Author: Robyn Schneider
Genre: Contemporary (young adult)
Pages: 324 (paperback)
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication date: May 26th, 2015
Synopsis from Extraordinary Means' Goodreads page
At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it's easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French.
There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times.
But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down.
This book was such a wonderful thing to sit down and read. I absolutely loved Robyn Schneider's The Beginning of Everything, and it was one of my favourite reads of 2013. So when I learned that she was releasing another book this year, I was ecstatic. And man, was I not disappointed.
Extraordinary Means is a very sad book. It deals with tuberculosis, teenager angst, and heavy material. I was expecting to cry and be upset while reading it, and I didn't know if I would be able to connect to any of the characters because I can't even begin to understand what it would be like to have TB and be placed in a sanatorium because of it.
What I didn't expect was that the teenagers were just like every other teenager in the world; they just wanted to fit in, they just wanted to make friends, make memories, and live a life full of adventure. Now, that I can connect with. Each and every character had something about them that was extremely easy to relate to. Photography, music, art, reading, school, stress, a relationship. Every single one of them was well thought out and, well, just like every other teenager in the world. They just want to be normal, be happy. But it isn't as simple as that.
Being a normal teenager isn't possible. The definition of normal is conforming to the standard or the common type. But "normal" in one place is different from another. It's normal to wear parkas in the Yukon, and bikinis in Florida. If you switched them around, well.
At Latham, it's normal for everyone to have TB. That's why they're all there in the first place. But for everyone outside of Latham, it's extremely un-normal. They're considered the freaks, the abnormalities. They have nurses checking up on them all the time, and they go to the doctor at least once a month. That's their normal. So, of course who wouldn't want to sneak out and go into town for Starbucks? Who wouldn't want to wear fancy dresses and ties to pyjama movie night? The characters in Extraordinary Means are abnormal for those in Latham, but they're living the normal that they've had their whole lives. Their normal is similar to everyone outside of Latham, but slightly parallel. Sneaking around with alcohol, watching movies on a school night, fighting for Internet connection. But also needing to pass breakfast, wear permanent med sensors on their wrists, and living in the middle of the woods at a summer camp...year round.
Robyn made the characters quirky, but a quirky that was connectable with. She made the setting just like the summer camps that we all went to, or that we had heard about from our friends. She made every single thing, down to stress from school and the question of where to sit on your first day at a new school just like every other day for a normal teenager. Except that they were in a sanatorium for kids with TB, and that's where the story comes from.
It was an amazing book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of John Green's books, love stories, or contemporary books.
Overall - ★★★★.5☆
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