Review Detail

One thing to know before you read Extraordinary Means: it’s not at all like TFIOS. Obviously, if a YA book is going to have sick teens, dying teens, and a love story that’s been doomed from the start, we’re going to compare it to John Green’s masterpiece. But Extraordinary Means was a whole new category of its own. And since we’re going down that path, let’s make it plenty clear—EM isn’t a type of book you haven’t read before. It won’t feel new or unique or fresh. No. Not at all.

But that didn’t stop me from becoming a mess of tears and watery smiles while I read the book.

"One thing I’ve realised about new places is that they’re like jeans. Sure, they might fit, but they’re not comfortable. They need time to be broken in."

Lane doesn’t want to be at the Latham House sanatorium. Of course not. It will do nothing but take away his time from preparing for his dream—Stanford. But he’s been diagnosed with TB (the mutant strain which is completely drug resistant) and while the world waits with bated breath for a cure, Lane has to live at Latham and try not to die. While in there, he re-unites with Sadie, whom he had known for a short time at a summer camp when they were thirteen. She’s nothing like the girl he once knew—no, the new Sadie is rebellious and beautiful and a trouble-maker. The problem is, she seems to be angry with him, and he doesn’t know why.

Sadie has been at Latham House for fifteen months—she’s almost the oldest resident in there. With her close clique of friends and their “black market” of all things that Latham forbids, Sadie is quite happy (as much as she can be) within herself. But then Lane comes to Latham and she remembers everything that happened at the summer camp. And she avoids him as much as she can.

More than anything, I loved the way the two got together. Slowly, with wonder and awe, instead of hard and fast. Their gentle steps into a romantic relationship kind of made me long for a Lane of my own