"There's something about reality that makes even the darkest nightmares pale in severity."
~Brad Schaeffer

Thank you Netgalley for the gifted copy of this phenomenal novel by Brad Schaeffer.

Through the narrative lens of Wes, a boy who is on the autism spectrum, Brad Schaffer's novel The Extraordinary details a family broken apart by mental illness. This uncommon point of view lends hand to some of the most incredible insights, while revealing the hardship and cruelty that can often result from the misunderstanding of another person.

Schaffer's engaging prose, metaphorical language, and visual detail serve to shape the character-driven plot as Wes and his family are forced to come together after a tragic event that leaves the family shattered. But despite the clear aggression, criticism, and accusations that keeps them all divided, Wes finds his own escape in an unexpected way.

This story unlocks much more than knowledge, but compassion, understanding, recognition, and appreciation for those we may not always understand.

Schaffer's careful wording and artistic language aid in setting the somber tone of this story, as well as shape the hard-hitting themes of perseverance, acceptance, and grief. His astute details to the inner-workings of a fractured family reflect an empathetic understanding of the stress mental health and disabilities can have on a person's life.

This novel was so sweet and yet so hurtful for me to read. I absolutely adored it because I know there are tons of families out there in this kind of situation and we just don’t know or understand the perspective. I love that this book was so emotional and thorough in thoughts and feelings. This is a novel that gave my heart joy and at the same time broke it. Excellent story.

"But also in this blue world of the moonlight, as if sinking down in the abyss of a nautical canyon miles beneath the waves, comes the terror."

"How do I tell her I’m an actor on a stage where everyone but me has the script?"

"There’s something about reality that makes even the darkest nightmares pale in severity."

"Even if I can’t express it, it’s there. Like a bass note to a symphony of my life whose absence is only noticed when it hits a dissonant note or stops playing altogether."

“It’s the little reminders of your emptiness that step up to smack you in the face.”

THOSE QUOTES YOU GUYS!! FLAWLESS!! Let's talk about how heart shattering this book is though! As families we all struggle, don't tell me you don't cause I know you do! This family, however does not handle its struggles with grace. In fact, the constant "pity me" attitude of the entire family kind of drives me up the wall. We don't get to choose the cards we are dealt, but the fact that every single member of the family wants to blame their life and their horrible outcome of their own personal decisions on the autistic son/brother made me really disconnect from the characters and not give a crap about what happens to any of them. With all due respect I understand how things we are going thru can blind us to our own actions, but the fact that the mother finally decides to love her son, come on lady! I don't think that's how motherhood works! Ok... I really do love the authors writing style and what they were trying to convey in this story, So I want to thank @katieandbreypa and the author for letting me be apart of this team!

I give The Extraordinary by Brad Schaeffer ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is absolutely extraordinary and I loved reading this very interesting but emotional story. The point of view is from Wes, a 14 year old boy on the autistic spectrum. In this book you see the world through his eyes and you experience his chaotic, confusing and different world. His father is the one who always have seen him as special and extraordinary and during the story you get to know Wes as a thoughtful teenager with a lot of deep thoughts, something that others don’t experience. When his father got injured in Iraq, nobody understands him anymore and Wes feels alone.

The story is special and the book is well written and you really get to see the pain and issues Wes is experiencing with his family. The story is very emotional and I felt so bad sometimes for Wes because he was treated badly by his family. The story contains sometimes violence and a lot of negativity towards Wes that was quite disturbing. But overall I liked the story and the writing was fast paced. I highly recommend this book to read.

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC copy  of this novel, this review is my honest opinion and is written voluntarily.

Wesley is a teenager on the Autism Spectrum. He is non-verbal, stims a lot, makes noises, self harms, becomes violent, attends a special school, and loves The Sound of Music. Most people around him assume that because he cannot communicate besides using his AAC device for simple words, that he is not capable of understanding what is going on around him or of complex thought and analysis. The only one that treats him like an ordinary kid is his dad, but Dad has shipped off to Iraq for a year and Mom, his sister, and his brother do not know what to do with him. Life becomes extremely difficult for Wes without Dad who is often the only one who can calm Wes and make him feel valuable and loved. Then Dad comes home, but as an injured veteran. He comes back changed and life is forever altered. As his home life deteriorates, Wes is trying to figure out how to cope around people that have become more hostile and violent.

