Really Short Review: The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune

The Extraordinaries
(The Extraordinaries)
TJ Klune
Release: July 14, 2020
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Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune's YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves.

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).

Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl meets Marissa Meyer's Renegades in TJ Klune's YA debut.

Review:
Do you ever start a book that sounds like everything you love thrown together and then you just struggle reading it? This is what happened to me with The Extraordinaries. I wanted to love it so much because QUEER. SUPERHEROES! I think Teen Rose Red would have adored this because it is peak cheesy superhero comic book goodness but Adult Rose Red had issues.

I loved the fanfiction aspect of this book and I could get behind the humor and ADHD/anxiety rep. My problem was that I found the main character hard to take because he is a bit chaotic and whiny. And I struggled connecting with the book because of it. There was also a part of the book where Nick's actions felt a little out of character and it just dropped me out of the story. Also, the whole police force portion of this book felt pretty out of touch with current events and that made me super uncomfortable while reading.

I can't help but wonder if I would have enjoyed this book if I wasn't trying to read it while trying to teach online during a pandemic and trying to power through it when my brain wasn't in the right headspace for it. I know of several blogger and IRL friends who loved this so I might retry it in the future (maybe this next summer) on audio. 

Unfortunately, for now, this book wasn't for me.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

  1/2

  2.5 / 5 Stars