The Extraordinaries

I really enjoyed this book for the most part - it made me laugh out loud, and some elements I initially disliked were addressed thoughtfully through the plot. The story is a great showcase for LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent representation.

That said, I occasionally found Nick a bit too conveniently oblivious. Some scenes didn’t fully make sense to me - for example, a nurse runs to fetch Nick, leaving her out of breath, and he then ends up waiting two hours to see his dad. This allowed some foreshadowing to slip in that felt unnecessary.

Despite these minor points, the book is richly funny, self-aware, and wonderfully upbeat. I warmly recommend it and am looking forward to the sequel.

Nick is a high schooler with ADHD and who is still struggling with the death of his mother a few years earlier, along with the anxiety that comes with having a father who is a big city cop. His coping mechanism is the self-insert romantic fanfic he writes about the two local Extraordinaries (superheroes), one of whom keeps Nova City safe from the villainous actions of the other. And his friends are pretty good about humoring this obsession of Nick’s with Shadow Storm, even his strait-laced, vest-and-bow-tie-wearing best friend, Seth. But then the real world of Extraordinaries comes really close to home and Nick slowly, agonizingly slowly, comes to realize that his best friend is keeping some big secrets from him, and Nick’s world show more goes pear-shaped.
I adore TJ Klune, but I think this is my least favorite of his works I’ve read so far. I still enjoyed it, but I didn’t over-the-moon love it like a usually do. I think it could have done with some heavy editing for the pacing, which seemed to drag for most of the book. At any rate, it felt like it took me forever to read it. That’s not to say I won’t continue with the series, because I love Klune enough that I want to read All the Things. This is all just to say that if you haven’t read any of Klune’s work yet, I wouldn’t start here. show less

A novel about queer teens and superheroes and fanfiction and ADHD. Nick Bell is in love with his city's Extraordinary hero. If they ever meet, will real life match his fantasies?

Some of the characters write and read fanfiction. In fact, the author does a great job of melding ff.net and ao3 styles. The novel grapples with RPF and Mary Sues without using those terms at the same time it plays around with a lot of fanfic tropes (such as oblivious boys in love and identity porn). It presents and discusses superheroes, sidekicks, secret identities, and love interests with love and respect. Despite all of these genre trappings, its world feels realistic. This novel feels like it is young adult follow-up to [b:Soon I Will Be show more Invincible|645180|Soon I Will Be Invincible|Austin Grossman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320554514l/645180._SY75_.jpg|955983]

I'm actually looking forward to the next book in the series.

ETA: Just read through some of the other reviews. The novel does frame police in a very positive light. I agree. Some of the lines made me uncomfortable and were particularly tone-deaf in a book read in 2020. And yet. The novel is written from the POV of a white boy. His father is a cop and the chief of police is a close family friend; naturally, the kid is very pro-police. Nick is also completely oblivious to what is happening around him, and that can definitely include police brutality. Part of Nick's character arc is to begin to see nuances between good and evil. By the end, he's questioning what it means to be a hero as well as how heroes are constructed and portrayed in the media. In the next book, I hope that Nick will expand his new critical thinking skills to re-evaluate his hero-worship of the police. (The epilogue lays the groundwork for this future distrust of the police.) show less

This book was a DELIGHT. Full of heart and queerness, The Extraordinaries features a fanfic writing kid with ADHD who's figuring out his relationships with both family and friends, and of course, with the real live superheroes and villains in his city. I literally laughed AND cried, and stayed up into the wee hours of the night to finish it in one swoop.

Five fabulous rainbow stars!

The Extraordinaries is such an enjoyable read!

I'll start with the CONS.
The story, for me, was a bit hard to get into as I don't normally pick up superhero/fanfiction novels, but the writing drew me in so quickly, I was intrigued. The plot was a bit predictable, but I became so invested in each character (even if Nick was ridiculously extra at times ;)) that correctly guessing the path of the plot didn't matter to me at all.

Now, the PROS!
The humor is utter perfection! I literally found myself laughing out loud at some of the character's antics! TJ Klune writes dialogue with a splendid perfection, not many writers can do that. I was easily able to imagine myself sitting next to Nick and his friends at the lunch show more table at school and when Nick was saved by Shadow Star... oh man! Nick is just 'a little' obsessed with the superhero that keeps his home, Nova City, safe. And by 'a little' I mean he has a pillow with Shadow Star's face on it... 🤦‍♀️
Each character is so lovingly written; from Nick's friend Gibby to Seth's aunt, Martha. I fell in love with each and every one of them, though I was partial to Jazz and her badass-ness :)

I truly think this is a book for the masses, even if you're like me and don't usually enjoy superhero fiction. Everyone needs to go and purchase this book! An extra dose of... extra in your life is never a bad thing! :) show less

This book was an almost utterly predictable, superhero-themed rom-com, in the best possible way. It hit all the right beats and was immensely satisfying, like your favorite comfort film you've seen 100 times. Neurodivergence is handled really thoughtfully, but it's got some weird, thoughtless ideas about the role of police and policing. There's a lot of jokes about, and very unpleasantly, a lot of sympathy toward, police brutality. That's very common in the superhero worlds being played with, too, but at this point that's really no excuse. If we can explore what is really "right" and "wrong" in the concepts of superheroes and supervillains, we can extend that to pretty obvious analogs like the cops, right?

I hope the author turns away show more from the really pretty prevalent police glorification, because this book ends (post acknowledgments) with some cool setup for the equally obvious superhero tropes to be explored in the sequel. I really hope to enjoy the next installment! show less

Ughhhhhh. After the disaster that was [b:A Good Neighborhood|44084930|A Good Neighborhood|Therese Anne Fowler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555810442l/44084930._SY75_.jpg|68554753] I wanted to read something light and happy that I would be guaranteed to like. Given how much I've liked other TJ Klune books, particularly [b:The House in the Cerulean Sea|45047384|The House in the Cerulean Sea|T.J. Klune|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569514209l/45047384._SY75_.jpg|62945242], I thought The Extraordinaries would be a no-brainer. Superheroes! Fanfic! Surely this would be a fun, gay romp about smashing the system, right? Wrong. How could someone who wrote show more something as anti-capitalist as Cerulean Sea turn around and write such a pro-cop book? In the same year??

I'm so disappointed. This book would have been a lot of fun if it didn't so egregiously glorify the police and make jokes about police brutality and overreach. Like seriously, there are several literal jokes about cops roughing up a kid while arresting him or putting him in jail for not doing his homework. The main character's dad is a cop who is demoted for punching a witness in the face and he is still presented as moral and good and is all buddy buddies with the police captain who implies that he will re-promote him as soon as he's served his penitence or whatever. And there is just so much talk about how noble and honourable the cops are and they should be paid more for "bleeding blue". This isn't me reading too much into the subtext, this is text all over the book. How did this get past so many people to be published in The Year Of Our Lord Twenty-Twenty? How??

I saw TJ Klune's apology for this (http://www.tjklunebooks.com/new-blog/2020/7/29/a-message-about-the-extraordinaries) in the reviews after reading the book and it does seem very sincere. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because of everything else of his I've read but I can't give this book a pass. show less