The Extraordinaries: An astonishing young adult superhero fantasy from the author of The House on the Cerulean Sea

Omygod. Is it any wonder I love.. absolutely love TJ Klune!I just couldn’t stop laughing and grinning and chuckling while reading this book. It is so.. so funny and hilarious!There are superheroes - well Extraordinaries in Nova City - Shadow star and Pyro storm. 16-year-old Nick with anxiety issues and ADHD is super crazy about these heroes and he writes fanfiction about them. He has a huge and I mean huge crush on Shadow Star and hates Pyro Storm with equal passion. Lucky for him, Shadow Star swoops in and rescues him from one messy situation and from thereon he makes up his mind to become extraordinary and so he enlists the help of his hilarious and crazy friends to become one. Seth, cute and adorable Seth is his childhood best friend. He was always in love with Nick but somehow it was obvious to everyone but Nick.Nick omygod Nick! He is downright funny and witty and hilarious! I love the way he thinks, the way he communicates and the ridiculous way he talks. I just loved everything about this 16-year-old boy. And adorable Seth, he is super smart, intelligent, a nerd really. I loved the way he cared about Nick and was always well almost always there for him. And then his absolutely amazingly hilarious friends - Jazz and Gibby. They both are ahhwesome and exactly what friends are supposed to be!! Oh and yes Nick’s dad.. He is a super Dad really!My only issue with this book is that there should have been more of Seth. It was like I was eagerly waiting for him to appear in the book but he hardly ever does. I wanted to read more of Seth and Nick and I really missed it. Hopefully, I will get to read it in the sequel of the book. Also, the storyline I felt was unnecessarily stretched.This book is not only about romance but also about family, friends and the pain of losing someone. I love… love the way TJ writes. And this book is no different.Hilarious, so hilarious, heartwarming and adorable read. Absolutely recommend!

Just loved it! Strongly recommend this for LGBT YAs as it has a gay and a lesbian coupling in it;The characters are well drawn out and the writing is funny and sentimental.Got chocked up quite a few times and laughed out loud many times!While the primary relationship is long drawn out, it does have a lovely satisfactory ending.The relationship between the protagonist and his father is just heart warmingly beautiful.Wish I had novels like this when I was growing up. Glad it's out there now!

This book is the best antidepressant you could ever have- it made me laugh so hard I fell off my bed several times. Nicky is an adorable goofball and Seth is an absolute sweetheart, and I'd die for both of them. The romance was the fluffiest, the characters were all really well fleshed out, and the plot was incredible. Also, that ending??? I can't wait to see what's in store for us in the second book!

Sometimes, the people we want to protect the most might not understand why we do the things we do. But that doesn't mean they love us any less. Only you can decide where your faith lies.When I picked up this book I didnt thought I would love this so much: T J Klune's humor is always *chef's kiss* This was one of my picks for pride-month-reads, and I was a little hesitant because I'm not a fan of fanfictions, superheroes, or teen romance, but I was hooked from the first chapter.Nick is fascinated with Extraordinaries to the point of creating a self-insert fanfiction, and because of his ADHD, he's blind to a lot of other things going on around him, including his blossoming crush on his best friend Seth, who might also be the love of his life; but hush! Nick doesn't know that, not yet, but everyone else around him does.The queer romance in this story, along with superheroes (the main reason most of us are reading this book) is amazing. Calling it amazing would be an understatement, but, well, I am not a fan of teen romance. But here, it's a slow burn, and it is stunning and it made my heart pound in my chest. The plot is not so serious, it's an easy read, but reading each line of the story was such a joy and at times I was laughing so hard that I got glares from my nosy cousins.Our MC, Nick is a speaking, walking disaster. He's a dork, he is naive. He hyper fixated on things and doesn't stop talking sometimes; when he actually should have. He got no filters. I've never seen a 16-year-old (well, we are the same age *penguin dance*) be so naive and childish with their ideas; it seemed surreal at first, but it would never make him unlikable (later research on his mental condition said that this is likely to happen to someone with ADHD). I thoroughly enjoyed laughing at Nick's personal thoughts. They're both hilarious and witty, and I loved the banter between the characters, and at moments I had to hold back on my emotions because it was heartwrenching.Nick loved his dad, more than anyone in (t)his world. After his mother was killed, they were each other's everything; strength and weakness. The dialogue between Nick and Aaron, his dad, was often funny, if a little ridiculous for me, but it didn't stop me from chuckling. It was touching almost as frequently as it was humorous. Seth is Nick's best friend and his biggest supporter and comfort, and Nick's two girl-friends, Gibby and Jass, were, well, girlfriends and lesbians.Blinded by his obsession and his train of thoughts, he was oblivious to most of the things and he is now inspired by his own fanfiction to become extraordinary himself. Told ya, Nick is extra and maybe, extraordinary.Seth. I'm not sure what to say about him, but he has my entire heart. It was heartwarming to see what he did only because he promised to the "love of his life." (I was sniffing my nose; hey, it was emotional!) I'd want to read the entire tale from his pov. (Just kidding, no, no, joking, well, maybe...)Gibby and Jass: just so you both know, I am your biggest shipper and will root for you both for the rest of my life. Gibby is, well, Gibby, a sharp witter, and Jass is snarky and lovely, deserving of every nice compliment known to humankind up to this moment.And Nick's conversations with Officer Rookie were hilarious, had me climbing the walls.It would be an understatement to say that I was blown away by this book. It's amusing; I couldn't stop laughing. For me, the fact that it is a neurodiverse was a huge plus. It's rare to find a novel with a solid ADHD representation, let alone one with the main character who has ADHD and is also gay. It's not something that's mentioned here and there, but it's there throughout the novel and was a delight to read.A big highlight of the book for me was the relationship between Nick and his friends; Jazz, Gibby, and Seth. Nick will do everything he sets his mind to, and no one will be able to stop him. His ideas are crazy, but his friends, despite their teasing, love him and support him no matter what. When it comes down to it, they are there for him in good times and bad. Nick and Seth's bond, in particular, was incredibly heartwarming. It's complicated, but oh so delightful. Seth will do anything for Nick, and although Seth's feelings for him are obvious to everyone else, Nick is completely unaware of it. Without giving too much away, they are a wonderful couple, and I enjoyed reading their story.You don't have to be a superhero fan to enjoy this book, but if you like that genre mixed with YA fiction, I'm confident you'll enjoy it.After the Epilogue, there was one final chapter titled Stung. I'm still not sure if this was a preview for a sequel or simply a brilliant conclusion to The Extraordinary. My hunch is that it was the latter, but whatever it was, it worked wonders for me. And now I'm desperate to get my hands on the next book.

