Book of the Week: "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott

This is second book I read that I was driven to read by a movie / series of the same name. It comes on the heels of the book that was made into a, four-season, Netflix series "13 Reasons Why." 

During the summer of 2020, I came across a YouTube reaction vlog of the movie by a current cystic fibrosis patient. From his video, what drew me to the movie was I recognized the actor who played one of the two lead characters - Cole Sprouse. Sprouse was best known for playing Adam Sandler's "son" Julian in Big Daddy alongside his twin brother, Dylan, and starring with Dylan in the Disney Channel's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody." 

Sprouse plays a young, defiant cystic fibrosis patient, Will Newman, who was being treated in an experimental treatment program for B. cepacia. He meets a fellow CFer, Stella Grant, who is the polar opposite of Will. She is regimented in taking her medicine and doing her treatment. "Five Feet Apart" has a real The Fault In Our Stars feeling to it.

Compared to the last book I read that was made into Netflix series ("13 Reasons Why"),  the Five Feet Apart script really mimicked the book. This reasoning could be simply be because I read "13 Reasons Why" after I had already watched three seasons of the series. I had more knowledge of the character arcs and the development of the characters themselves. Maybe if I read the book after the first season of 13 Reasons Why, I would think the same thing as with Five Feet Apart.

The title of the book also sparked interest. The term "five feet apart" is based on a rule that applies to cystic fibrosis patients. Because most people with CF has increased mucus in their lungs, it provides a great home for infection-causing bacteria and this bacteria is very dangerous, even life-threatening to other CFers. This is why doctors recommend the six-foot-rule between CF patients. But today we ALL are following that one rule. 

But how exactly did the book go from six feet to five feet? The five feet was an idea Stella came up with when she knew she really liked Will, but new that his health condition (B. cepacia) was bad her own health and put the possibility of getting new lungs at risk. She always played by the rules, a goody two-shoes you might say. CF had stolen much from her in her life and she wanted to take one thing back and she was willing to steal back one foot. 

With a The Fault In Our Stars feeling towards it, Will and Stella were good for each other. Stella was able to get Will to see the advantages of having more time, while Will made Stella aware that there was more to living life than the inside of hospital walls and her medication regimen. But standing in the way was their way was their respiratory therapist, Barb. 

She tried to keep Will and Stella apart as much as she could, but it was not because she wanted to be mean. Barb had a guilty conscience. Years before Stella and Will arrived on the floor, she had another pair of CF patients that fell for each other that she let break the rules because they were madly in love. One contracted B. cepacia from the other and died. Due to time constraints, the book went into greater detail of the other couple's relationship and made Barb appear more warm than her movie counterpart. 

Two other aspects that the book was able elaborate more that affected the main character's story arc was Stella's relationship with her older, sister Abby. The movie made you guess that Abby died a year prior, but the screenwriters decided not to elaborate on Abby's death and how it affected their parents. The book dived into the accident that caused Abby's accident and how Stella has survivor's guilt believing she has to keep herself alive for her divorced parents sake. 

I came across this movie / book because of a known actor from my younger days, but also because of the terminology that has become so salient in our everyday language today. Six feet apart has become social distancing and wearing masks has become pretty common place, but to cystic fibrosis patients it's been relatively normal.