The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune is about a queer teenager with ADHD that is obsessed with the real-life superhero Shadow Star and his archnemesis Pyro Storm. We get to follow him and his also queer best friends as well as his ex-maybe-boyfriend as they move through their days together. The main character Nick bell is fascinated by the Extraordinaries that call his city home and is an avid writer of fan-fiction about them and a non-Extraordinary citizen that bears a remarkably similar name to his own. Throughout the story, you can see how his priorities shift from being self-centered to caring more about those around him and as the transformation takes place, his writings do not seem quite as important and action-worthy anymore as his real life.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I absolutely adore it for its representation of the queer community as well as those with ADHD. I would recommend it just for that alone already as I believe we need a lot more representation in many different areas. The writing itself though did not excite me as much. I do not mind the writing of the fanfic as much as it is written by a love-struck teenager who may not care as much about the writing style and fancy words as he does about the action itself in his story. The rest of the book though reminds me more of a middle-grade novel rather than a YA book. There is too much sexual commentary in the book for it to be an actual middle-grade novel though so I see why it would not be marketed that way. I found it very simplistic and the ending was easy to predict right from the start. I also want to point out though that I myself do not have ADHD so I do not know if that drove part of the reason for this writing style (I did enjoy the rambling a lot). Overall, despite the things that I did not enjoy, I do have to admit that I found this book highly entertaining and laughed out loud many times. While Nick seemed rather immature for his age (especially emotionally), I did love his friend group a lot. Gibby was my favorite character and I hope we get a lot about her in the next novel.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I absolutely adore it for its representation of the queer community as well as those with ADHD. I would recommend it just for that alone already as I believe we need a lot more representation in many different areas. The writing itself though did not excite me as much. I do not mind the writing of the fanfic as much as it is written by a love-struck teenager who may not care as much about the writing style and fancy words as he does about the action itself in his story. The rest of the book though reminds me more of a middle-grade novel rather than a YA book. There is too much sexual commentary in the book for it to be an actual middle-grade novel though so I see why it would not be marketed that way. I found it very simplistic and the ending was easy to predict right from the start. I also want to point out though that I myself do not have ADHD so I do not know if that drove part of the reason for this writing style (I did enjoy the rambling a lot). Overall, despite the things that I did not enjoy, I do have to admit that I found this book highly entertaining and laughed out loud many times. While Nick seemed rather immature for his age (especially emotionally), I did love his friend group a lot. Gibby was my favorite character and I hope we get a lot about her in the next novel.