T.J. Klune

Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune's YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves. Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right? After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick's best friend (and maybe the love of his life). Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl meets Marissa Meyer's Renegades in TJ Klune's YA debut.

The Extraordinaries

Cassidy Nolan

Shadow Star glanced at him before looking away. “It’s not you, Nate. You have to know that. I don’t care that you have ADHD that you think makes your brain all screwy, or that you get terrible migraines. Even when you let your dad down last year with bad grades, I know you tried. You try. You try harder than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

 Nick thought as he shook his head. He’d never understand.

He loved his queer girls. He just didn’t want to watch them swallow each other’s tongues, which was why he’d given them their space. He was selfless that way.

Lola Gibson had three smiles: the loving one she gave to Jazz, the one she had when she was trying not to laugh, and the one when she was about to be a magnificent dick.

Seth’s face softened. “I know. And twitchy, somehow, always leads to calamity.”

Nick decided a long time ago that Seth needed to be protected at all costs. He wore bow ties and loafers and could recite the Greek alphabet backwards, and there was no one else like him in the world.

“Not going to happen,” Nick said immediately. “Seth and I already have plans to go to the same school where we’ll share a dorm the first year, and then move off campus the following years. When we graduate, we’ll get an apartment in the city where I’ll spend four years on the force before leaving to open my detective agency-slash-bakery. Seth will become a famous author who writes true crime stories that won’t actually be true because they’ll have dragons in them, or he’ll be a lawyer that wins every case since he’ll be the voice for those who can’t speak for themselves.“

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 

—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, 

 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.”

“I told you. I was volunteering at the animal shelter. And don’t you say what I know you’re going to say—“

“You’re far too precious for this world,” Nick said. “You’re like a Disney princess except real.”

“I need my own origin story,” Nick announced grandly. “I’m going to become an Extraordinary.”

The Extraordinaries quotes

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