FIVE FEET APART

WRITTEN REPORT

Submitted by:

Ma. Nicola Bianca G. Hequilan

Mae-ann Jamolin

Charlene Kathrina Repato

Jomar Saldaña
From: ADT 12-1
 Five Feet Apart

Five Feet Apart tells a story between two young patients with cystic fibrosis
falling in love with each other despite being forced to stay apart due to their illness.. It is
written by Rachael Lippincott with contributions by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis.

About the Authors

Rachael Lippincott was born in Philadelphia and raised in Bucks County,

Pennsylvania. She holds a BA in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She
currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, splitting her time between writing and
running a food truck with her partner.

Mikki Daughtry is from Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from Brenau University,
where she studied theater arts. She is now a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.

Tobias Iaconis was born in Germany to an American father and a German

mother. He studied English literature at Haverford College near Philadelphia and now
works as a screenwriter in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and son.

SUMMARY OF THE STORY

The book tells the story of a 17 year old chronically ill teenage girl with cystic
fibrosis (CF) named Stella Grant. She’s been in and out of hospitals for quite a long time
due to her lengthy treatments most of her life. She is very careful to take her
medications on time and do whatever is needed to maintain her treatment regimen.
Only then can she hope for a lung transplant. She maintains a YouTube channel
through which tens of thousands of viewers follow her journey. Her friend, Poe, who
also has CF, is a patient at the same hospital. They communicate frequently, but often
via text. Individuals with CF must remain 6 feet apart at all times to avoid sharing life-
threatening germs. While on her way to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), she
came across Will Newman, a new patient at the hospital. Being in a wealthy family, his
mother arranged for him to participate in clinical trials all over the world. Nothing has
helped him. Will’s problem is worse than Stella’s and Poe’s. On top of CF, he has a
condition called B. cepacia, which will deplete his lung function rapidly. This condition
makes him ineligible for a lung transplant and far more dangerous to other CF patients.
Will’s mother has signed him up for another trial at the hospital, but Will has given up on
getting better. He’s days from turning 18. When he’s a legal adult, his mother can no
longer force him into treatments. He ignores his prescribed medications and bides his
time until he can leave the hospital. Stella, being a control freak, dislikes the way Will
bends the rules, and ignores him. Despite their initial animosity, the two slowly
developed an interest in one another. Stella and Will came up with an agreement to give
this new B. cepacia treatment a fair shot. She helps him set up his pills and creates
alarms to remind them to take their medications and exercise together. They roam the
hospital whenever they can get past Nurse Barb, but they’re always cautious to keep
the 6 feet of distance between them. Will learns Stella is still grieving the death of her
older sister, Abby. Abby died a year ago in a diving accident. Stella blames herself; she
was supposed to go on the trip but had a CF flare up and backed out. Stella’s parents
have divorced under the strain of one daughter’s death and another’s chronic illness.
Stella develops an infection during her stay in the hospital. Before she is about to have
her infection cleaned, Will tries to comfort her in the way Abby once did. When Will left
Stella’s room, Nurse Barb saw Will and talked him out of it. She told Will that he once
watched a pair of young lovers with CF die years earlier because they ignored their 6-
foot boundaries. After hearing this, Will felt guilty and locked himself out from Stella.
Stella tried reaching for him, but Will kept shutting her out. In an uncharacteristic act of
rebellion against CF, Stella decides to “take back” a foot the illness has stolen from her
and Will. She decides that if they’re very careful to keep themselves disinfected and
wear sterile gloves, they can maintain a distance of 5 feet instead of 6. Stella carries
around a pool stick, 5 feet in length, so she and Will can gauge their boundary. Stella
and Will went to the hospital pool and had an intimate conversation about each other.
They were very happy that evening, until Barb started looking for the two of them. Stella
hurriedly went to the NICU so Barb wouldn’t suspect a thing. After that joyous moment,
they went back to their rooms and video called each other.

The next day, Will called Stella first thing in the morning for his 18 th Birthday.
While Stella pretends she forgot that it’s his birthday, she invites Poe, her friends and
Will’s friends to a secret 18th birthday party for Will at the hospital. They enjoy the time
until Barb catches on and shuts them down. Later that night, Poe dies suddenly, leaving
Stella to grieve for another person close to her. When Will and Stella escape from the
hospital for a date one night, Stella gets a text saying new lungs have arrived for her.
She doesn’t respond to the text because she wants nothing more than to be with Will.
When Stella falls through ice on a frozen pond, Will is forced to give her CPR. He’s
afraid she won’t be able to accept the new lungs because he’s poisoned her with his B.
cepacia. The doctors follow through with the lung surgery, but Will realizes he has to get
away from Stella so she will have a chance to live a healthy life. He made a surprise for
Stella, showing her several of twinkling lights as he talks to her through the glass
window. Will said his goodbyes to Stella and left her some of his drawings. He packs up
and leaves the hospital.