This story…wow. Talk about emotional! Yes, I cried, and that is rare for me to admit. This book, though, is not just fantastic in general, but hit a personal chord with me. Not only am I on the spectrum, but 3 of my 4 children are, as well. So much that was happening with Wes resonated with our own life experiences. Finding patterns In EVERYTHING, counting steps, wanting bare feet, and noises overtaking the ability to focus are a few of the characteristics we, as a group, share with the main character. The author has some amazing insight into the world of someone on the spectrum. The story flows well, characters are fully developed, editing is superb…I can’t say enough about how wonderful this book is.

TRIGGER WARNING: Depression, suicide, domestic violence, derogatory remarks about Autism

This was such an emotional read. It was a lot to take in with how Wes family treated him. Though it does have a happy ending with finally accepting and loving Wes, it was a bit hard to read with the way his mom and brother treated him. I had to stop and walk away from reading just to take breath because it kinda pissed me off.

Wes and his father had a bond and his dad was the only person he connected with, but things changed when his dad returns from war. You're reading this in Wes' perspective, an autistic 14 year old boy.

This book does have triggers:
War vet PTSD
Forms of abuse (brother beating him, incident of pepper spraying)

Wesley Scott, a teenage boy with autism, tells us in his own words about his struggles to cope with a chaotic, confusing and scary world - while his family tries to handle both living with an autistic child and a Marine father, who returns from Iraq debilitated by wounds and suffering from PTSD. Wes is unable to connect with anyone other than his father. he in turn adores his extraordinary son, his “Ex-man” as he fondly calls him. With his father overseas, Wes finds him self further isolated in a world of “Ords” (his dad’s term for the ordinaries) and a stranger in his own family. “

Trigger Warnings:
bullying
PTSD
suicide

I devoured this book!! Yes this book is quite depressing at times, BUT I still loved it.
It centered around how a tragedy can pull a family closer together. It was insightful to a possible version of someone with autism (as they are all unique). How he interacts with the world around him and his reasoning for actions that some of his family members don’t understand.

I felt so frustrated with Wesley’s family for most of the book, Just for that lack of understanding and constant underestimation of his abilities.

I DNFed before i stopped it once I heard the trigger warnings for this book that werent released til very late after people already signed up/requested to read this book. I am sorry I am sure it was a good book. But I have asperger and I was also abused as a child and just reading the triggers sent bad chills thru my whole body and I knew if I still read it. It would send my depression, anxiety and PTSD spirling out of control which wouldnt be good at all.

The treatment of a character with autism was really not okay for me in this book. I liked the writing style a lot, but it just felt like traumatic incident after traumatic incident in this book. I feel like it was too much trauma. Overall, the book was well written and engaging, but I wouldn’t recommend it to many with how many triggers there are in this.

I could not finish this book completely threre were to many triggers like Multiple pepper spray accidents to “calm him down”-
Constant mother/brother/sister saying things like “you have it so easy because you have no clue” and “it’s all his fault”, just lots of degrading him for being autistic
Initial scene of dad holding gun to his head and pointing it at the autistic kid and getting in a fight
Dad rolling himself into the water off pier, descriptions of older brother pulling him out after he’s dead.
Brother beating him- mom refusing to take him to hospital despite mass amount of blood and not letting him go to school
Denial to school of anything happening saying the black eye is from roughhousing play with his brother (the kid doesn’t let anyone touch him…)

As a parent of two children with autism this was just to much for me and just couldn't. I know there are not a lot or any reviews on this book .

The Extraordinary is a deeply emotional and shocking tale. Going into this I knew to a level this was going to be a bit dark but I don't feel the synopsis provides a real insight to just how dark this story is. I went into this expecting more of a somewhat hopeful tale and a story of a boy and his relationship with his father. Families like this exist whether or not they have a child who is autistic however the level of abuse that is described in this was very unexpected.

