Extraordinary Means
Author: Robyn Schneider
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance.
Published: June 4 2015
Pages: 336 pages (Paperback Edition) (Simon & Schuster Children's Books)
Read: August 2015
Rating: 4 Stars
When he's sent to Latham House, a boarding school for sick teens, Lane thinks his life may as well be over.
But when he meets Sadie and her friends - a group of eccentric troublemakers - 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.
Book 30/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading ChallengeBut when he meets Sadie and her friends - a group of eccentric troublemakers - 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.
Can I just start by saying that the cover for Extraordinary Means is absolutely stunning! I just love the way the art was created by making a tree look like lungs, the major organ affected from TB. It just really fits with the story in the book along with the cover line 'Life Goes On Until It Doesn't'.
'Sick Lit' is a genre that is becoming increasingly popular these days in Young Adult with many new releases being classed in the genre. I think I started reading Sick Lit with Before I Die by Jenny Downham and then continued down the genres path with many popular books including The Fault In Our Stars and All The Bright Places and now with Extraordinary Means.
I really enjoyed Extraordinary Means. I found that many of the usual tropes were displayed in this book including the ever popular boarding school trope, with a twist, the cool popular group with the main protagonist starting out as the geeky outsider, and of course the love story that everyone predicts. But I felt even with these cliche tropes, this story worked and I enjoyed and was entertained with reading this novel.
But to say that this book was completely predictable and cliche is wrong, because I haven't come across a TB YA book before and the twist that Robyn Schneider put on the strain of TB was striking and devastating at the same time but it was also real. Even though it is not TB this is a story that can be seen more and more lately as non-curable, horrific diseases wreck havoc to countries and the world.
For the uniqueness of the plot, this story got me. For that ending twist, this story grabbed me. For the characters and the situations they were placed in, this story engaged me. Even if it was something you've seen before in books, I still truly enjoyed this one. I enjoyed the characters and I could easily relate to them also, with their personalities and with their lives before. Yes, some of them really didn't stand out and some annoyed me like hell and what they did sometimes I found to be the most utterly stupid thing they could have possible ever did. But this story made me laugh, it made me question and it may have even made me shed a tear or two.
So, would I recommend this book? Yes, give it a shot! After all I did give this one 4 stars.
'Sick Lit' is a genre that is becoming increasingly popular these days in Young Adult with many new releases being classed in the genre. I think I started reading Sick Lit with Before I Die by Jenny Downham and then continued down the genres path with many popular books including The Fault In Our Stars and All The Bright Places and now with Extraordinary Means.
I really enjoyed Extraordinary Means. I found that many of the usual tropes were displayed in this book including the ever popular boarding school trope, with a twist, the cool popular group with the main protagonist starting out as the geeky outsider, and of course the love story that everyone predicts. But I felt even with these cliche tropes, this story worked and I enjoyed and was entertained with reading this novel.
But to say that this book was completely predictable and cliche is wrong, because I haven't come across a TB YA book before and the twist that Robyn Schneider put on the strain of TB was striking and devastating at the same time but it was also real. Even though it is not TB this is a story that can be seen more and more lately as non-curable, horrific diseases wreck havoc to countries and the world.
For the uniqueness of the plot, this story got me. For that ending twist, this story grabbed me. For the characters and the situations they were placed in, this story engaged me. Even if it was something you've seen before in books, I still truly enjoyed this one. I enjoyed the characters and I could easily relate to them also, with their personalities and with their lives before. Yes, some of them really didn't stand out and some annoyed me like hell and what they did sometimes I found to be the most utterly stupid thing they could have possible ever did. But this story made me laugh, it made me question and it may have even made me shed a tear or two.
So, would I recommend this book? Yes, give it a shot! After all I did give this one 4 stars.
I didn't know 'sick lit' was a genre with a name. I could see the trend forming but this is the first time I had a title to go with it, so that was interesting to learn about! I have seen this book around and it does seem like a different take on a different physical illness that will pull on my heart strings as well!
ReplyDeleteYa, I've been hearing the term more and more lately so I'm presuming it's a thing... It's really good and unpredictable too :)
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