Oh my god. I loved everything about this. Nick Bell is the nerdiest character I have ever read about and it's crazy how much I relate to him! The story and characters hit very close to home and that's exactly why I'm so thankful for this book.

The plot was predictable to me at times but I did not mind! The dramatic irony made it so interesting and I was constantly rooting for people. The ADHD and queer representation is done so well, as was the entirety of the writing. It wasn't a masterpiece (I don't think YA novels should be) but it was relatable. It was relatable, fun, refreshing, and rather realistic for fellow superhero geeks!

The Extraordinaries made me happy, and I will buy the hell out of this book when it comes out! New favourite author? Most likely. New favourite book? HELL YES!

This was a fabulous read, especially in time for Pride Month. TJ Klune is fast becoming one of my favourite authors, because he doesn't write LGBTQ+ characters in overly cliched ways. These kids have real problems, and they deal with them in real ways. Being gay, or having ADHD, is just part of who they are, NOT a personality trait. Also, there are superheroes, and that always seems to work for me. So, if you are looking for a good urban fantasy teen read, give The Extraordinaries a try.

Absolutely loved this story! The Extraordinaries is such a great blend of humor, action and heart! You will never read a queer romance quite like it! Nick is such awesome character and watching his struggles along the the way was so much fun to read. The side characters (Nick’s Dad, friends and maybe a supervillain or two) work so well together and the plot will keep you coming back. I highly recommend this book and will definitely have it on my library shelf!

3.5/5 stars

The Extraordinaries explores the idea of what if your self-insert fanfic becomes real. Nick and his friends live in a world where a few people has Extraordinary, superhero-like powers. In their city, they have two who are archenemies: Shadow Star (the good guy) and Pyro Storm (the bad guy). And like many teens, Nick writes self-insert fanfic of how he --I mean Nate-- and Shadow Star get together (even if Pyro Storm has drool-worthy thighs). But with his mom's unexpected death still affecting him, and his fear of his dad's death because of his dangerous job as a police officer, Nick gets the awesome idea that he should become an Extraordinary so that A) he can get together with Shadow Star and B) he can help protect his dad. But it's not as easy to accomplish as Nick originally thought. And maybe Shadow Star and Pyro Storm aren't as all-good and all-bad as Nick originally thought.

Klune does a fabulous job of creating the hyperactive energy that Nick deals with in the energy of the book; it's a combination of tone and style that I can't remember experiencing elsewhere in a book. BUT, it's exhausting to read. I usually fly through a book in 2-3 days, but this one took me a week because I could only handle so much of that energy before getting extremely exhausted. While this makes for excellent writing, it diminished how much I enjoyed the book, hence the 3-star rating.

I've heard the Extraordinaries as a combination of Rainbow Rowell's Fanfiction and Marissa Meyer's Renegades, and it is, but it's less of a 50-50 division and more of a 30% Fanfiction and 70% Renegades. It's very similar to Renegades in that it explores how life is gray: not all black and white-- not all good and evil. Which is an important lesson that teen readers get.

Pros:
- I love how supportive Nick's dad is of Nick's homosexuality.
- I love how Nick loves how dorky Seth is.
- More Gibby and Jazz!
- It's a beautiful celebration of queer love that doesn't make the coming-out or the fact that Nick likes guys the main focus. It's just a facet of Nick's personality, but like being straight is a facet of Bella's personality (from Twilight).

Diverse reads:
- Nick has ADHD and takes medication for it.
- Nick and Seth are gay.
- Owen is bi.
- Gibby and Jazz are lesbians.

I got an ARC of this book.

I am not a fan of superheros. I find them boring. I don’t understand why anyone would like them. So I am immediately on a whole different page than Nick. He is OBSESSED to the point of making a real person fanfiction where he writes himself into a relationship with someone. That is so gross to me. Full on ick factor. The person is real. It crosses lines for me. So I am not the biggest fan of Nick’s. Even by the end I don’t grow to like him.

Like Nick, I have a diagnosis that makes others treat me poorly and that has made me feel less than others. It has made me wary of how people interact with me and it makes me get hurt when people talk about it. This is literally the only think about Nick that I can relate to. Yet, Nick makes constant comments about how people are “crazy”, despite hating people thinking he is. It felt a bit off that a character that brought up how he felt about people viewing him as less than would constantly call people things he didn’t want to be called and just so casually use the same language like it didn’t matter. That just bugged me. It also bugged me on a personal level just how much pill taking was a part of the story as pills can be a bit of a trigger for me due to trauma and the way that my own family went overboard trying to force medications on me for my own mental health issues. So the dad just never made it to my good side either.

