REVIEWED by Jay V.

TITLE: The Extraordinaries

AUTHOR: TJ Klune

SERIES: The Extraordinaries #1

PUBLISHER: Tor Teen

LENGTH: 400 pages

RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2020

BLURB:

Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra.

Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life).

REVIEW:

It’s tough being a teen boy, especially one with ADHD. Balancing school, social life, and writing prolific fanfiction while keeping track of the actions of superheroes and villains throughout his city, life can be hard. Nick Bell now really want to be an Extraordinary, a superhero with special abilities. With the reluctant help of his friends, he’s going to try to get there.

TJ Klune is tackling the superhero/comic book world and it’s so much fun! His take is from the perspective of Nick, who dreams of becoming a superhero to ultimately get the attention of Shadow Star, his crush and the central star of his fanfiction writing, though he’s never met his hero. With whatever extraordinary ability he can get, Nick will help fight the evil villain, Pyro Storm. He’s also trying to start his new school year without getting in trouble, the last year’s problems partially being caused by the bad influence of his now ex, Owen.  Nick has great friends – the lesbian couple Gibby & Jazz plus his childhood best friend, Seth, who he may or may not have feelings for but he can’t really decide. Now he’s suddenly in a situation that his superhero helps save him, and the story starts to unfold.

Told with light humor and some teenage angst, Klune spins his wonderful first YA novel – smart, clever, and never talking down. There are some mentions of sex and their language isn’t the best, but this is mild compared to what teens have to deal with today. The humbling aspect of the story is that there is no dealing with characters coming out as queer, they just are and the parents/family accept it, dealing with these characters aspects that are universal to teens – keep your door open when friends are over, here’s a banana to give you a demonstration, etc., and embarrassing kids just like parents are supposed to do.  That alone makes it great – that our young people have an opportunity to read queer literature that wasn’t widely available even 10 years ago.

There are some surprises, though other parts you can sense what is coming, and it takes itself serious enough that lives are at stake but doesn’t overdo the epic universe life-changing drama that has permeated many recent superhero films.  This is a smaller setting though there are amazing big battles, but it still is grounded in reality, as much as a superhero story can be. And adding the layer of Nick’s cluelessness and ADHD, Klune gives a nuance and voice to people growing up with the disorder – it becomes much more clear what someone who is truly affected is feeling and how it influences their behavior, including how prescription drugs can help or not help. Even in the real world of over-prescribed ADHD drugs, the book really throws light on the subject that some people truly need them to help function better.

Klune also gets a chance to take a stab at both making fun of and honoring fanfic, something that his books have fallen under (don’t venture in to tumblr, twitter, and other sites that have are dedicated to his writing unless you are prepared to read/see things…). He voices Nick’s fanfic with the subtle nuances and obviousness of a teenage queer boy writer, which makes the breaks where you read his fanfic chapters an amusing diversion. For the hardcore Klune fans, there are some subtle Easter eggs to his other books, as always, but this not the same universe as any of his other novels/series, so it’s not quite a direct line.  I also love that there’s several pop references, especially comic hero stories and including picking up several phrases from one of my all-time favorite TV series about a certain vampire slayer.  I think there’s enough diversity in the pop references that you’ll find at least one to coo about.

As always, Klune’s writing is sharp and it’s not dumbed down for it’s target audience – it even sent me to a dictionary for one word. This is what good YA writing should be, and it’s only Klune’s first foray in to this genre, though we had a nice warm up with The House on the Cerulean Sea, which is a book universal to all ages. The Extraordinaries is book one in the series and there’s a pretty clean wrap up at the end, with a post-epilogue bonus chapter hinting at what’s to come. I know that some people like to wait until all the books in a series are finished, but it’s worth it to read now because it’s just that good. Plus, it’s a long time until 2021.

RATING:  

BUY LINK: 

amazon