The Extraordinaries (The Extraordinaries #1) by TJ Klune
I want to be upfront: I really enjoyed this book. But this book may not be for you. Check content warnings at the bottom before reading the rest of this post.
This book had me laughing. It had me dying from second-hand embarrassment. It had me wanting to shake some sense into Nick and tell him to OPEN HIS EYES. It had me wanting to give Nick a giant hug. The cast of characters in this book was fantastic and I was not disappointed after hearing much hype about TJ Klune’s books. This is the first book of Klune’s I’ve read and I enjoyed it immensely. I feel like the representation was really well handled. The MC has ADHD and I feel like it’s handled in a very caring way that I don’t think ADHD usually gets. There were LOTS of queer characters. BIPOC characters. It was And the story had all the typical superhero story tropes, and still had me surprised at the end.
BUT this book has a major downside, in that it has a really strong cop storyline. There are lots of cop characters. The MC’s dad is a cop. Cops are described as “heroes” and “good men”. It isn’t just a passing mention, there is a LOT of cop content. Nick holds his dad in high regard, even after the character was demoted for assaulting a witness, which is reprehensible. And given our current climate, this may not be what you need to read right now. Klune has released a statement about this very fact not too long ago. You can read about it on his blog and if you’re able, I suggest you do. He takes full responsibility for his written work and says that in future books he’ll deal with the very real problem with police and police brutality moving forward. I hope he does, and I appreciate that he didn’t try and sweep the issue aside by saying he wrote it before this year. I fully respect anyone who can stand up and admit what they did wrong, explicitly, and then promise to do better. I look forward to reading his future books in this series and seeing if he really follows through.
Genre: ya, contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, lgbtqia+, superheroes
Representation: queer/gay, bi, lesbian
Content Warnings: Cops, Cops portrayed in a positive light, Ableism (internalized), Anxiety, Fire, Grief, Homophobia, Hospitalization, Injury, Medication, Panic attack, Parental death (past), Self-harm/risk, Slurs (d-slur), Violence