Book Review : EXTRAORDINARY MEANS

"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. "

 

WORTH OF READING, basically it is EXTRAORDINARY.

Roughly idea of the stories starts of a young boy, Lane who suffer from tuberculosis (TB) and got stuck in Latham House, a sanatorium for teens having an incurable tuberculosis. There, he meet the eccentric troublemakers which one of them is Sadie, the girl he'd known in summer camp. 

Sadie, Nick, Marina and Charlie - all four of them have different characteristic, different interest, different in everything. But somehow they got along, together. Then Lane came and joined the group, becoming the group of five - five teenagers that are sick, facing the death but still manage to live their live to the fullest by sticking together and breaking the rules, went to the woods at night time, sneak into the town, steal the internet, get drunk and fall in love.  

 But as the group get sicker each and every day, their world seems to be torn apart one by one. It is sad on how secret could bring such consequences in their group - as one of them are dying. Dying before they could get the cure from their disease. 

If you're reading John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, then it is similar to this one. SIMILAR, not the same. Because not everyone get their second chances in living, some don't. Some made it to hold on until the the cure has arrived to them, and some doesn't. It was a sad ending.

I felt sorry for those kids in this story. ALL of them, not just Lane, Sadie, Nick, Marina or Charlie, but all of them. Some who survive and get back to went home doesn't seems to do well for those who are still waiting for cure too. Because world can be cruel, people can be cruel. They are too afraid that those teens who went back home are contagious and can still bring them harm. Because no one knows when will the tuberculosis be strike again - that was Amit story. How he's depressed for getting all better and be back home but suddenly no one want to be near to him. They were afraid that they will be infected from him. 

So that is what its all about - about an incurable illness, friendship, love, life, second chances and maybe just maybe, miracle.

I quoted the author's note (Robyn Schneider),

Extraordinary Means is a story of second chances, and what it means to have hope that you'll figure out your place in the world, and that you'll be strong enough to get there.