Book 827: Flash Fire (The Extraordinaries #2) – T.J. Klune

Holy sh!t balls . . . I knew this one would have a big ol’ cliff hanger and be just as adorable as the last one, but I. Was. Not. Prepared!

This book picks up right after where The Extraordinaries left off. We jump right back into the crazy world that is 16-year-old Nick’s brain. And what a joyous wonderful journey it is. There’s still a bit of fanfic, there’s a lot of awkwardness and internet searching/discovery and there’s the most adorable budding gayby/biby (is that a thing?) relationship that just made me go awwwww so many times.

FULL WARNING – DO NOT GO PAST THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT THE FIRST BOOK SPOILED and trust me you want to read these books!

I ADORED Nick’s trying to figure out where he belonged in the queer world. Like legit laughed out loud when I read the various conversations he had with himself and definitely remember looking up similar things and being just as confused!

And that didn’t even begin to cover the wide and terrifying world of being a modern queer man in the twenty-first century and all that came with it. Was he a twink? A twunk? A power top? A power bottom? A bear? An otter? (He didn’t have enough body hair for those last two, but he wasn’t ready to rule anything out yet.) Did the heter-oh-noes have to deal with this? If not, then it was homophobic in ways Nick couldn’t even begin to articulate. How dare straight people avoid these little boxes. (Chapter 1)

And that last line? Chef’s kiss perfection 😀

The romance between Nick and Seth is wonderfully refreshing and they grow a lot in this book. Not only as individuals but together because they balance each other out and learn to interact as boyfriends and not just as best friends. When Nick finally realizes he’s been steam-rolling Seth in his Extraordinary identity, he matures 100-fold in just a few pages, and it totally pulled at my heartstrings.

The big reveal at the end of book one, was definitely front and center through the first part of this book and was the primary crisis until Burke comes back on the scene. Nick discovers the big reveal, his mom was Guardian, and shit hits the fan with his dad and Burke, and it just ramps up from there. That being said, Klune never loses Nick’s adorkable uniqueness, and we get gems like this:

Patience, Nick knew, was a virtue and a sign of a good Etraordinary. If he had nay hope to become just that, then he needed to listen to the concerns of his friends and not make them feel lesser for sharing. ‘Because my powers seem to come out only when I’m super pissed or scared or some other heightened emotion yet to be discovered. And since I don’t want to be mad today, I figure it’s better to be scared by jumping off a building.’
‘This is why men don’t live as long as women,’ Jazz said. ‘It’s not your fault. It’s your penis that’s making you do this.’
‘Not all men have penises,’ Nick reminded her.
‘True, but you don’t seem the up here trying to jump off a building, do you?’ (Chapter 13)

I love love love how “woke” Nick is and that he defends everyone’s rights and has his own awakeneing when it comes to his dad as a cop and Gibby’s relationships to cops. Again, so much growth in this book!

Then, there was the entire scene when they’re trying on prom outfits and I’m legit dying laughing in the pool because it was so hilariously written, and I could just picture everything about the conversation and interaction happening. Legit had tears streaming down my face because I couldn’t stop laughing. Or even this one:

What? I’m sixteen; I have a lot going on. Just because we’re all probably going to end up fighting for our lives in some epic showdown at the end of all this Burke stuff doesn’t  mean I can’t also worry about wanting to impress my hot boyfriend. My god, have you seen him in an ascot? The things I want to do to him should probably not be described here, since I’m a virgin and will stay that way for a long, long time. (Chapter 15)

Which really brought about how close Nick and his dad are even after Nick feels so betrayed and wronged, rightfully so.

The book does get pretty heavy with a lot of Nick’s time spent figuring out how to tell Seth he loves him and then with two new villains (Smoke and Ice), but there are also wonderful introductions like Miss Conduct, a drag queen Extraordinary who can become electricity (WHAT!) and the mysterious TK who comes back in the teaser to the next book and like I said at the beginning Holy Sh!t Balls. I mean when it happens I was expecting it at that point, but it didn’t have any less impact, like still reeling a few days later from it and now DESPERATE to know when the next book comes out. Between that reveal and the big escape oh boy, book three is going to be epic.

Recommendation: READ THESE BOOKS! If anything, this one is even better than the first, which isn’t usually the case when it comes to second books in a series. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Klune not only kept up the pacing and the drama, but also kept true to the characters and kept them down to earth (or out in the clouds when it comes to Nick). This was definitely a faster read and the universe is definitely growing, and I CANNOT wait for book three, it is going to be epic!

*I received a copy of Flash Fire from the publisher via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “Flash Fire – A swift, severe fire caused by a mixture of air and a flammable substance.”

Closing Line: “‘Guardian,’ Dad whispered into his hair. ‘My guardian.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Flash Fire
“Dad had made things worse by taking out an empty spritz bottle from underneath the sink, filling it with water, and saying if it works on dogs in heat, it’d work on boys as well. And then he’d sprayed Nick in the face.” (Chapter 1)

“He remembered standing in this very house, just upstairs, angry at all the lies Set was telling him, only to have Bob flap his lips and reveal that Seth was in love with him. Love, like sex, was a vast, complicated thing that Nick didn’t have a firm grasp on yet. He loved Seth. He knew that. He’d loved him since the moment he’d met him. Aside from his dad, there was nobody on Earth who Nick loved more. But what was the difference between love and being in love? Nick wasn’t sure. Everything he felt for Seth was jumbled up in a complicated knot in his chest. It wasn’t a bad thing, but Nick wasn’t sure he was ready to parse through it yet. But no problem was ever solved by not talking about it, and Nick thought he might be ready to say . . . well. Something.” (Chapter 2)

“‘Hello, boyfriend of mine,’ Nick said, and because he could, he leaned forward and kissed Seth right on the mouth. He hoped a homophobe had been watching and was now filled with so much heterosexual rage, they were choking on it.” (Chapter 6)

“Clichéd, perhaps, but he and Seth had decided to wait until prom night to see each other in their sits for the first time. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Seth’s face when he saw Nick’s dead magician tux.” (Chapter 13)

“They danced. Here, in this little corner of the world, they danced. It wasn’t perfect, but then, Nick thought beautiful things didn’t always have to be. The truth was in the awkwardness, the imperfection. It was in the way their knees knocked together, in the way Nick stepped on Seth’s feet a time or two. About to apologize, Nick stopped when Seth leaned forward. ‘It’s all right,’ he said, mouth near Nick’s ear. ‘You’re doing fine. You go this, Nicky.'” (Chapter 17)