#erikaspov
“You know what you gotta decide when you’re a writer?”
“Which stories to tie up at the ending, Molly,” she tells me. “And which ones you have to let go.”
The Summary:
Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that’s how I know everyone still remembers everything—how I destroyed my relationship with Patrick the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. How I wrecked their whole family. Now I’m serving out my summer like a jail sentence: Just ninety-nine days till I can leave for college, and be done.
Day 4: A nasty note on my windshield makes it clear Julia isn’t finished. I’m expecting a fight when someone taps me on the shoulder, but it’s just Gabe, home from college and actually happy to see me. “For what it’s worth, Molly Barlow,” he says, “I’m really glad you’re back.”
Day 12: Gabe got me to come to this party, and I’m actually having fun. I think he’s about to kiss me—and that’s when I see Patrick. My Patrick, who’s supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who’s never going to forgive me.
My Thoughts:
Okay, 99 days is seriously leaving me emotionally confused. I’m feeling everything from being extremely annoyed to loving the sexy kissing scenes.
“Is this a date?”
“I don’t know, Molly Barlow. Do you want it to be?”
One thing I can’t stand is cheating on someone. Seriously like even though you guys are *broken up* you don’t go and bang his brother. That is just so freaking messed up. You’ve been together for like ever and then one big fight doesn’t mean you are actually broken up which also means you shouldn’t end up on the other team. Molly, I repeat so messed up.
The book is written in a span of 99 days which is equivalent to one summer. We have Molly who ran away once the drama has exploded but came back just a summer before leaving for college. The people she wanted to avoid ended up invading her summer.
“Molly was our family. Molly was here when Dad died. And I don’t— not to put too fine a point on it, but it takes two people to do what we did okay? And Patrick’s my brother. I just, I’ve had it with this shit. I really have.”
We have the Donnellys: Gabe, Patrick and Julia. Your typical very good-looking family. Gabe is more of the striking one whose outgoing and carefree while Patrick is more of a snake quiet yet deadly kind of thing. He likes to be be alone with Molly all the time. Julia is of course stunning and beautiful. She’s a bitch to Molly understandable because of what she did BUT I hate the double standards. Molly is being called a dirty slut while Gabe and Patrick are not even blamed or anything. You would actually think they’re cool. It’s frustating to the highest level. I just want to punch something to release this thing I’m feeling. If Molly is being called a slut so should Gabe and Patrick.
Read more HERE
“Because if the past year had made me certain of one thing, it was that love stories at Latham all ended the same way: with someone left behind.”
The Summary:
From the author of The Beginning of Everything: two teens with a deadly disease fall in love on the brink of a cure.
At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it’s easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French.
There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times.
But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down.
Told in alternating points of view, Extraordinary Means is a darkly funny story about doomed friendships, first love, and the rare miracle of second chances
My Thoughts:
Before I started this book, there have been warnings.
1. Prepare yourself
2. Tearjerker
3. TFIOS but waaaaaay better
But no matter how many times you’ve been warned, you still get unexpectedly hit by a wave of emotions you know would happen but it doesn’t hurt any less.
Extraordinary Means is about Lane and Sadie, two teens with incurable TB. The not so funny thing about this is while I was reading, I had a bad case of cough too. So when Lane or Sadie or anyone went *cough* *cough*, I would go *cough* *cough* SCARY.
