I love superhero books, I might not pick up too many of them but there’s something so fun about seeing something you would expect to see in a comic or a movie. I’m also a sucker for books about fandom so when I discovered The Extraordinaries on NetGalley, I had to request it straight away. And screencap the summary and share it with my friends as nerdy hero fanboy reminded me of Deku and we all love My Hero Academia, okay?
So The Extraordinaries follows Nick, a teenage boy with ADHD who obsesses over a local superhero called Shadowstar. Obsesses over him so much that he writes real person fanfiction about him where he’s in love with his self-insert. But things are happening and Nick decides to try to become a hero, not only to meet his idol but also to protect his family and friends. As he winds up mixed up with these heroes everything gets super complicated.
Because Nick has ADHD the writing of this book can seem like so much. There’s a lot going on in Nick’s head and because of this there’s so much going on all over the page. So many thoughts and strings of conversation and it can all get really random. Mix that with a plot about superheroes and teenagers anyway and you know it’s gonna be crazy. But all the cringe and randomness works, it really does, it makes Nick and his friends feel like real teenagers and as much as I love YA fiction; that’s rare a lot of the time. Even when they mostly feel real the cringe is often missing and I think that’s because when we reach adulthood we want to forget how embarrassing we could all be.
This book was so very funny. I had so many laugh out loud moments. Nick just says some of the weirdest things and the conversations it leads to can be great. The hero and villain have some interesting twists with their characters and though some of these things are kind of predictable. Like, so predictable you’re left wondering how stupid Nick is that he didn’t spot it, but they’re clearly leading up to something so much bigger. There’s actually an after credits chapter, just like in the movies, and, man, what it looks like it’s going to lead to is going to be so interesting. I need the second book like now. How could you do that to me?!
The romance in this is cute, the friendships are sweet and the family relationships are also good. Honestly, I don’t think I really have anything bad to say. It was a little hard to focus on sometimes because the book really is so much but it’s a superhero story and the main character has ADHD so it all makes sense. It just means it’s not my favourite.
I’ve got a feeling that might change with book 2 though…
This book is a solid
4 stars
Lace and Dagger Books 