I had a feeling that this book was going to cause me immense emotions, but I still went ahead and read it. That was my mistake.

Throughout this book, there was dread hanging over my head. When the setting's a place for kids with terminal illness, one kind of has to assume that someone's going to die. But it didn't go at all how I expected.

I held out through the end of this book and closed it without shedding a single tear, but then I broke down completely and got really angry at the world. Schneider's writing was beautiful and made me contemplate life in such a gorgeous way.

The premise was at points a little contrived, but this was forgivable. I enjoyed how Lane treated the situation and what this eventually led to, and I enjoyed how it initially felt so close to the books about students at boarding school that I used to read when I was young.

The group of characters Lane eventually fell into was fun and believable. They all felt like real people, and their dynamic was playful and carefree, a complete contrast to the atmosphere that the setting provided.

Schneider knows how to capture the vitality of life and this was an example of gorgeous writing. Anyone who likes John Green will like this one, and Schneider is an author to look out for.
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Reason Read: ROOT, Alpha S
I've had this one for awhile on overdrive as a free Audiobook Sync summer program. While the story was interesting, I had a hard time because I just do not think sanitariums for youth exist. In this story, teens are sent to Latham House in Santa Cruz to protect society from them. A young adult book, explores themes of mortality and what is important in life. ( )

Tenía ganas de leer algo que conmoviera incluso a alguien sin corazón como yo. Según muchas reseñas, Extraordinary Means sería el libro indicado, creo que no he leído alguna reseña negativa en ninguno de los dos libros publicados por Robyn Schneider. ¿Por qué no logré que Extraordinary Means me encantara?

Para mí fue al empezar, los primeros capítulos no me generaron ningún tipo de conexión con los narradores o incluso algún interés en lo que les fuera a pasar. No sé si fue una cosa de la escritora, el que los personajes luego tuvieran un desarrollo y madurez al final, el problema fue que me se me hicieron muy antipáticos, los dos. ¿Quizá fue porqué no era el momento indicado para leerlo? Quizá, por eso lo dejé unos cuantos días y leí otra cosa.

El libro es sobre una enfermedad: La tuberculosis. Mi problema, para creerme completamente el libro fue que conozco a una persona con tuberculosis y por momentos sentía que los problemas del libro era el típico estadounidense dónde se ahogan en un vaso con agua, haciendo drama por todo. Al terminar de leerlo tuve un poco más de idea sobre la enfermedad y mis pensamientos iniciales no cambiaron totalmente pero me educó un poco. Aún así sigo teniendo la sensación de exageración. Soy latina, vengo de una cultura dónde se sale a trabajar incluso si tienes el brazo roto.



ok, quizá no así... Pero se entiende.

Luego del tiempo que dejé en pausa el libro y lo retomé, me fue más fácil continuar la historia. Lamentablemente no lo disfruté al nivel que quería, no logré encariñarme con los personajes tampoco, pero la narración se vuelve sencilla de seguir, no me aburrí como al inicio dónde me salté varios párrafos.

En conclusión: se me hizo interesante la historia por momentos, no logré emocionarme al nivel que esperaba, o sea al nivel tan alto como quién lo ha leído me decía. Reseña que leo, reseña que dice lloro su vida al terminarlo.

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I liked some things about this book, but overall I was less than impressed. The story concept is pretty original and there is some good stuff about living life and dealing with illness, but its also fairly predictable and had some really cliche stuff in there.

There were also a lot of references to stuff that I dont think worked very well. If it had been just one thing, the Miyazaki films for example, then the author can make that a focus for the characters interests and maybe draw some parallel to enrich the story. But when its many references throughout it feels tacked on instead of incorporated in.

I thought the split narrative was both good and bad. By having Sadie tell her half of the story instead of only seeing her through Lanes eyes she is more of a person, not just a catalyst for Lanes transformation. But other than that, having the split narrative didnt add much to the book. Mostly it was used to show the reader drama that could have been better conveyed in a different way, and both main characters came across as very flat sometimes.

Not a bad book, but didnt stick with me or impact me much emotionally. ( )

A classic story of two sick kids falling in love (while still having elements unique to this novel). I never get tired of these. ( )