Funny, poignant, and absolutely real this book made me laugh and cry! Not only is this alternate world blended so well with our own, but the characters are well-rounded and undeniably relatable.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Extraordinaries! I loved every single supporting character so much. I was really invested once Nick's dad ended up in the hospital, and I was hooked until the very end.

I did, however, find it frustrating that Nick was so clueless to all the evidence laid out so obviously in the book. I know it was addressed towards the end after the Extraordinaries' identities were revealed, but it made me not take him too seriously as the main character. I thought if the evidence was going to be that obvious to the reader, Nick should have figured it out or speculated about it a lot sooner. On the other hand, if Nick was having a hard time figuring it out, then the reader should have had to work to figure it out too.

But I really did enjoy the plot, and I love the setup for the next book. I will definitely keep reading this series!

I absolutely enjoyed this book. It was even better on the audio as Michael Lesley continues to bring TJ's books to life. The comedy int this reminded me of his Tales of Verania series so at times it did get a bit tiring but I really enjoyed the fanfiction element to it as well and the relationships of the characters. Only thing i didnt enjoy was the depiction of cops and police brutality which TJ has already addressed now. I am greatly looking forward to the next book in the series

Extraordinaries was a great start to the series. I've been a fan of Klune for a while and I really enjoyed reading his first YA novel.
I really liked that, even though the plot points were predictable sometimes. it wasn't bothersome, because Nick was so oblivious and the dramatic irony of knowing what he didn't actually made the book more enjoyable.

In the Extraordinaries we follow Nick, a boy obsessed with everything Extraordinary-related (and with a plan to become one himself) while he navigates high school and relationships.

My first encounter with TJ Klune couldn’t have gone better. I had heard amazing things about the author, and I can confirm that his writing has that special quality that makes you want to continue turning the pages until you reach the end. I read the book in two sittings, that’s how addictive this book is.
The humor was one of the strongest points of the novel, I had a smile on my face for the most part of my time reading it (although some tears might have also been shed in the process.) Not only that, but Klune’s ability to touch on sensitive topics with so much respect and empathy made me connect even more with the characters. And oh, the characters! I loved Nick and his friends a great deal. I really enjoyed how supportive they were of Nick and their dynamics during the events that ensue.

I could not ask for more, action, superheroes, great sense of humor and amazing characters, and let me tell you: that ending! I cannot wait to read the next book in the series because the end will have you wanting more.

Okay this review is going to be short and sweet because honestly it just doesn't need more than this.... READ IT. It so wonderful, and magical. A perfect escape from the crazy world we live in now. I laughed, cried and felt a need so great i thought my heart would break. I honestly cannot say more. I'm gonna yell at everyone to pick up this book.

Between the slow burn and the charming awkwardness of this story, it just made me feel so fuzzy inside. i read contemporary in the midst of a bunch of high-action fantasy things at a time, and I'm always reminded of how light and giggly it makes me feel. It was something that greatly reminded me of what it's like to feel ordinary to everyone but that one person who makes you feel like a little more than that.

TWs: Police glorification, mention of police brutality, child abuse, grief.

I love superheroes, I have since I was a child. It doesn't matter how dark it is, how campy it gets or if things aren't as black and white as they seem to be, I love it. I'm always up for reading superhero novels, so when I heard that T.J. Klune's YA debut was going to be about superheroes, I was excited. I hadn't read anything of his before this, but Carol (@bookish_notes) is a huge fan of his, so I had been planning on picking up his novels for a while now, since she has EXCELLENT taste. And I absolutely loved it.

The Extraordinaries follows Nick, a fanfiction writer and fanboy with a crush on his city's superhero, Shadow Star. After he meets his idol, he decides to try to get powers to become another hero and love interest to Shadow Star, all while navigating high school, friendships and crushes with ADHD.

I loved this book, I stayed up all night once I hit the 6th chapter, I just had to know what was going to happen next. I loved Nick and his obliviousness to what was going on around him, and his enthusiasm for whatever he was focusing on. The way he and Seth had been pining after each other softened my cold, dead heart, and I loved how much Gibby and Jazz loved each other too.

