yeah, I’m totally normal.
I will say, though, the cover for Five Feet Apart is GORGEOUS. It’s one of my favorite kinds – the sort of abstract/artsy covers (because can I art? no). I’m excited to see the movie, though, because Cole Sprouse is my complete childhood.
Yeah they have a HUGE tendency to romanticise the illness…which I’m not really sure if this one did or not? I ended up finding a CF vlogger analysing the trailer and they said it looked really good. But I’d be interested in a CF person’s opinion on the overall themes/ending. (But omg the cover IS gorgeous. And it reminds me of Extraordinary Means!)
I didn’t know the movie came first, that’s interesting. Now I don’t know if I should read the movie or the book first… I’m kind of in love with Cole Sprouse, so I don’t mind seeing him in something else.
Ash @ JennRenee Read
I’ve only seen him in Riverdale but I do want to see the movie of this still.😂
I’m more willing to read this book after your review, but I’m super hesitant to read sicklit overall anymore. They tend to make the disease severe, when many have a range of “not that bad” or well controlled to really bad. I have scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that causes scar tissue to build up throughout my body, including muscles and organs. No two patients have the exact same set of symptoms. I know people who have had organ and stem cell transplants. While I didn’t know any of them personally, I know of patients who have died. And then there are patients like me, who can live fairly normal lives (aside from the meds, doctors, dietary and activity restrictions, etc). I would love to read a diagnosis story, because that’s usually a saga in itself. Or maybe a book with a caracter like me, who isn’t “that sick.” I’m too sick to be in with the healthy folks, but I don’t always feel sick enough to identify with other patients. For me at least, there’s been a lot of mental health back and forth with being in this in-between state. I think something along those lines could make a compelling story.
I’ll put away my soap box now…
I think it’s really fair to voice your want for these things! And yeah books do seem to focus on the worst cases? Although I’ve since seen some vlogs by CF patients saying they really loved this movie and it was accurate. So I’m glad for that. But I think the book needed to unpack more of the themes it explored: like the characters’ depression. Because if that had be brought out, the ending would’ve made a lot more sense. I’m really glad in TFIOS they acknowledged Hazel’s depression.
Seems like an interesting book, but I definitely agree that the message about not living life because you’re not experiencing EVERYTHING is problematic! The other problematic trope is so frustrating too! When will that STOP being a thing?!
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It comes up a lot too so I’m really tired of it. 😭