T J Klune has been one of those authors that everyone has been raving about over the last couple of years. Even though I wanted to read House Of The Cerulean Sea, there was something about The Extraordinaries that captured my attention. It was everything I wanted it to be, and I am sad that I read a great book at the start of the year.I have to admit that when I first started to read it, there was a disconnect with the story, and I did not love it. I left it alone a bit and came back to the story again, and it was like something clicked. The writing style and T J Klune's voice is so distinct and funny that it draws you in. Once I was immersed in the story, I found it so hard to leave. This especially happened towards the end of the book, as I just had to know what happened.One of the majors draws to the story has to be the audiobook. The narrator, Michael Lesley, does a great job of bringing the characters and the story to life. So scenes were so well-done that I was laughing out loud. This is also a credit to T J Klune's writing of course.I am a major fan of superhero stories which was a big plus point for me, and I think justice is done to the genre. The story is really grounded. Even though it is set in Nova City, Nick is really relatable and is basically a massive ball of chaotic gay energy. I also think that it is at its heart a superhero story but still manages to keep the stakes quite low. No mythic alien came down in the final acts, and all the tension is built up previously.I loved seeing the plot evolve and progress over the story, and I think it has to be one of the only superhero stories that wanted you to know the secrets before the characters. I managed to guess a couple of reveals quite early on, and I think this was there to reinforce Nick as a character.The story also focuses on family and friendship, and all of these are so well-developed throughout. I loved the relationship between Nick and his Dad and how it evolved over the book through some events. The friendship was also great, and I especially loved Gibby and their involvement in the plotline.It is also less common to get gay characters at the focus of the story, and The Extraordinaries does that which I loved. Nick also has ADHD, which was really great to see although I can't speak for the representation. Also, Nick goes on a journey throughout, and I loved how flawed he was. I think we can see the main protagonists perfect, but Nick develops so much over the course of the novel and makes so many mistakes that were great to read about.Basically, I loved this book and the epilogue/ post-credits scene, left some answers open, and I can't wait to see what happens in Flash Fire!The Verdict:The Extraordinaries is a fun and entertaining superhero story featuring chaotic gay vibes with a lot of heart.

Although I enjoyed The Extraordinaries on the whole, there were a few too many occasions where I had to suspend my disbelief to make it work (none of them to do with the fantasy elements of the story, I should add). The novel was also maybe 25% too long at 400 pages when it was clear from about 100 pages in who the superheroes really were and what was going on. The story still delivers a couple of clever twists, and the characters are as well-drawn and engaging as any of the author's creations, but overall things felt a little drawn out, without enough variety to justify it. Timings seemed to be a bit off a couple of times as well, and I'm not sure I swallowed the main character being quite that unobservant, ADHD or otherwise. But then this all sounds a lot more negative than my overall impression of the novel - which, as I said, was still very enjoyable and well written by the author.

Wow! This book is amazing the humour perfect, the 2 MC’s perfect, the supporting cast perfect. The whole book is just sweet perfection! A must read for everybody. Another knockout addition to this author’s collection. 5*’s is not enough award for this book it’s outstanding Xx

It's an amazing book that follows Nick, a gay young boy with ADHD and has an obsession with Shadow Star, the local superhero. Nick and Seth's relationship was very well written and it was very easy to see why they were drawn to each other and why they like each other. I liked Nick's experience with ADHD as it felt very accurate to see and it's nice reading about neurodivergent main characters in YA fiction.

I’m much older than what I presume is the target audience for this book but it’s a genuinely lovely gay-themed superhero adventure with characters that you want to spend time with