I loved this book, Klune decided not to shy away from the campy aspects of superheroes, and by making little jabs here and there about parallels between his world and other well known superheroes, The Extraordinaries stayed self aware in a way that grounded it to our reality. Unfortunately, it wasn't the only part of the book that reminded me of reality. Nick's dad is a cop, and the way the story is written, the police force is glorified as a bunch of heroes. It was hard to read, especially with what's currently going on at the moment, and it's definitely going to be triggering to some people. I understand why Klune did it, the contrast between heroes and vigilantes is always an interesting dynamic, and to put Nick in-between that makes the plot more complex, but it's something that could, and should, have been left out. He made a statement shortly after the book came out about how he's planning on changing things for the rest of the series, which you can read here:

http://www.tjklunebooks.com/new-blog/2020/7/29/a-message-about-the-extraordinaries

Personally, I deeply enjoyed The Extraordinaries, since I'm used to working around copaganda in media, but I understand it's something others aren't going to be able to do. Excluding that aspect, the book was laugh out loud, romantic and really captured the chaos of being a teen and not knowing what to do with your feelings (and to be honest, it sort of did for my older self too). If you're a fan of superheroes, best friends to lovers or are looking for OwnVoices ADHD rep, this book is for you!

I never before read anything by TJ Klune somehow, even though I bought another one of his books way back, but then I got approved for this ARC. I had a couple of harder reading weeks, where everything just felt like a chore and the last books I read were so depressing, so I chose to get into this one and it was the best choice I could have made.

The Extraordinaries is one of these books that I read and I'm just so insanely happy a story like this is out in the world. This is a book filled to the brim with queer characters and none of them have to explain their sexuality, they just are unapologetically themselves and this is exactly what I love to see.

The story resolves around Nick, who is one of the funniest POV characters I read in a while. So many interactions are just outright hilarious and I just loved the whole ensemble of characters. I loved reading about this superhero world and the story went to surprising depths. It's overall just very well written and everyone works so amazing together.

I can recommend reading his to basically everyone. It's funny yet it feels so real and goes to some real dark places as well. I really can't wait to continue this series.

Superheroes, queers, friends, family, and ACTION.
TJ Klune doesn't disappoint. The level of obliviousness in this book is nerve-wracking but in the best possible way.
You will fall in love with quirky Nick and all of his amazing friends. You will laugh, cry, laugh again, and then cry some more.
Once you start reading it's really hard to put the book down; there is a good balance of interactions between the characters and the action. Also, Nick's monologues and trains of thoughts are something I lived for - fast, hilarious, and at times, a little heartbreaking.
I would recommend it to anyone who's ever been into superheroes, teenage dramas, and teenage shenanigans in general. You will not be bored!

I received a copy of The Extraordinaries from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loooove books about superheroes and when I saw Tyler Klune was releasing this book, I knew I had to read it! Nick was such a funny, awkward fan boy and I absolutely loved him. He came off really immature at times, but not all teenagers are so poised and mature so it didn't really bother me much. It made me laugh. I also really appreciated seeing representation of ADHD. I rarely see it portrayed in books and never see it portrayed accurately. I also have ADHD and it's always presented challenges, but now as an adult, it can be especially very confusing and frustrating and it was nice to see similarities that I shared with Nick when I was a teenager and even into adulthood. Overall, this was a fun and light read and I enjoyed it!

The Extraordinaries had everything I could want in a story- superheros, fan fiction and queer boys. I loved everything about this book. The writing was fantastic and I laughed so many times while reading it! I also loved that we also got the actually fan fiction stories as well. I have only read one other book from this author, but I must get everything else he has written as soon as possible!

5⭐️

I let this one sit for a hot minute before reviewing and the more I thought about it, the more I loved it and decided it gets the rare 5 stars from me. TJ Klune is very quickly and very deservedly becoming one of my all time favorite authors. He can do no wrong in my eyes.

You know the kind of book where you look like a total goof nugget reading it because you’re grinning from ear to ear the entire time? That’s this whole book in a sentence. I’m smiling thinking about it while typing this review.