I also didn’t like how violence was so normalized. Why were the friends always punching each other and threatening violence? It made me doubt the friendships and it made me dislike this as a teen book. I understand that the extraordinaries may have had violent relationships, but they are different than the main group of friends.

The book was slow. It took forever to really start, but then it also took forever to end. It felt like there was at least a hundred pages that could have been cut before I would have felt like the book was paced well. I think part of the issue for me was that I knew everything that was going to happen. Klune was heavy handed with the foreshadowing. By the end of chapter one I called the twists about Nick. By the time I had met the full friend group, I was 90% sure of the ending. After meeting both extraordinaries, I called the rest of the ending. There was nothing for me to look forward to. I just had to wait for Klune to actually get to things.

If you have read Klune’s adult books, then this book will be exactly like those in humor and writing. The only difference was there was no on page sex. There were sex jokes, but no sex. That is the only difference in an adult Klune and a YA Klune it seems. The same humor. At times it was a lot and a lot of the time it stood in the way of plot. This book might have been too Klune to really do it for me. There were some amazing scenes (like a scene where there was talk of microwaving a grasshopper), but they weren’t the norm. The humor that I enjoy from Klune didn’t rock the story this time, it just stood in the way. There were too many asides and joke scenes that just didn’t do it for me. The constant harassing of Officer Rookie about pedophilia was also just tasteless. Klune often has issues writing female characters and has a lot of misogyny that gays find cute written into the MCs of his books, this book might just be one of the best examples of that (of his books that I have read so far). I am so tired of gay men going “ew vaginas” and thinking it makes them cute.

I am glad that there was some ADHD rep. I am glad there is queer rep. I am glad that there were tough issues tackled. I just didn’t love this book like I should have. Klune is a top author for me, but this one just didn’t hold up like the others I have read.

**Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review**

This was my first TJ Klune book, and I loved it so much, I now need everything he has written. I really really adored this book!! There was so much funny banter, and I found myself laughing out loud often. The main character Nick Bell is a hilarious, extraordinary obsessed teenager with ADHD. He writes fan fiction about his favorite extraordinary Shadow Star and dreams about the day he will meet him, they will inevitably fall in love, and live happily ever after. I loved the way Nick was always roping his best friends into his hilarious ideas, and how he could be so detail orientated but also be completely oblivious to the most obvious things around him at the same time. Nick's relationship with his Dad was one of the best parts of this book, and held many of the books funniest moments, their relationship felt real, and beautiful and really portrayed their shared grief and strength in the aftermath of a loss. Their was so much groundwork laid in the book for the big reveal that I thought I had it all figured out.. but STILL ended up surprised. I highly recommend this book. I can't wait to read about Nick's next adventure.

I feel a bit weird about this book. Is like many were waiting for it but I feel it didn't work. I don't hate it but I didn't enjoy it. It's openly queer and that's great but teen superheroes isn't my thing, or at least not here. Nick, the principal character is in love with real life superheroes but he is so so immature, so childish for his age that is annoying. You can find some funny moments but most of the time I was a bit bored. I dont think this is a YA book, it's more for young teens. Since the beginning you can tell what's going to happen, it has suspense but not the good kind. One thing I didn't really like is that Nick makes it look like all gay teenagers are like him, and no, many gay teenagers are mature and aren't around daydreaming with guys and thinking that talking about sex is super weird. I mean hell no. The star of the book, for me, might be Nick's dad who is super cool and totally love and accepts his son, which is like the dream of every gay teenager who open up about his sexuality already, be accepted and loved without prejudices or judgments. I'm glad many people liked it, I mean that's super cool because might be one of those love or hate books and it's great!!! It wasn't for me, that's all

I certainly did enjoy reading this! It was a totally different and creatively inventive plot. The banter between Nick Bell and his friends is hilarious.

Overall, it was a funny, lighthearted and unapologetically queer book!

Highly recommended for a fun read!

Thank You to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this ARC!!

I won a copy of The Extraordinaries through BookishFirst and also received an audio copy through Libro.fm, so I could share my thoughts on both with you!

