The Extraordinaries || The main character is me

Title: The Extraordinaries
Author: T.J. Klune
Year Published: 2020
Publisher: Tor Teen
Genre: Young Adult ~ Fantasy ~ LGBQT+ characters ~  Romance

Stars: 4
Goodreads
Rep: Queer main characters. Medicated ADHD main character.
CW: Mentions of grief/death, violence, positive view of police. If I’ve missed other cws, please inform me.
Copy: E-arc

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc through Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. The image header and the quote edits used is my own and the link in the book’s details is to the book’s Goodreads’ page. All quotes given in the review are from the e-arc and therefore might not be accurate. The summary is my own (well, I summarised the Goodreads description). All opinions expressed are my own.

Nick Bell is awkward. But he’s that type of awkward who’s also a popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom. Don’t you think awkward is a weird word? Just look at it. Oh, what’s the Extraordinaries fandom? Extraordinaries is another word for people with superpowers. And fandom is an Internet term for like a fan community of a show or book. And fanfiction is where you write (or read) stories about the characters in the show/book/etc.

ANYWAY, back to the plot. Nick (finally) meets the superhero he’s been waxing poetic about, and realises he’s found what he wants to do in life. Become an Extraordinary and be together with Shadow Star.

But how will he do it all?

Goodreads says it’s a trilogy!!!! Which I’m very excited about! I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to see what the other books will hold. Especially after that ending! This post will be mostly be just rambling about how much I connected to the characters (well, mostly the main character). So it might be a bit long.

If you were wondering what on earth I was doing, rambling on in the summary; the main character (Nick) has ADHD. The book is ownvoices for its queer rep and the neurodiverse rep. I have ADHD, so I was pretty excited to see a MAIN character have it too. And while I can’t speak for medicated ADHD rep (because I haven’t been on meds since like high school), I do think it was great representation of how a person with ADHD thinks and reacts and speaks.

I have so so many notes in my Kindle that’s just ME in all caps and etc etc because I RELATED so much to the main character!! And that’s really really important for me (someday I’ll do a post on what makes or breaks a book for me) – to connect to a character and to relate to them. Nick was definitely one of them, what he said I felt. Like when he said something embarrassing and immediately regretted it? I’ve spent multiple nights thinking back to literally anything mildly embarrassing I’ve said in the past.

And when he rambles and goes on about x or y topic and other people are like… and they don’t exactly know what to do or say; or sometimes (and this does happen) that even your best or closest friends or family do say something rude about the ADHD. And it hurt Nick, and it hurt me as well. Because that is something that happens alll the time. I don’t think people really get how it affects our day-to-day life/living. There’s never a moment where my ADHD lets me like… rest. Not even at night, when I’m ‘trained’ to sleep. My brain is always on overdrive and multitasking and thinking and thinking and thinking.

But anyway! Let’s carry on from all the rambling. I loved the other characters. Seth 🥰🥰 Gibby and Jazz were super great. Just everyone I really loved?? Except Owen. I didn’t like him.

The plot? I had my thoughts, and then I switched my thoughts, and my second set of thoughts were right. Meaning, the plot was a bit transparent and I knew what was going to happen. Yes, Nick seemed like a bit of a dumb-dumb for not realising what was happening earlier, but then again that tied into his personality – which I loved a lot.

I loved the fic aspect (which I wished there could’ve been more of, like in Fangirl). I mean, the fact that it was past 200k and he was STILL writing is everything for me.

Yes, I did give the book 4 stars instead of 5. Unfortunately, that’s mostly due to (sometimes) the book did feel like it was taking too much inspiration from a fic, and being too much like a fanfic – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! At all! I love fics so much! But sometimes it can be a bad thing. Another reason why I gave it 4 and not 5, is because Nick’s dad is a police officer. And the book paints the job in a very good light and praises the police force without talking about the negative aspects of the career. And that’s a very unfortunate thing to do in this current time and environment.

But all in all, I really loved it and I can’t wait for the sequel! Go read it! Have you read this already? What did you think about it? Do you love fics being included in fiction books? If you were an Extraordinary, what power would you like? I’d take either teleportation or telekinesis; definitely not telepathy – I already have a lot of my OWN thoughts, I DON’T need other people’s thought as well – besides I have like 3 people’s worth of thoughts by myself. Tell me all down below in the comments!