Eight months later, Stella’s new lungs are working well, and she’s enjoying good
health. Will and a friend are off to Italy when they see Stella and her friends in the
airport. The girls are preparing to board the same flight. Will looks tired and carries
oxygen while Stella is breathing well with her new lungs. They smile at each other from
5 feet apart.

STRENGTHS OF THE BOOK

Some strengths and inspiring reviews came from various articles all over the
internet. One of these is, according to Cystic Fibrosis Western Australia’s website,
“There are many positive themes throughout this book and both the book and movie will
help to increase awareness of CF to the general public. Five Feet Apart explains the
intricacies of CF as well as detailing the treatment burden undertaken by people with
CF.” They explained further that although the first concern of most people have about
the book is the distance of two teens with CF in love, there are many examples
throughout the book of teens with CF interacting in a safe and appropriate manner. An
example of this is how teens may feel alone in their experience with CF, however Five
Feet Apart shows that the use of technology can safely connect teens to each other.

Another review from Ellie T., Teen Board Member from Teenreads.com, “Told
in the alternating perspectives of Stella and Will, FIVE FEET APART explores what it
means to love and the importance of human touch in relationships. Stella deals with
overcoming grief and loss and maintaining her sense of self in spite of her disease.
Both Will and Stella struggle with their relationships with their parents and missing out
on the normal activities of kids their age.” This review focused more on appreciating
how each of the characters are well-thought of, though some of the characters’
recklessness and drastic actions may seem unrealistic, their diversity and honest
relationships with each other gave the story a realistic spin to the story. The review also
stated that the novel is worth to read as it looks into different real life aspects of
teenagers and diseases.

One of the recent reviews about the book and the movie adaptation of it is from
Times Of India. According to their review, “The film seems to be a genuine attempt
to illustrate how CF patients deal with relationships along with their multiple
restrictions. Stella’s friendship with Poe (Moises Arias) is often far more intriguing
as it is devoid of romantic chemistry. Nurse Barb (Kimberly Hebert Gregory) and
her concern for these patients also demonstrate some of the challenges faced by
caretakers, and the effect it has on them.” While they comparing the book and the
movie adaptation, they emphasized on how the story manage to be engaging due
to its performances and how it pulled various heartstrings from unexpected
places.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

For our group, the book gave us a lot of mixed emotions. Most of the parts in the
book gave us a twitter pated feeling because as we read it, we get to imagine and
visualize how the lead characters, Stella and Will, would interact with each other, and
how every moment of them is worth reading, that somehow we are literally watching
them in front of us. The book is also very intricate as we read it because it shows that
even the minor details serve a great impact towards the story. An example of this is at
the beginning of the first chapter, Stella reacted to stories from her friends, Mya and
Camila, such as the times where she didn't get to leave the hospital and her friends still
share or talk to her about their adventures and events in life showed another side of
Stella’s life and how deep their relationship is. This detail does not only make Stella a
lovable, thoughtful and a go-to friend, but also a very humane character that despite of
the struggles that her sickness is giving to her, it gave us a glimpse of how happy and
content she is with the people around her. Another detail that gave us different feelings
is seeing how Stella is very heartbroken every time she hears her sister’s name in the
book. It shows how sensitive and hard it is for someone like her to lose someone,
especially if everyone is expecting you to be gone any minute. However, as the story
continued, Stella proved that she her life is worth-having when she made a difference
with Will’s life. While the story is building up its incredible momentum, some of the
details in the story regarding Cystic Fibrosis were not that accurate. One that disturbed
us for a bit is when the two lead characters went to the gym for a sprint. Apparently,
based on their lung capacity, we think that sprinting is obviously not a wise activity for
them especially that every now and then, their bodies produce thick and sticky mucus
that prevents them from breathing well. Sprinting requires a lot of breathing, so this
detail alone makes it unrealistic for us. The book taught us a lot about falling in love but
knowing your limits and also living life to the fullest because you’ll never know what
tomorrow might bring. All in all, we feel like the book surpassed our expectations as
well, because not everyone in our group likes to read stories like this, however the story
gave us a very overwhelming ride of emotions that we didn’t expected to repeatedly
happen in a single read.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

After 8 months, Stella and Will, (who is still sick at that moment) crossed paths
once more for a trip to Vatican which both coincidentally had the same flight but are
stuck five feet apart. As the story came to end for them, going through all the pain of not
getting to feel each other’s touch, there is happiness and contentment with the two of
them. The definition of love in the book tells us that no matter how big the challenges
and struggle, acceptance is the key. Overall, love is not just measured on how much
you get to touch and feel someone. Because, even though you can’t touch love, it’s the
person and the feeling that makes you whole, free and healthily in love with them. We
recommend this book as a door to CF patients to open a dialog with their friends, family
or loved ones that having this sickness won’t define what life can offer to them. Instead,
it gives them a new sense of hope and acceptance. In this way, the main protagonists’
serve as an inspiration for other Cystic Fibrosis patients to live and enjoy life. The book
is proposed for all types of audiences except perhaps people who get uncomfortable in
the idea of death. It covers lessons for one and all to learn.