Title: Extraordinary MeansAuthor: Robyn Schneider
Genre: YA Contemporary / Illness
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: June 4th 2015
Page Number: 336
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary:
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.
REVIEW
This book started off so good. I was completely hooked by the idea of a boarding school for the ill as it was something that has not been done before, so I was interested in how Robyn was going to make it seem like real life. Most authors would have stuck with the general boarding school clichés, but Robyn shied away from them and made me feel like I was also on "Vacation" at Latham House.
Lane and Sadie were great characters. At first Lane was this tense character who cared only for getting better and leaving so he could go back to high school and graduate onto college. But then we saw this change in him after he became friends with Sadie. And it only added to my likeability of his character. He opened up and took what life had to through at him with a pinch of salt.
Sadie was a great character from the beginning. Her and her group of friend really had a positive outlook on life, and I loved that because there is always someone out there in the world in a worse off situation than yourself. The things they got up too were just your typical teenager things: annoying the teacher, going off school ground, being weird all together.
Things started to slowly sink after page 250. The plot of the story moved slowly and Sadie started to act impulsively. I didn't know why, but she was beginning to act like a 12 year old. I understood the situation she was in, but I felt like the change was too quick. Same with the relationship between Lane and Sadie. At first, it was nice and content. The next it was fiery and passionate (they hadn't even said I love you).
Honestly, I knew exactly what was going to happen, same as everyone else. There is no surprise in the novel, because it's like every other book with an illness. And that disappointed me. Why did the book have to have a main character die? It took me back to The Fault in Our Stars, which I also felt the same about. I'd love to see a book about a character beating their illness and going on to live their life.
Overall, this book was just average. It's cute, fun and then gets too depressing for you to really care.
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