Maybe a 3.5 rounded up, maybe a 4? Who knows?
I enjoyed it and will be continuing the series when I can.

Queer rep galore!

The Extraordinaries isn't a masterpiece, and won't be going on a (non-existent) list of my "must reads" - but it is a lovely and perfect read for *gestures at world* this.

Our MC, Nick Bell, is the most clueless person to exist. It started off as slightly funny as everything was super obvious to the reader and the rest of the characters, but ended up as very annoying because I don't believe anyone can be that oblivious?! It just got eye-roll worthy how dumb he was being. BUT it did mean we got insight into characters we wouldn't have been able to get otherwise, we got the sweetest superhero origin story without Nick knowing this was an origin story - so the reader got the emotion behind it without whatever Nick's 'extra' response would have been.

The book takes a little while to get the plot going, and there's an awful lot of cringe-worthy dialogue and monologues that don't read as a teen, but as an adult trying too hard to write a teen voice - it just doesn't flow (on the other side of that coin of not sounding like a teen - the use of the word 'consternation' was excessive enough for me to notice).

The friend group and close family life are lovely to read about, even if I was still managing to get the two female friends mixed up in my head - they needed more page time!

And the in-story fanfiction...yikes. I've read some bad fanfiction in my life...and just w o w.

The Extraordinaries is a near perfect novel.
Full of romance, angst, superheroes and suspense. It's well paced and draws the reader in, T J Klune deals with bringing in subjects such as ADHD and LQBTQ relationships wonderfully, some writers bring in subjects likes this because it's the in thing, Klune brings them in because it's necessary for the story and it all fits together so well.

This is an exceptionally good YA debut.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks so much for sending this to me!

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me and I DNF'd at 30% - so I'll leave my thoughts up to where I left off.

Supporting own voices authors is important to me, I've been meaning to try a TJ Klune book for a while, and I love me a good superhero story, so I was excited to read this one! I'm also keen to read more books that explore the experience of queer boys and men in fandom spaces, as I've found that their voices are often overpowered by cis women who (perhaps involuntarily) speak over their experiences. Fandom can be an exclusionary and fetishizing space for queer men, so it's an important perspective to examine in my opinion. However, I found that the book really didn't speak to me and I was really struggling with it, so I had to concede defeat.

What I liked about it:

- The ADHD rep. I feel like the author did an excellent job of showcasing the racing thought patterns and manic thinking process of a character with ADHD. Nick's voice shines through very strongly and his characterisation is great.

- The friendships and family relationships. The bonds between characters are very clear.

Why I put it down:

- The cringe factor, mostly. This author seems to have a very specific type of humour that really rubbed me up the wrong way; I cringed my way through the first few painful chapters and it never let up. Honestly, Nick is just an embarrassing character. It's not his fault, and I actually knew a LOT of people like this in my teen fandom days (dare I say I was one of them? Maybe that's what made it so uncomfortable for me.) The secondhand embarrassment was just too much for me to bear.

- Nick's obliviousness was just too much. There's dramatic irony and then there's whatever this was. It reminded me of CB Lee's wonderful 'Not Your Sidekick,' which employs a very similar twist that again is painfully obvious to the audience - but this one took it to an infuriating level. I could not be dealing with Nick's inability to see what was staring him in the face. Like dude, seriously? I was starting to get genuinely angry with him and didn't think I could stand to see him keep overlooking the truth for another few hundred pages.

- This book is very tongue-in-cheek and for me it was a bit much. The whole point, I think, was to make fun of the superhero genre and superhero-based fandoms, and that's fine - but it wasn't working for me.

I respect TJ Klune very much, I know he's a beloved author and I appreciate his importance as a prominent own voices author of m/m books, but I'm afraid this book just wasn't my cup of tea.

eARC provided by NetGalley , thank you to Netgalley and Tor Teen.


Expected publication Date: 14 July 2020

(Young Adult – Contemporary- Fantasy-Comic -Superhero’s-Romance)

This dedication is literally one of the best:

For the neurodiverse who think big and dream even bigger: you are a superhero, and your powers are infinite. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.


This really resonated with me. My son has ADHD and I often marvel at his amazing brain. After school one day he said “Mom, at my school desk today, I tried to think of like, a 1000 timelines at the same time but I got a headache.” He is eight. So even before I opened this book it was close to my heart.


