Confession: if there’s a Little Free Library on the side of the road, I will stop. I will take a book if I want it. Even if I don’t have one to replace it with. I do keep a stockpile at home of books I’m willing to part with, though, so sometimes I’ll take a book from one LFL and replace it with a book to another LFL. I like to think it’s all one big cycle. This next one was taken from a Little Free Library way out in the boonies of North Door and replaced by another book I had with me. I totally judged it by its cover when I grabbed it and, well… I wasn’t wrong.
Book 31:
Extraordinary Means
by Robyn Schneider
Genre:
Fiction, Young Adult
Published:
May 2015
Synopsis According to Mandi:
Without spoilers, Extraordinary Means is about Lane Rosen’s experience as he’s uprooted from his scholarly pursuit upon his diagnosis of modern day “Total Drug Resistant Tuberculosis”. He’s sent away to a sanatorium, Latham House, filled with kids with the same diagnosis who either get better and go home or die in this secluded environment with crazy rules, med sensors and strict regulations. It’s at Latham House that Lane learns important things about himself, what a true friend is, what he wants of whatever future he still has, and how to love. What does it mean for time to run out? What will unfold before then?
Favorite Quote(s):
“… I’ll keep going. Because 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. It took a lot of things to make me realize that. To make me see the path, as opposed to the destination.”
-Robyn Schneider, Extraordinary Means
Awards (based upon my brief research):
Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction
Audie Award for Best Female Narrator
Pages:
324
My Overall Rating:
4 – At times, the inner dialog seemed too childish for the ages of the characters and there was one highly inappropriate scene that did not contribute to the overall plot that I could have done without. However, this story was gold. I cried twice. I fell in love with the characters and felt like I was one of their gang. I rooted something fierce for them and loved how the story turned out – the good and bad parts of it – because it all seemed so believable despite the fact that there is no such thing as the illness they were all fighting.
