Book 762: The Extraordinaries (The Extraordinaries #1) – T.J. Klune

I think I found the natural successor to Perry Moore’s Hero. I honestly don’t remember that much about Hero, other than really loving it, but this definitely will stay with me longer.

I found this after someone blogged/Insta’d about Queer young adult books coming out in 2021 when the sequel, Flash Fire, will be released and it’s cover caught my attention so of course I looked into it saw there was a prequel and immediately requested it from this from the library.

I won’t lie, I struggled a bit to get into this as the protagonist, Nick, doesn’t tell stories in a linear fashion and that is ALWAYS a struggle for me.

‘And besides, everyone knows Superman is in love with Batman. Even though someone decided their ship name should be SuperBat rather than the golden opportunity that is ManMan. I mean, come on! How iconic would ManMan be? SuperBat sounds like something found in a dirty cave underneath a swamp.’ Nick frowned. ‘What are we talking about?’ (33)

He understood that it was complex. People had a hard time understanding the way his brain worked. Most days, he was on a completely different level, though he tried not to think that way too much because that made him sound like a conceited dick, and he really wasn’t. (126)

It’s revealed pretty early that Nick is neurodiverse and that’s why the story/narrative is the way it is and once I got used to it I fell in love with Nick and his friends.

Also, her wallet chain was bigger than the one she’d had before, and he wasn’t versed well enough in lesbian to know if that signified anything. (28)

That made Nick’s heart stumble in his chest. He thought he was going to cry again, but since he’d done it twice in as many days, he decided it was probably best if he tried to be a man for a while. Then he thought that was sexist, so he allowed another tear to spill onto his cheek. Nick was—and always would be—invested in dismantling the patriarchy. Tumblr had taught him that. (324)

‘We were never like them,’ Gabby snapped. ‘We’re queer women. We have some sense of decency.’ (390)

I LOVED the representation in this and am so incredibly jealous of the kids growing up these days with such diverse and representative young adult fiction (even if it has so much more to do). I loved that Nick talked about smashing the patriarchy and that Jazz and Gibby were confident in their identities and just bad ass women in general.

You catch on pretty fast that Nick’s best friend Seth is an extraordinary even if Nick is completely oblivious to it, and I caught on relatively quick that Owen was as well, but after that I flip-flopped back and forth between who was who and how it would all end up.

I was HERE for the awkward romance between Nick and Seth—hello kettle, my name is pot. It warmed my heart so much how adorkable they were and Gibby and Jazz letting them figure it out on their own with as little interference as possible so much yes! When I read this scene (I went back and read it multiple times), I teared up once, shouted yes another time, and just felt all the feels.

‘I’m going to date your nephew so hard,’ Nick told them. ‘We need to help him so I can tell him that. Also, I like his hair and the way he smells and how he makes me laugh. And he needs to wear bow ties forever because there is nothing in the world more adorable than Seth Gray in a bow tie.’
There. He felt better.
Jazz burst out laughing.
Gibby sat back in her chair, sighing as she stared up at the ceiling.
Martha and Bob were smiling.
‘What?’ Nick asked, confused. ‘What did I do?’
‘Seth heard you,’ Gibby said. ‘So. Good job on that one.’
‘He what now?’ Nick said, a sinking feeling in his stomach.
‘Uh. Hi, Nicky,’ Seth said, his voice cracking from a speaker next to the monitor. (349)

I mean after all the buildup this one scene really was the crescendo of the novel for me. There were others after that kept the high going, but this was it and the only way it could happen with an awkward, adorable, heartfelt confession of love. And this is really saying something because the major (not-unexpected) plot twist that happened at the end and was confirmed in the teaser has SOOOOO many implications for the future of Nick and Seth <3

Recommendation: I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet book. The first love/coming of age adorkable protagonist stories will ALWAYS get to me. There was so much to love about this book from the representation, from the sheer awkwardness of the protagonists growing from best friends to more (hopefully) and add in the nonchalant meta of the AU self-insert fanfiction within the story and I am here for it. I cannot wait for Flash Fire and will probably read this before that is released.

Opening Line: “Nate Belen wasn’t a damsel in distress, even if he was currently tied up on top of a bridge waiting for Shadow Star to save him.”