This book is very character driven. Although I really loved Nick who often made me laugh out loud I did sometimes feel the dialogue between him and his friends could be very childish, as well as Nick Bell himself. At times his thought process did not really correspond with the reality of the situation and although I understand he has ADHD and there are varying forms, I just felt it was slightly off at times in relation to his age and the circumstances, especially since there were low undercurrent sexual tones of the YA kind.

I did find the pacing quite slow in the beginning. All that dialogue and inner monologue did not propel the story along and at 50% I was still wondering what would happen in the story. I kept waiting for that big “thing” happen while certain revelations were dragged out for no reason. You could see how everything would turn out and that was slightly disappointing as I really thought there would be some twist or turn to snap me out of everything I knew was coming.


HOWEVER, all of the above does not in any way change the effect this gorgeous book had on me.
This book had be laughing out loud, sniffling and welling up with tears at times. Nick and his Dad’s relationship was absolutely beautiful – this book literally makes you feel love, it’s something special and the last 50 pages really caught my attention.

For YA lovers that love a contemporary, quirky, slow-burn romance you cannot get a better book than this.

I will definitely be reading more of this author’s wok – especially the adult fiction.

I SWEAR I DEVOUR EVERYTHING T J KLUNE WRITES. The writing style just pulls me in everytime! It’s just brilliant!
Nick is so damn loveable and relatable I love his brain and some of the crazy ideas he comes up with. And then his friendship with Seth just makes you squee and go all mushy because you want to put them both in your pocket.
All the characters in this story are SO GOOD!
There were so many quotable and funny lines too
I JUST WANT TO RAMBLE AND SAY HOW AMAZING IT IS BUT I AM LOST FOR WORDS!!

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime/thriller books and even psychological thrillers too so I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

I enjoyed this very much. 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This book got better and better the more I read it. The characters were very funny and the book had me chuckling out loud several times. It appeared, at face value, to be a predictable storyline but I was very wrong and gladly surprised at the twists and turns the book takes. The more touching moments even brought a couple of tears to my eye, which I was also not expecting. The message is wonderful in the book; it breaks so many stereotypes and societal binaries and I am so happy I read this.

An thoroughly enjoyable read. The perspective if Nick and his ADHD added a real naivety and innocence to the P.O.V and made for an interesting game of cat and mouse.
Witty and funny. Had me laughing out loud-especially when Gibby was involved. What a hoot she is!
The characters are well developed and relatable. Seth's secret love for Nick was adorable to watch play out. The superhero secrets, while obvious to the reader, were kept well hidden because of Nick's inability to read a room.
I can't wait to read the future installments and see where this goes.

TW /CW : death of parents (in the past), ableist language, parent in the hospital
Note on the content : there's a lot of love for cops. Like, a lot. I'm not here for that. The whole "cops are here to save us and protect us" doesn't work anymore. I think nowadays if you have to tell a story including a lot of cops, at least mention the police violence in some capacity. Don't act like they are all great people who have come to save us all... and if you have a rookie policeman say that he really wants to use a taser, MAYBE have him being called out on that, ffs.
The police needs to clean house, and then we will talk again.
---

In every sff book, to an extend, you have to suspend your disbelief. I had to because some of the plot. I'm not sure I have ever seen a MC who's so gullible and clueless... Some things were really really REALLY obvious and it was literally painful to see him not get it. But to me that's not on the character, it's more that the author needed the MC to not get it for his plot..

My other problem with this book is that it felt really like a contemporary story and every time the superpower elements came up I had a hard time believing it. I almost only read SFF stories so I don't know why with this one it didn't work... It felt too much like our world, and having that guy manipulate shadows was weird, I didn't buy it. Maybe a little bit more world-building was needed, I'm not sure what my problem was but it took me out of the story every time.

I have to say that I didn't like how that journalist was portrayed. It felt really sexist to even write her that way.

Also... The fanfics parts are painful to read, I'm sure that's on purpose though. Don't get discouraged with the first pages as it starts with a fanfic chapter and oh boy did I get scared. Thank god I had already read some TJ Klune and knew it was going to be okay.