I can see and appreciate what Schaeffer was attempting with this story and had I been more prepared with how dark it was, I probably would've enjoyed it a little more. Up to about 80% in the reader is faced with multiple descriptive cases of abuse and toxic, incapable family members that are in charge of living and handling Wes (and their father) on a day to day basis. Descriptive scenes of using pepper spray to 'control' Wes, a mother who neglects to take her son to the ER or even help clean up the bloody mess after his older brother beats him severely while drunk, and covering the incident up to the school after he returns with a black eye, are just some examples of the abuse that is described throughout. The turning point of the 'lightbulb' clicking on for his mom 90% into the story is pointless and while I appreciate the happy ending, if we're being honest she only starts caring about her treatment of Wes when she realizes he has been keeping a detailed document that is a diary of sorts and shows he is more intelligent and aware than any of his family realized. The trigger warnings for this need to be more front and center.

Please make sure you read any trigger warnings before reading this book as there are subjects which may be difficult for some readers.

Although The Extraordinary follows an extremely sad story about how a child with autism lives in a world that is cruel to him, I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end.

Being able to hear Wes’ thoughts on the events that unfold around him during some of the most painful moments of life was an incredible insight into the brilliance of his mind. Gives us an intimate look into the lives of a Marine Corps captain as well as the challenges they face raising a child with Autism. It’s horrible at times and beautiful at others. I felt so many different emotions throughout this book and thought that Schaeffer did an excellent job with this novel.

𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺!

I was not expecting this emotional ride, I need time to recover from this one.
Beautifully writen, heartbreaking and heartwarming, a story about love and family that will touch your heart. What a fantastic read.

Thank you Suzy Approved Book Tours for this tour invite.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 by Brad Schaeffer Author Page released August 31, 2021.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

Excellent story! Totally engrossing!. Looking forward to reading more by this author! Could not put this down!

Fourteen-year-old Wesley Scott is a teenage boy with autism. He lives in his own intimate internal world of sensory overload, dysfunction, sometimes violence, and with an acute fear of most of the outside world. He is unable to connect with anyone other than his father, a captain in the Marine Corps. We learn through Wes’ own words that he is a deep, thoughtful young man…but no one knows it.

His father in turn adores his extraordinary son, his “Ex-man” as he fondly calls him. When Captain Scott ships off to fight in the Middle East, Wes is confused and filled with foreboding about what it all means, although he cannot express this to his family, friends or teachers.

He finds himself isolated in a world of “Ords” (his dad’s term for the ordinaries, unlike his “Ex” son). He’s a stranger in his own family. His mother is distant and cold and resents him. His older brother is jealous of the time and energy Wes requires from the family, and his twenty-something sister has moved away from him to live in Manhattan. The family is holding on by a thread, waiting for Dad to serve his year and return home.
The burden on the family gets exponentially worse when Captain Scott returns home physically debilitated and suffering from PTSD.

When his father succumbs to his physical and emotional suffering, Wes and his family must somehow make sense of all that has happened—difficult for a teenager under normal conditions, let along one on the autism spectrum who’s suddenly lost the only family member who ever bothered to know him.

Brad Schaeffer’s novel recounts the loss, terror and pain through Wesley’s eyes, and it helps us make sense of this family’s tragedy. Without averting his gaze from any member of this family, or brushing aside the truths of their weaknesses, he succeeds in convincing us to care for each of them. He never loses his compassion for his characters, and we love them as a result. And at the end, we discover that Wes is an extraordinary young man indeed.

I think The Extraordinary deftly tackles two sensitive subjects, autism and PTSD, and the impacts they have not just on those who have these conditions, but also the families who support those they love while trying to cope with the stresses they induce. Please don’t shy away from this book because it sounds depressing or makes you uncomfortable. It is 100% worth your time to read, and uplifting as well as sad.

Thank you to Netgalley and Post Hill Press for allowing me to provide an honest and unbiased review.