{Synopsis} – 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?
{My thoughts} – I have got to admit that I’d went to see the movie before I’d read this book. I couldn’t help myself. It was a must watch movie on my list of movies I’d been waiting to see that were coming out. The movie made me cry, and I have no shame in admitting that one little bit.
Stella is a sweet girl that has a lot going on in her life. Her parents are divorced, she’s learning how to accept that life doesn’t always turn out how you’d want. She’s been sick her whole life and she’s made it to this point, to the point where she’s on the list and waiting for a new set of lungs. She’s missed out on so many trips with family and friends because she is always sick.
She likes to be in control. She has to know that things are being done the way they should. She has to know that everyone is trying their best. She has to know that she did everything she could to hold everyone around her together. As you read the book you will learn she seems to be the glue. She keeps her family together, she keeps her friends together, without her, will they all still be together?
For as long as Stella can remember she has been going to the same hospital and having treatments with many of the same people. Poe a friend of hers that also has Cystic Fibrosis is also in the hospital the same time she during the duration of the book. They catch up and we learn all about their routines. Although something is different during this stay. During this stay there is a new guy in the halls. His name is Will and he is really really sick. He lost his spot on the transplant list and is doing a clinical trial.
Stella and him end up getting close. They get to know each other and they become close friends. They become more. Then end up falling in love. I’m not sure I quite understand how they could fall in love so quickly as the book takes place over the course of a couple of weeks, but they do. However, the things they do after they meet, its just like wow, what am I reading here? Why would they do that? Why would she do that?
I found this book to be incredibly well written. It pulls the reader directly into the world of Stella, Poe and Will. It makes you want to know more, it makes you want to know what happens to them after everything is said and done. The end of the movie didn’t really sum up what happened to them after everything. The books has two final chapters that tells you what happened. I love having a sense of closure and reading the book helped to give me something that I didn’t get from seeing the movie. I have always said and will continue to say in cases like this – THE BOOK WAS BETTER!
Final Conclusion: 5 Star Rating.