Other than that it was really cute and funny and I loved Nick. The ADHD rep was really well included in the story, I don't have ADHD so I can't talk more about it than that but it wasn't just a passing comment mentioning it, it was entirely part of what made Nick who he is and why we loved him and at the same time it wasn't trying to just explain things to us to tell us how it works, it was really organic.
Also I love Seth, Jazz and gibby, they are great and I might continue in the series just to get more of them all. The characters really made that book.
It might seem like this should be less than 3 stars with what I'm saying here but I assure you it's a solid 3. I just don't really know how to expand on what I liked. Once I managed to suspend my disbelief I genuinely enjoyed following Nick and his friends, even with all the little things I listed that I didn't like I did have a good time reading this because at the end of the day TJ Klune knows how to write characters and create a compelling story. And what didn't work for me might not be a problem for you at all and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA sff or YA contemporary (it actually read like YA for teenagers and not like YA that is really made for adult, like we see a lot of these days, so that's great too)


Ps : don't write fanfic about real people. That's not cool. That should have been said somewhere in there.

This is the feel good superhero book everyone needs to read! The queer rep is great, the ADHD rep is amazing, and the story blew my mind. I adore Nick Bell, even though he is oblivious to literally everything. Seth Gray is the kind of beautiful and complicated character I would absolutely be friends with if he were real. Gibby and Jazz are wonderful and it made me so happy to read such a good sapphic couple! There were some unexpected twists throughout the story and I enjoyed seeing everything unfold. The ending was shocking and I need more of this story please. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to escape and just enjoy a great story for a few hours.

This book took me by surprise by being way more awesome than expected! I found this and thought it sounded different and I always love a mix of contemporary and Sci-Fi! There was so many things to love about this book and reading it was a delight! The author has captured what it is like to be a teenager so well! I liked that the main character had ADHD and this was represented really well, it showed what its really like. I loved the characters and their relationships, they were all interesting in their own way. The extraordinaries were interesting and pretty cool I can see why Nick was obssessed! I liked that Nick wrote fanfiction which is a total throwback for me. This was a story about family and friends and accepting who you are. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it!

I'm a big fan of T.J. Klune and so I'm very glad to have the chance to review this title before its official release date.

I think this novel had a lot of great and original elements to it and I could definitely see Klune's personal touch. I don't want to go into much detail just because a lot of what I would like to say would be a spoiler and I want everyone to enjoy this story without being spoiled.

So, I'm just gonna say that I was very interested in Pyro Storm and Shadow Star, I wanted to know more about them and also what drove them to do everything they were doing. I think the revelations and twists in this book were well done, some were expected, others not so much.
Nick was a funny main character and he made me laugh quite a lot, I really enjoyed his sense of humour. The only thing that bothered me a bit was how clueless he was. It took so long for him to realize something that everyone knew. But thank God my ship has sailed and I think it's so cute!
As always in Klune's books, the friendships in this one were depicted in an excellent and realistic way.

Also you guys, please remember to read the chapter after the acknowledgements. I almost didn't do that and I would have missed something very important that sets a lot in motion for the second book in the series. I cannot wait to read more about Nova City, extraordinaries and this amazing group of friends.

The book is quite slow to start and I did nearly give up around 20% BUT I carried on and I LOVED this book. You need the build up and back parts in first 20%. I love TJs characters they are always quirky and awkward and this was no difference. I'm hoping this is only the beginning of what is a fantastic superhero series !!

This book was AMAZING!! I was so into this book and it made me so happy and excited to read and honestly, when it comes to novels, not many have this effect on me. This is why this is an instant 5 star read. I adored this book. I loved every second of it. The twists and turns, the excitement, the characters, THE EFFING END! like what the hell? I can't wait to get the next book in this series. Whenever that will come out. What I can tell for sure is that I will buy this book as a physical copy and reread it again. I just really really really loved this. I loved Seth. He's my precious boy. He's amazing and I love him and I can't wait to see more of him in the next book. Nick, the main guy, was such a cutie and such a loud boy and I love him and I wanna protect him. The two girls in his friends circle are just THE. BEST. They're girlfriends and they're awesome and I'm here for this. They are hilarious and fun and cute and I love them. The funniest character in this book tho was Nick's father. His conversations with Nick were absolutely hilarious and I was laughing so much at everything. He's such a great father and so supportive and I just love him so much.

If you love Superheros, queer people (aka two boys in love and two girls in love) you will love this. Also, Nick writes fanfiction and has ADHD and everything is just fantastic and I would recommend this to everyone!

