Smashbomb

The Extraordinaries is about Nick Bell and his love for his city's Extraordinary, Shadow Star. So much love that he writes he's an online popular fanfiction writer for the Shadow Star fandom. After events occur Nick decides he must change himself into an Extraordinary with the help of his best friends Gibby, Jazz, and his friend who looks super cute in bowties and ascots, Seth.

This is the first book of TJ Klune that I read, and if I remember correctly, this is his first YA release - he did a good job! The Extraordinaries has a little bit of everything. LGBTQ characters, including a badass lesbian couple, we have superheroes, ADHD representation, and well rounded, unique characters.

I loved the friend dynamic of Nick, Seth, Gibby, and Jazz. They're all there to support each other no matter the topic. Which is great, because some of the things that Nick did in the book annoyed me so much. Here his friends are doing everything they can to support him and he'd be very self-centered about it... even doing something that, in all honesty, I don't see anyone doing older than ten, much less sixteen, because of how stupid it was. He remained frustratingly oblivious on a lot of things and it goes from being realistic to just plain stupidity.

The reveal is hinted nearly all the way through the book and I guessed it for the most part, which is what I think Klune was trying to do. There are quite a few twists that I wasn't expecting so that made the novel exciting.

Overall, it was a good YA debut novel. I've already got the sequel on my lists to look out for.

*Thank you BookishFirst and Tor Teen for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review