So I really love this. This book made me actually laugh out lour and almost made me cry at one point. I've been having some bad luck with books lately, with a lot of things I have been reading being just okay and I've felt very slumpy, but this really was a beacon in darkness.

In "The Extraordinaires", we follow Extraordinary obsessed boy named Nick. He spends his days hanging out with Gibby, Jazz and Seth, his best friend and maybe crush, and trying to avoid his ex, Owen. He wants desperately to be an Extraordinary himself, and is willing to do whatever it takes to become one. And if he succeeds, he can help save the city from Pyro Storm, protect his father from reaching the same unfortunate end as his mother, and maybe meet his hero and crush Shadow Star.

This book was such a pleasure to read. The plot moved quickly, but still was able to flesh out the world and characters in a natural way. I really enjoyed reading from Nick's perspective. Because he has ADHD, the narration of the story would at times jump around, just as Nick's train of thought was. It could have been jarring to read, but I found that it really added to not only Nick's character and voice, but also really helped in fleshing out the plot. Although I predicted where the plot was going from pretty early on, I still really enjoyed it, as the writing was so fun and the characters were so great. There was also a lot of good discussion around Nick's ADHD and how it affects his daily life and self esteem. I would have loved to see a little more background on this world, but that could come in the next book.

The characters really made this book for me. I felt that we got to know them all pretty organically and I loved the friendship dynamics between our main 4 characters. Seth was adorable, and his crush was so awkward and realistic. Gibby and Jazz were so supportive of Nick, but at the same time were not afraid to tell him like it is. I really appreciated Nick's dad as well. Often in YA, I find the parents are missing from the books, but that was not the case here. Nick's dad was present throughout the book, and really added to Nick's growth as a character.

Overall, this was a really fun book that was full of humour and heart and I highly recommend it!

Oh my god. Oh my god. OH MY GOD.

This was my first TJ Klune book and I can wholeheartedly 1000% say he is my new favourite author and will be buying all of his books.

This one in particular was just WOW. I mean it literally had everything. Romance, action, HUMOR, soft moments and real moments that tackled so many important issues like depression and grief and dealing with panic attacks and adhd. I laughed out loud I gasped I felt with Nick and Seth and GIBBY OH MY GOD I LOVED GIBBY AND JAZZ SO MUCH. AND NICK’S DAD AND CAP PLEASE. Nick and Seth’s journeys were so good and so well written I felt like I was INSIDE. Listen, the friendships the romances THE FOUND FAMILY BUT ALSO THE REAL FAMILY everything was just so... GOOD. My heart is so full and this is going to stick with me for a long long time.

I fell in love with the way TJ Klune writes his stories and his characters and I’m so ready to tackle everything that he has ever written ever.

I’m so so so excited to buy my physical copy so I can read again and again and again.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly July New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached).

RTC.

What is that in the sky? Its a bird, it's a plane, its... NIck? Nick has always wanted to be extraordinary but unfortunately, he was not blasted with gamma rays or bite by a mutant spider. The closest he has come to an extraordinary is the fan fiction he writes about Shadow Storm . Nick wants to be better than his ADHD and constant anxiety from his mother passing and worrying about his police father. What Nick does not realize is he is closer to the superhero action than he thinks. The Extraordinaries is a hilarious revision of the superhero trope. Klune gives the protagonist, Nick, depth, flaws, and courage through originality. Nick is unsympathetic in who he is and is a teenager trying to figure out who he is in the world. The supporting characters are full and complex that helps creates diversity in the plot. The banter between characters is hilarious, authentic, and charismatic, leaving the reader rolling with laughter. The father-son relationship between Nick and his dad is realistically depicted and heartwarming. Klune does not shy away from the hard interactions between family members.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

4.5 stars.

TJ Klune is quickly becoming a must read author for me. It seems as though everything he touches is magic. This is definitely true with this quick teen read.

The Extraordinaries is something like Fangirl/Carry On with a superhero spin. Humorous and flippant while tackling difficult topics and those awkward teenage moments and (let's face it) years. The writing is fresh and funny and everything moves so easily. The book zoomed along and it could easily be a single-sitting read.

Klune's characters are lovable, unapologetically themselves, and believable. There is a lot of encouragement for individuality and being true to yourself, which I found just so adorable. The characters, both adults and teens, feel inclusive and the writing perpetuates a great atmosphere of acceptance.

The plot is sometimes a bit overly transparent, but I didn't mind that since I was having so much fun with the read. I really enjoyed this first installment in what looks to be an upcoming trilogy and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book and...let's be honest here...anything else TJ Klune happens to write.

I have many feelings, the first one being: TJ Klune is an absolute gift for this world. I'm honestly so happy he's coming to the dark side of the force (YA) because it means more people will be able to discover his books and see how talented he is, and we stan:) my second feeling is: I'd give my life for Nick and Seth (and can I please kick Rebecca Firestone in the face?)

okay, let's be serious. this book was the funniest thing I've read in a very long time (I'm talking about full belly laugh) while still talking about serious matters, such as death of a parent, grief, living with a disorder and, you know, saving the world:) I fell in love with it right from the start. Nick is such a lovable character even when he's being annoying, and his entire group of friends made my heart melt. I'm so so very excited for the rest of the trilogy!!!!!!

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.

I honestly didn’t expect to like this book so much. I’m usually more into more adult-themed stories, but something about this title just drew me in. It tells a story about Nick - boy with ADHD, deeply rooted into the fandom culture *wink to the fanfiction writers out there* and and his group of friends. They live in a world where superheroes are kind of real. They’re the ones called “Extraordinaries”.

As for the plot - it was mostly predictable. From the very beginning it was rather obvious where the story was going and there was a lot of foreshadowing for it thrown here and there by the author. Although I knew what was going to happen I really loved getting to know the characters and discovering the relationship dynamics between them. The friendship between Nick and Seth was so adorable and I just couldn’t keep myself from falling in love with them. Moreover I was pleasantly surprised by older characters presented in the story. The relationship Nick had with his dad was so endearing and I appreciate so much how it was portrayed by the author.
There’s a lot of LGBT representation in here. You actually feel like you’re in some kind of alternative universe because of how full of tolerance the society is and how it’s lacking homophobic behaviours which I found so refreshing.

The book is also very dialogue driven. It’s full of witty banter, which was sometimes too much for me and I think some of the more serious scenes would do much better without (although I understand it has much to do with Nick’s character and his inability to keep his mouth shut). And I have to admit some jokes just rubbed me in the wrong way.
What’s more, it was sometimes hard for me to understand the behavior of some characters because it was really childish and immature - as if they were a couple of years older than they are.
We also didn't get much history on the Extraordinaries and I hope we'll get more details about in the next book.

All in all it was a fun, very entertaining read, touching some important subjects that teenagers but also older readers can definitely relate to. I cannot wait for the second book in the series and see how the story will unfold!

If you love superheroes, hilarious comebacks and conversations you’ll definitely enjoy yourself!
Thank you for putting your trust in me and providing me with an arc of this book!

**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.