Closing Line: “What’s threatening the world this time and how can I help?” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from The Extraordinaries
“Gibby had decided she was a baby butch a while back, which led to her shaving her head and wearing a wallet chain. She made sure everyone know that if they called her Lola, they were getting a boot to the nuts. Anyone who hadn’t thought she was serious was corrected when a brainless jock had winked at her and she had done just that. He’d had to sit on an ice pack for a couple of days. Gibby got detention for a week.
It’d been worth it, or so she claimed. She said the world needed more Black dykes, and she wasn’t going to take shit from anyone anymore.”(26)

“He’d never forgiven Dad for that, especially since he’d made it clear he’d already known what condoms were. It didn’t help that he’d forever be haunted by the way Dad had accidentally used too much lube and the banana had squirted out of hi s hand and landed on the floor. The sound it made when it hit the ancient linoleum would be something he’d have to go to a support group for when he reached his mid-thirties.” (39)

“Respect her fears. You may think they’re unfounded, but they’re still what she’s feeling, and that’s valid. Reassure her if that’s what you want. And if you don’t, make sure she knows you still care about her, but it’s better to end it now than further down the road when it would hurt more.” (63)

“Scratch that. Two knives, because Mustache Man also pulled out a knife similar to the one Male Pattern Baldness had. And because Nick wasn’t always in control of his thoughts, he wondered if they were dating, and had picked out his-and-his matching switchblades. He cursed himself for being a romantic even when he was about to be stabbed.” (66)

“This was what he’d written fanfiction for. He understood at that moment that Shadow Star had seen through Nick’s failings as a human being and had somehow already fallen in love with him right back. He didn’t know how it’d happened (especially so quickly—maybe Nick was cooler than he thought), but he was already picturing a house in the suburbs where he’d go to book club meetings and say things like, ‘Yes, Pride and Prejudice is an old book about stuff, but I didn’t get a chance to finish it because Shadow Star took me out to dinner last night at a fancy restaurant that had separate forks for the salad.'” (72)

“‘That’s right. Seth, when you decided you wanted to wear ties to school for reasons that no one quite understands, who was the one who helped you look up how to tie a Windsor knot on the internet and then let you practice on him for an entire month until you got it right?’
‘You were,’ Seth said, looking down at the table.
‘With minimal complaint!’
‘For the first twenty minutes,’
‘Which was twenty minutes more than it should have been!’ Nick exclaimed. ‘You know I can’t sit still for that long without going out of my mind. Why on earth did you need to learn how to do a full Windsor? The only thing that made it bearable was when you found one called the Nicky knot and insisted on wearing that one more than all the others.’
Gabby and Jazz turned slowly to look at Seth.” (102)

“Nick made the hardest decision of his life. Instead of trying to find a livestream of what was going on with Shadow Star, he silenced his phone and put it back in his pocket. ‘It doesn’t matter. At least not right this second. If Phase Three works like I think it will, then I’ll be in a position help Shadow Star to take down Pyro Storm. And then we’ll become friends, which will tentatively lead to ward something more. There will be shy hesitation, but then one day, after saving Nova City from a madman who wants to turn the entire city into ice, there will be kissing and butt stuff and we’ll live happily ever after.” (211)

“Sometimes we have to run away in order to clear our heads and put ourselves together as best we can. The important thing is that we return stronger than when we left.” (269)

“Maybe he’ll never want to speak to me again. Maybe everything I ever wanted is gone now. That’s on me. But that doesn’t mean I won’t fight for him until my last breath.” (308)

“He pulled out his own chair across from Nick, grimacing slightly as he sat. His ribs were still hurting him, though he’d stopped taking the pain medication days before. He hadn’t let Nick take his after getting released from the hospital, reminding Nick that the opioid crises was a very real problem and he’d be damned if he was going to let Nick sink into addiction.
Nick hadn’t argued in the face of that logic, even if it was a bit overblown. And besides, he hadn’t liked being high in the hospital, even though it’d numbed the pain. According to Nurse Becky, he’d spent a good three hours describing to anyone who would listen the shape of Seth’s butt, and why it should be considered a national treasure. It wasn’t one of his finest moments, even if it was the truth.” (384)