I also think that this friend group is totally the type of group I would’ve hung out with in high school and I just kinda wanna hang out with them now too? They’re gay af, they read and write fanfic, they’re part of the dead parents club, and their sense of humor is so quick witted and so right up my alley. Basically I just want to put them all in my pocket forever.

Okay so book summary, in this world super heroes are real and our MC Nick is Obsessed™️ with one named ShadowStar, so obsessed he may even have a pillow with his face on it but in a totally casual way. One day he gets saved by him and decides he wants to try and get superpowers to make ShadowStar fall in love with him too and he drags his friends into his shenanigans. And yes, shenanigans do indeed follow.

My only complaint is that Nick was a tiny bit annoying with how goddamn oblivious he was the entire time. But Seth is a precious cinnamon roll and I would literally die for him, so that makes up for it.

Also great rep here for ADHD and lgbtq relationships.

TW: grieving the loss of a parent

PSA: the audiobook narrator was AMAZING and literally brought this book to life for me before my very eyes (ears?).

I was very excited to read TJ Klune's first venture into YA. I'm a fan of his Green Creek series and while I haven't always agreed with the length of his novels he rarely goes wrong while writing colourful and empathetic characters. So it's always disappointing to just like a book and not love it the way you hoped you would. The positives : I appreciated the father-son dynamic in this book. The sweetness of that relationship - Klune really goes the length in writing loving relationships between men whether romantic, platonic and familial. I also appreciated the exploration of Nick's specific non neurotypical struggles and the sensitivity given to it. I like the motley crew of queer friends, you can always rely on Klune to make his worlds full of queerness.

The trouble for me is the plotting, the superhero storyline picks up way too late to have any meaningful impact. Nick's relationships with Seth while sweet was a bit undercooked for me, perhaps because Seth was absent a lot during the story. He's also a bit of an enigma and I'm not sure if that's because of the plotting or because his character is underwritten. The mark of a great romance is TWO strong characters (if the romance is between two that is) and in Extraordinaries, Nick overwhelms Seth in both impact and character. The world is designed for Nick it seems, and Seth is but one feature. That is fine for a YA book about superheroes but maybe not for a teen romance? I am thinking of Carry On in comparison which has a lot of action but a very compelling romance at its heart. Still, this is a first book in a series so I will be reading the follow up because Klune is a good writer and he's shown his chops in weaving a continuing storyline through many books (Seriously read Green Creek).

I read the final copy and the book is such a fun read. The digital copy was archived much before I could download it but now I can tell this book is totally worth a shot

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Teens for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I read and absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with The House in the Cerulean Sea earlier this year, which catapulted T.J. Klune onto my auto-buy/auto-read list. So here we are.

The Extraordinaries is the queer superhero book we didn’t realize we needed. It’s packed with a slow burn romance, a protagonist with ADHD, and enough laughs to make you cry … which makes for a really good cover when the actual feels make you cry.

This was the first book in a series that I will absolutely be continuing, even though I’m not really knocking down any doors to get the next one. Which is a feeling I kind of love? The ending of this book wraps it up nicely enough where I feel satisfied, with a little bit of a nudge towards the next book to give me something to be excited about, without making my soul wither and die while waiting for the outcome of some giant cliffhanger. My soul withered and died for other reasons while reading this, thank you very much.

My Thoughts:

- Right out of the gate, I want to make it clear that Nick was basically me as a teenager, so when I say how much I loved him, I’m probably biased. If I had known T.J. Klune as a teenager, I would 100% be convinced that he based Nick off of me. Nick’s voice is legitimately one of the reasons I enjoyed this so much, because he’s funny and so very relatable, and it really brought me back to my teen years. What that means for current YA-age readers, though, is that Nick is very relatable. He struggles with common problems, like an embarrassing father who tries to give him "the talk", attraction, romance, struggling to figure out who he is and who he wants to be, and just overall trying to figure himself out. He makes for a super strong protagonist, and even when the plot itself was a little slow, Nick carried the book for me and made it a joy to read every second.

- This book really begs the question, “Can you die from secondhand embarrassment?” The answer is a firm maybe. This goes back to Nick’s relatability. Because he’s so relatable, his (frequent, sometimes extreme) embarrassment is almost contagious. This comes across in so many ways: his impulsivity, his naivety, his general awkwardness. There were times where I completely saw where this was headed, and I was right there with his friends shouting, “Nicky, no!”

