Superheroes and Teenage Angst! What More Could You Want?
Looking for a mix of superheroes and teenage drama? If yes, this is the book for you! This story follows Nick, an openly gay, 16-year-old, junior in high school. Nick is an Extraordinaries super fan, who writes fan-fiction about Shadow Starr and his arch nemesis, Pyro Storm - real life superhero and villain in Nova City, where Nick lives. His world gets turned upside down as Nick tries to become an Extraordinary, with the help of his friends, Gibby and Jazz, his ex-boyfriend, Owen, and his best friend and possible love of his life, Seth.
This novel was a quick and engaging read. I loved that this story depicted an openly-LGBTQ friend group. There are a lot of stories where an LGBTQ characters will be the side-kick or there is one gay character among a group of straight friends. This was refreshing and I am glad that books like this exist for young people today. Nick and Seth's relationship was so cute and I found myself rooting for them from the very beginning. I also really enjoyed Gibby and Jazz. They were interesting and super supportive of Nick and Seth.
Given current events, I was a little turned off by how police-heavy this story was. Nick's dad is a police officer in Nova City and Nick is an aspiring detective. I get that this was a novel about superheroes but the police narrative seemed unrealistic and seemed to glorify police officers. The police officers in the book make jokes here and there about abuses of power that made me cringe. This was probably my least favorite part of the book.
Nick has ADHD and because of this, he talks a lot and jumps from topic to topic. It makes the story a little difficult to follow at times but also adds to his character. Nick also seems to be completely oblivious to very obvious things, which at first seemed kind of cute, but became a little obnoxious as the story went on. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was unique and fun! Looking forward to the second book in the series.
This novel was a quick and engaging read. I loved that this story depicted an openly-LGBTQ friend group. There are a lot of stories where an LGBTQ characters will be the side-kick or there is one gay character among a group of straight friends. This was refreshing and I am glad that books like this exist for young people today. Nick and Seth's relationship was so cute and I found myself rooting for them from the very beginning. I also really enjoyed Gibby and Jazz. They were interesting and super supportive of Nick and Seth.
Given current events, I was a little turned off by how police-heavy this story was. Nick's dad is a police officer in Nova City and Nick is an aspiring detective. I get that this was a novel about superheroes but the police narrative seemed unrealistic and seemed to glorify police officers. The police officers in the book make jokes here and there about abuses of power that made me cringe. This was probably my least favorite part of the book.
Nick has ADHD and because of this, he talks a lot and jumps from topic to topic. It makes the story a little difficult to follow at times but also adds to his character. Nick also seems to be completely oblivious to very obvious things, which at first seemed kind of cute, but became a little obnoxious as the story went on. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was unique and fun! Looking forward to the second book in the series.