Nate Bell is many things, but unfortunately he is not an Extraordinary. Extraordinaries have fantastical superpowers and special abilities, while all Nate’s got is ADHD, migraines, and a semi-popular fan-fic he’s writing about one of the most famous heroes in Nova City. He is obsessed with all things Extraordinary, especially those pertaining to his favorite hero (and the object of his daydreams), Shadow Star. After Nate is rescued by Shadow Star, he starts to feel like he might actually have a chance to make his romantic fanfiction a reality. To do this, Nate will have to become Extraordinary, no matter what it costs him. With the help of his friends, Nate believes that he can become the hero he’s always dreamed of being, but maybe sometimes being extra and ordinary is better than being Extraordinary!

You can get your copy of The Extraordinaries on July 14th from Tor Teen!

The Extraordinaries is quite possibly the funniest book I have ever read, which is not something I say lightly! Every interaction Nate has with his friends had me actually struggling to contain my laughter! The characters all felt so real to me, as they talked and acted just like my friends in real life. As a queer teen, I have found only a handful of books that really made me feel seen in the world; I am so excited to say that The Extraordinaries is one of them! TJ Klune captures the teasing camaraderie having friends that understand you can bring. He balances humor with difficult topics in a masterful way. I also adored how Michael Lesley embodies the characters’ voices in the audiobook version (I couldn’t stop smiling when I heard the voice he did for Pyro Storm)!

My Recommendation-
If you have been needing a genuinely hilarious and touching book to brighten your day, I cannot recommend The Extraordinaries enough! If you love superhero stories or books about teens just trying their best to find their way in the world, you should read this book!

Generally, I have a pretty broad variety of what I’ll read and enjoy. Unfortunately, superhero high schoolers seem to fall outside of that range. It doesn’t help that the low maturity level of these high schoolers make this novel read more as a middle grade than YA. At times the density of the main character makes it hard to like him. But if you’re looking for something openly queer, funny at its best parts, and definitely requiring suspension of belief throughout it all, then this is it.

Oh no.

I am a bit surprised and disappointed to give a low rating to Klune's YA debut. The House in the Cerulean Sea is one of the best books I've read all year, and I was honestly expecting to love The Extraordinaries as well.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The whole book felt like it was trying way too hard. Gone was Klune's lightly-crafted, smart, funny, and endearing prose I'd loved in THinCS, and in place of that was... someone's dorky uncle trying to relate to Kids These Days?

The characters interactions, spoken exchanges, inner monologues - most of them fell flat, like an outdated meme or awkward reference to something that's supposed to be funny. I smiled a few times but mostly didn't ~vibe~ with the humor.

The plot itself was nothing to write home about, not particularly original but particularly predictable.

Super disappointed to not have loved this. I still have a backlog of Klune's adult novels I won't put aside, but this series at least isn't one I'll continue.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor/Forge, and the author for the early opportunity to read & review this book!

The Extraordinaries was a great mm YA romance by TJ Klune. The characters were great and I loved the relationships between everyone. This book was really funny and I enjoyed the humor.

5 stars isn't enough, I need to give this more, lots and LOTS of stars!!!

Nick lives in a world where people with superpowers called "Extraordinaries" are real and he's into it, in a big way. He writes fan fiction about the hero of Nova City "Shadow Star" and might have the teensiest crush on him. After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, which wasn't in the slightest bit horrendously embarrassing, Nick decides he wants to be an Extraordinary himself. With the reluctant help of his friends he attempts to create his own origin story for completely altruistic reasons that have nothing to do with how good Shadow Star looks in lycra.

Nick has ADHD and his voice is so incredibly funny and endearing, his friends are hilarious and I just want to wrap up Seth and his bowties in a fluffy blanket. I love his Dad and their relationship and honestly can't think of a single thing I disliked about this book. I CAN'T WAIT for book two, especially after that epilogue!

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for giving me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved everything about this book. It's definitely queer. It's definitely dorky and the world needs more quirky books like this. I know if I was a LGBTQ Teen a book like this would make me smile.

Nick is our main character and he has 3 fabulous friends - Seth, Gibby and Jazz. They're not your average teens and I really enjoyed getting to know them and their individual awesomeness. They are annoying at times - but then again who isn't and for me that made them more lovable. Special mention to Nick's relationship with his dad. I loved this aspect of the story.