Thank you for giving me a chance to read this prior to its release and I can't wait to own this as a hardcover and read it again. Definitely have to check out some more work by the author and I am more than definitely excited and here for the next book. I can not wait!

Full review available here: www.litlifelondon.wordpress.com

The Extraordinaries will stick with me as one of my favourite books of all time. It is a book that this gay nerd would have loved as a teenager, and I think many geeky teenagers across the world need to read. It is The Incredibles meets Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, it is Marvel meets Ness’ The Rest of Us Just Live Here, it is GAY SUPERHEROES… WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT?!?

Make sure you read to the very end as there is a post acknowledgements scene that will blow your mind and leaving you asking… WHEN IS THE SECOND BOOK OUT?!?

I happily give this book 5/5 and would like to thank Hodderscape and Kate Keehan for the review copy.

Easily one of the best superhero books I've ever read. Nick is very likeable but utterly clueless - particularly where his best friend is concerned. There's a very sweet, healthy queer romance here and lots of laugh out loud moments. Highly recommend.

The thing that struck me most about The Extraordinaries was how PERFECTLY T J Klune managed to capture the voice of a 16 year old boy, with ADHD, who is constantly in motion, bouncing from one thought to the next, without letting us get lost in his head. The plot itself was fairly generic with some obvious but effective twists, and the side characters were generic if likeable, but the main draw here is the protagonist himself, and I would gladly read many more books featuring him.

Every superhero needs an origin story.
Every superhero needs a sidekick. Or in this case every sidekick needs a superhero.
This is simply put a wonderful reading experience finally a real kickass Unapologetic gay superhero origin story. Nobody writes “awkward”like T J Klune.
At times laugh out loud teen angst mixed with the authors uncanny ability for real pathos. You care about these characters because he does.
It’s a loving homage to the comic book.
We think know exactly where we are going, but it can suddenly wrong foot you.
Watch out Peter Parker theirs a new teen heartthrob or three in town.
The girls are great too, they may be “supporting characters,” but they certainly aren’t going to let that stop them. As usual with this author there really is no such thing as a supporting character, even people who you meet briefly have fully realised lives.
And refreshingly the LGBTQ element isn’t an issue for anyone , it’s just who they are. It also tackles ADHD in a sensitive way, and Gives people with the condition a hero they can root for.
The book is great from the first page through to the after credits epilogue. My only problem with it is we now have to wait for the next instalment.

The Extraordinaires is a queer coming-of-age story, following fan-boy, Nick, as he navigates his way through junior year of high school. When I saw the novel description, I immediately thought, yes, I am going to love this book, unfortunately, it hit quite different.
The Extraordinaires was a funny and eventful book, but it read like a fan-fiction I’d have written when I was 16. After a quarter of the book, I decided it was not for me and put it down.
I found it really disappointing as this book already has so many great reviews, but it just didn’t quite sit right with me. If you’re interested in this book, I’d recommend to give it a go, it just wasn’t for me!

The Extraordinaries is a young adult novel about superheroes, fans, and working out your feelings. Nick is starting his junior year at school, has ADHD and an overprotective cop father, and thinks his best friend Seth is adorable in bow ties. Nick also writes fanfiction about Shadow Star, the hero who protects Nova City where Nick lives, and Pyro Storm, his seeming nemesis, and Nick dreams of meeting and falling in love with Shadow Star. When Nick decides he needs to be more extraordinary himself, he's going to do something regardless of what the other people in his life think.

This is a light, fun LGBT read with fantasy elements, but which focuses more on Nick as a person and his experiences of ADHD, grief, and love than the superpower parts. It is a meta, self-aware narrative that incorporates fanfiction and commentary on other superheroes, in a world where there are real masked vigilantes with powers, but ultimately it is also a romance between friends and a tale of realising you don't need to change your entire self to be special (these elements are combined in Nick's obliviousness, which is very much like something out of fanfiction). The characters are fun and diverse, and as this is only the first book in the series they are likely to be even more fleshed out in later books (Seth in particular it will be interesting to see more of). Generally the writing is easy to engage with, though occasionally the dialogue between Nick and his dad felt a bit forced and unreal.

Undoubtedly The Extraordinaries will be a book that grips a lot of people with its characters and superhero elements, and there will be anticipation for its sequel. It is an enjoyable read that allows you to escape into a world which seems mostly normal, but has superheroes too.