The Extraordinaries (The Extraordinaries, #1)

Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune's YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves.

Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick's best friend (and maybe the love of his life).

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Teens for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

I know what you’re thinking. Sammie, reading a contemporary YA romance?! Is this the end of the world?! Well … okay, it might be, but not because of that. In case you missed it, I read and absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with The House in the Cerulean Sea earlier this year, which catapulted T.J. Klune onto my auto-buy/auto-read list. So here we are.

The Extraordinaries is the queer superhero book we didn’t realize we needed. It’s packed with a slow burn romance, a protagonist with ADHD, and enough laughs to make you cry … which makes for a really good cover when the actual feels make you cry.

This was the first book in a series that I will absolutely be continuing, even though I’m not really knocking down any doors to get the next one. Which is a feeling I kind of love? The ending of this book wraps it up nicely enough where I feel satisfied, with a little bit of a nudge towards the next book to give me something to be excited about, without making my soul wither and die while waiting for the outcome of some giant cliffhanger. My soul withered and died for other reasons while reading this, thank you very much.

Right out of the gate, I want to make it clear that Nick was basically me as a teenager, so when I say how much I loved him, I’m probably biased.

Okay, there are some differences. I was never quite as impulsive as he is. Or maybe my friends were just better at telling me no and meaning it. I’m not sure. But if I had known T.J. Klune as a teenager, I would 100% be convinced that he based Nick off of me.

Evidence that Nick is me:

• Has ADHD.
  
• Which sometimes leads him to be somewhat impulsive or make bad decisions.
  
• Paying attention is hard.
  
• Writes very obvious self-insert fanfiction.
  
• Why don’t teachers understand writing fanfiction is more important than math?!
  
• Completely oblivious to the obvious things around him.
  
• Tries super hard. Doesn’t always quite get there.
  
• Is super socially awkward and panics easily.
  
• Has a thing for superheroes (then again, who doesn’t?!).

See? Irrefutable evidence. I rest my case. Thank you for coming to my TEDx Talk.

Nick’s voice is legitimately one of the reasons I enjoyed this so much, because he’s funny and so very relatable, and it really brought me back to my teen years.

Which, yes, is every bit as cringey as you expect. What that means for current YA-age readers, though, is that Nick is very relatable. He struggles with common problems, like an embarrassing father who tries to give him the sex talk, attraction, romance, struggling to figure out who he is and who he wants to be, and just overall trying to figure himself out. He makes for a super strong protagonist, and even when the plot itself was a little slow, Nick carried the book for me and made it a joy to read every second.

This book really begs the question, “Can you die from secondhand embarrassment?”

The answer is a firm maybe. The fact that I’m still alive means nothing, because first, a single person is not a sufficient size for a study group, and you’d know that if you paid attention in science. But second, I did so many similar things in high school that I think I’ve built up an immunity to this sort of embarrassment and am, therefore, not a great participant for this particular study. So y’all will have to just read it and tell me. I’ll have the Ouija boards ready, just in case.

This goes back to Nick’s relatability. Because he’s so relatable, his (frequent, sometimes extreme) embarrassment is almost contagious.

This comes across in so many ways: his impulsivity, his naivety, his general awkwardness. There were times where I completely saw where this was headed, and I was right there with his friends shouting, “Nicky, no!” Alas, he never listened. (I wouldn’t have, either, so that’s not all that surprising.)

The relationship between Nick and his father is so fantastic, and can we get more of this in YA, please?

In case you were wondering, parents don’t have to be dead in order for YA books to happen. I mean, okay, sure, Nick’s mom is dead in this, but that’s actually a plot thing. My point still stands. And as a parent, kids, pleeeease don’t kill your parents in the hopes that you’ll become a Chosen One or get magical powers or get to ride a dragon. Even though that last one is cool, and I probably would sacrifice my parents for that, too.

Nick’s father is the parent I hope to be one day, when my daughter is a teenager, because they’re super close, but he’s also not afraid of embarrasing the crap out of his son.

So, you know, a healthy relationship. Their interactions in the beginning of the book, especially, had me just dying from laughing so hard. Is that a thing? Not the worst way to go, I suppose. But then, a flip switches so hard, and out of nowhere, BAM, I’m blindsided by feels. And oh, the feels, guys! The family bonds here are just *chef’s kiss*.

This book packs a lot of different rep into it, and it does it with a sort of grace.

There’s the obvious one: the fact that Nick is gay, which happens to be #OwnVoices for this author. His best friends also happen to be lesbians (not all that surprising), and one is black. I thought these were all handled well, though most aren’t really my wheelhouse to speak to. The rep that I really enjoyed, though, was the ADHD rep.

I don’t get to read many books with ADHD protagonists, especially not from a positive lens, so the #OwnVoices ADHD rep in this book was a breath of fresh air.

I’ll be honest and upfront: if you don’t have ADHD and haven’t really interacted with anyone with ADHD, there are parts of this that can feel choppy or jumpy when you read it. The beautiful thing, though, is that’s just how an ADHD brain works. I think this does a great job in keeping things coherent, but also describing the general randomness that can come with ADHD. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like, this is a great place to start. I even had hubby read a few passages, and he rolled his eyes and sighed because he has to deal with that every single day, bless his heart.

There’s a slow-burn M/M romance, but also some strong friendship bonds, and I was so into both.

The two opposing dynamics of love were different and yet the same, and it was such an interesting dichotomy. I do so love slow-burn romances, and I can’t say anything about it, because I can’t find a way to word it where it’s not a spoiler. So I’ll just say that I liked how it was done?

There’s a lot of different forms of love in this book: between friends, between family, romantic love, crushes (sometimes unrequited), and even hero worship/idolization, and it was really interesting to see how they all grow and change.

Love is hard. Any kind of love. So the fact that aaaall of these different relationships are called into question during Nick’s arc makes for some delicious drama and character growth.

This book is half coming of age, half superheroes, and all heart.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love superhero books … but that’s not quite what this book is. Being the first in a series, this introduces the world, where there is, in fact, superheroes (called Extraordinaries), but it’s only touched on surface level in this book. I’m looking forward to the other books delving more into that here, but if you’re looking for a straight-up superhero book, this isn’t it.

Somehow, this book manages to blend superheroes with a queer romance and a coming-of-age story and just makes it freaking work in a way that left me wanting more.

It was easy to root for Nick and want his arc to finally come to fruition, but sometimes things have to be torn down in order to grow stronger. Poor Nick goes through a lot in this book, as do his friends, but that just made the last quarter of the book all the sweeter.