This book hurt. 
 EXTRAORDINARY MEANS is a coming-of-age story, but different from most of those in the sense that it's about teenagers who are seriously ill. Lane, Sadie, Nick, Marina, and Charlie have all been diagnosed with (a made-up, total-drug-resistant form of) tuberculosis and are staying at Latham House, a sanatorium for young people. They go to school there, are being watched round the clock, wear med sensors so the medical staff will instantly know if something's wrong, and are basically treated like they're made of sugar, kept away from the real world for fear of both them transferring the disease to other people and other people treating them badly because they are contagious. 
 This book isn't just about sick teens, though - not even sick teens who try to be normal despite their illness, breaking the rules and falling in love. Mainly, EXTRAORDINARY MEANS is about second chances, about living in the now, about looking at your life and wondering if this is what you want it to be, if you are happy with it; and if not, about changing that. It's about taking chances and not keeping oneself from experiencing good things out of fear that they will be taken away. Yes, it's about love, and about friendship, and also about illness and the way the outside world views these sick young people - with pity and with fear - but there's more to it than that. It's realistic, sad, and hopeful at the same time. The main characters are confronted with their own (and others') mortality and with all the people at home who try to cope with the fact that their friend or family member has TB, but who eventually move on from leaving hearts and and prayers on their sick friend's Facebook page to forgetting that sick friend is even still there. They experience what it's like to get their hopes up and then have them dashed again, and with disappointments and sad things happening even on top of their already pretty messed-up lives, because life isn't fair. 
 A very good story that left me silently processing for a while after I finished it, mainly because it's so realistically written. I smiled, gasped, and teared up a couple of times whilst reading this book; it's easy to get into the main characters' heads and imagine what life must be like for them. I have never read anything by Robyn Schneider before, but I must say I'm quite impressed by EXTRAORDINARY MEANS.