It's jam packed with fantastic banter. It's sweet and it made me genuinely LOL. Overall it left me feeling happy. Something that should never be taken for granted.

This review was a hard one for me to write. I was SO excited to be approved for this ARC, but unfortunately found myself more disappointed than happy at the end of the book.

The Good:
- A TON of diversity is in this book (POC, LGBTQIA, disability representation)
- Though there were some things that were intended to be a joke that made me cringe in this book, there were also an awful lot of moments during this book where I did laugh out loud.
- This did end up being a cute story in the end, despite the things I found lacking.

The Bad:
- The characters never seemed to have development. In fact, they seemed to be written as younger than they actually were. This took me out of the book quite a bit.
- A lot of the humor didn't land quite right for me. It seemed awkward and forced at times.
- I spent most of the book irritated that the *big plot twist* was SO obvious even 10% in. It was exasperating that our main character, Nick, REFUSED to see what was right in front of him.

Ultimately, I would recommend this book to those looking for diverse superhero stories, but with caution. 2.5 stars.

Thank you to Tor Teen and Netgalley for an ARC of this book!

This book was a blast, honestly. It made me giggle and cry because it is so extremely funny and ridiculous. Nick, our main character, is so loveable and pretty clueless, which is a great combination for a teenage character. The things he did were so dumb sometimes, but he got away with it because he is that wholesome.

I figured everything out when I was about 30% into the book, but that didn't really matter for me. Everything else that happened was enough to keep me entertained.

I can't wait to read the rest of this trilogy because omg that ending. I didn't notice at first that there was still a mini chapter left, which would have been a shame because that cliffhanger!!! I need the next book like right now.

If you like queer superheroes disasters, then totally read this!!

Wow, Wow, Wow! This is probably going to sound cliche, but the extraordinaire was well extraordinary! I enjoyed this book! I won't lie; I was skeptical at; first, I am a superhero buff since childhood, and this book struck all the right cords. It had the right balance of superpowers and slice-of-life. The characters were well thought out, and it felt nostalgic about the ridiculous nature of my conversations with friends at that age. Also, the depiction of the romances was spot on. As a member of the LGBTQ2S community, I find it difficult at times to find portrayals of relationships that are accurate and healthy. I loved that this book was able to do both. I can't wait until it is out in print because I know I will be recommending it to anyone who will listen. I am eagerly awaiting the sequel (I refuse to believe there won't be one)! #indigoemployeereview

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda meets the MCU making for one of the most fun, entertaining and hilarious books I've read in a long time!!!

I fell in love with this book before I was done the first chapter. The author did a very good job portraying a kid with ADHD, there were times in the book I was able to completely understand what he was going through, because I had gone through it too.

I laughed, I cried, and I can't wait for the next!

The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune is about a queer teenager with ADHD that is obsessed with the real-life superhero Shadow Star and his archnemesis Pyro Storm. We get to follow him and his also queer best friends as well as his ex-maybe-boyfriend as they move through their days together. The main character Nick bell is fascinated by the Extraordinaries that call his city home and is an avid writer of fan-fiction about them and a non-Extraordinary citizen that bears a remarkably similar name to his own. Throughout the story, you can see how his priorities shift from being self-centered to caring more about those around him and as the transformation takes place, his writings do not seem quite as important and action-worthy anymore as his real life.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I absolutely adore it for its representation of the queer community as well as those with ADHD. I would recommend it just for that alone already as I believe we need a lot more representation in many different areas. The writing itself though did not excite me as much. I do not mind the writing of the fanfic as much as it is written by a love-struck teenager who may not care as much about the writing style and fancy words as he does about the action itself in his story. The rest of the book though reminds me more of a middle-grade novel rather than a YA book. There is too much sexual commentary in the book for it to be an actual middle-grade novel though so I see why it would not be marketed that way. I found it very simplistic and the ending was easy to predict right from the start. I also want to point out though that I myself do not have ADHD so I do not know if that drove part of the reason for this writing style (I did enjoy the rambling a lot). Overall, despite the things that I did not enjoy, I do have to admit that I found this book highly entertaining and laughed out loud many times. While Nick seemed rather immature for his age (especially emotionally), I did love his friend group a lot. Gibby was my favorite character and I hope we get a lot about her in the next novel.