Books like Extraordinary means

A tender and bittersweet young adult romance where first love blooms in the shadow of a deadly illness and the fragile hope of a cure. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Extraordinary means.

melancholic
hopeful
isolated
bittersweet

01
Five Feet Apart
Rachael Lippincott
A high-stakes, tear-jerking romance about the agonizing distance between surviving and truly living.
Shares:
- bittersweet
- earnest
- tender
- first love
02
Second Chance Summer
Morgan Matson
A bittersweet, sun-drenched summer of rekindled love and inevitable goodbyes.
Shares:
- melancholic
- bittersweet
- earnest
- tender
03
Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell
A tender, mixtape-fueled exploration of first love that feels as visceral and fragile as a bruised heart.
Shares:
- hopeful
- bittersweet
- earnest
- tender
04
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jesse Andrews
A fiercely unsentimental, laugh-out-loud exploration of grief that hides its breaking heart behind a barrage of terrible jokes and cinematic obsessions.
Shares:
- bittersweet
05
Breathless
Lurlene McDaniel
A devastating, tear-soaked exploration of bodily autonomy and the impossible burdens we place on those we love.
Shares:
- melancholic
- earnest
06
Everything, Everything
Nicola Yoon
A tender, visually inventive romance about the terrifying, exhilarating choice between merely surviving and truly living.
Shares:
- hopeful
- bittersweet
- earnest
- tender
07
Five feet apart
By Rachael Lippincott
A tender, high-stakes romance where the simple act of closeness becomes a matter of life and death.
Shares:
- bittersweet
- earnest
- tender
08
Delirium
Lauren Oliver
A lyrical, high-stakes dystopian romance where feeling anything at all is the ultimate act of rebellion.
Shares:
- earnest
09
Because You'll Never Meet Me
Leah Thomas
An intimate, letter-based exploration of an impossible friendship shadowed by a sinister shared history.
Shares:
- isolated
- earnest
- poignant
10
The Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken
A high-stakes, superpowered road trip where the greatest danger is learning to trust yourself—and others.
Shares:
- earnest
- tender
11
Letters to the lost
Brigid Kemmerer
An intimate, emotionally charged exploration of how two broken people can help piece each other back together through the safety of shared words.
Shares:
- melancholic
- hopeful
- earnest
12
Pure
Jennifer L. Armentrout
An addictive, high-voltage rush of forbidden romance and mythological destiny.
Feels:
- electrically charged
- swoony
- tense

Back to Extraordinary means