Book Review: Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

Extraordinary Means

Author: Robyn Schneider

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Australia

Pages: 324 pages

When he's sent to Latham House, a boarding s hook for sick teens, Lane thinks his life may be as well as over.

But when he meets Sadie and her friends- he realises that maybe getting sick is just the beginning. That illness doesn't have to define you, and that falling in love is its own cure.

My Review

Thoughts on the book: As many of your know I am working my way through some old review books that have been sitting on my shelf for awhile. Extraordinary Means was one of these and was actually one that I have gone to pick up a few times and then found another book that piqued my interest more so have always put it back. So I decided that I would pick it up and reed it and use it to cross off one of my squares on my 2016 Bookish Bingo Challenge (read a book you've owned for over a year).

I found Extraordinary Means to be a fascinating read and once I started was drawn right into the world of our main character Lane and the challenges he faces after being diagnosed with A new strain of tuberculosis that is resisting any medication. He is sent to Latham House, which was an old boarding school, before being turned into the hospital like home for teenagers with this new strain. Thinking that he can go on living like he did before his diagnosis he does everything he did beforehand, but soon learns that he will never get better unless he learns to let go and take each day as it comes.

This book really opened up my eyes to what it would be like for someone suffering a disease that has no known cure yet and watching your friends and other people who you have grown to know suddenly slip away from the world because of this disease. There were many moments throughout the book where I found myself literally weeping uncontrollably (and no it wasn't because of the pregnancy hormones). I felt so much for these young people portrayed in the book and loved how they tried to not let the disease rule their life, but tried to live their lives to the fullest extent. Yes in the end they realised some of the things they did, which went against regulations, ended up costing them a lot more than they thought, but being teenagers they wouldn't have thought this possible.

Extraordinary Means is a must read for fans of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and should come with a box of tissues as well.

Favourite quotes/part:

“That's all you can do in this world, no matter how strong the current beats against you, or how heavy your burden, or how tragic your love story. You keep going.” 

“In AP Bio, I learned that the cells in our body are replaced every seven years, which means that one day, I'll have a body full of cells that were never sick. But it also means that parts of me that knew and loved Sadie will disappear. I'll still remember loving her, but it'll be a different me who loved her. And maybe this is how we move on. We grow new cells to replace the grieving ones, diluting our pain until it loses potency.

The percentage of my skin that touched hers will lessen until one day my lips won't be the same lips that kissed hers, and all I'll have are the memories. Memories of cottages in the woods, arranged in a half-moon. Of the tall metal tray return in the dining hall. Of the study tables in the library. The rock where we kissed. The sunken boat in Latham's lake, Sadie, snapping a photograph, laughing the lunch line, lying next to me at the movie night in her green dress, her voice on the phone, her apple-flavored lips on mine. And it's so unfair. 

All of it.” 

Rating: 5/5 without a doubt