- The relationship between Nick and his father is so fantastic, and can we get more of this in YA, please? In case you were wondering, parents don’t have to be dead in order for YA books to happen. Nick’s father is the parent I hope to be one day, when my daughter is a teenager, because they’re super close, but he’s also not afraid of embarrassing the crap out of his son. Their interactions in the beginning of the book, especially, had me just dying from laughing so hard. Is that a thing? Not the worst way to go, I suppose. But then, a flip switches so hard, and out of nowhere, BAM, I’m blindsided by feels. And oh, the feels, guys! The family bonds here are just *chef’s kiss*.

- This book packs a lot of different rep into it, and it does it with a sort of grace. There’s the obvious one: the fact that Nick is queer, which happens to be #OwnVoices for this author. His best friends also happen to be lesbians (not all that surprising), and one is black. I thought these were all handled well, though most aren’t really my wheelhouse to speak to. The rep that I really enjoyed, though, was the ADHD rep. I don’t get to read many books with ADHD protagonists, especially not from a positive lens, so the #OwnVoices ADHD rep in this book was a breath of fresh air. I’ll be honest and upfront: if you don’t have ADHD and haven’t really interacted with anyone with ADHD, there are parts of this that can feel choppy or jumpy when you read it. The beautiful thing, though, is that’s just how an ADHD brain works. I think this does a great job in keeping things coherent, but also describing the general randomness that can come with ADHD. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like, this is a great place to start.

- There’s a slow-burn M/M romance, but also some strong friendship bonds, and I was so into both. The two opposing dynamics of love were different and yet the same, and it was such an interesting dichotomy. I do so love slow-burn romances. There’s a lot of different forms of love in this book: between friends, between family, romantic love, crushes (sometimes unrequited), and even hero worship/idolization, and it was really interesting to see how they all grow and change. Love is hard. Any kind of love. So the fact that aaaall of these different relationships are called into question during Nick’s arc makes for some delicious drama and character growth.

- This book is half coming of age, half superheroes, and all heart. Being the first in a series, this introduces the world, where there is, in fact, superheroes (called Extraordinaries), but it’s only touched on surface level in this book. I’m looking forward to the other books delving more into that here, but if you’re looking for a straight-up superhero book, this isn’t it. Somehow, this book manages to blend superheroes with a queer romance and a coming-of-age story and just makes it freaking work in a way that left me wanting more. It was easy to root for Nick and want his arc to finally come to fruition, but sometimes things have to be torn down in order to grow stronger. Poor Nick goes through a lot in this book, as do his friends, but that just made the last quarter of the book all the sweeter.

I did not finish this because I cannot stomach any sort of empathetic view towards police right now. We have enough propaganda surrounding this deeply racist, violent, militarized organization called police. I read other reviews on Goodreads to make sure I wasn’t jumping to any conclusions - grateful for the readers who were transparent about this. Such a disappointment.

This was my first time reading a book by TJ Klune and I’m so glad that I was allowed to read The Extraordinaries! I’ve really been loving LGBTQ+ YA recently and this definitely lived up to the expectations.

You have a world of heroes and a world where our main character Nick Bell writes fanfiction! This already peaked my interest because I love reading fanfiction and find it funny when it’s mentioned in books! He writes about one hero in particular: Shadow Storm!

Like all fanfiction writers, Nick writes himself into the story which is so relatable! I adore how TJ had the fanfiction starting the story following by comments. My life in a nutshell!

The Extraordinaries not only touches on LGBTQ+ but the motives behind people and not judging a ‘book by its cover’. There is more to a person than at first glance and you never know what could change a person.

I thought the connection between Nick and his friends was hilarious and I sometimes wanted to slap a particular person. Sometimes the story was a little cheesy or obvious but it was still great to read!

I loved how unique and fun this book was, can't wait to read more by this author! I loved and connected with most of the characters and the writing was a dream!

Yes, this was cheesy and over-the-top, and yes it was a little cringe, but I also think all of those words could describe high school! This was a fun yet predictable story, and I will likely pick up the sequel.