The Extraordinaries

As a superhero enthusiast, I was intrigued by this “real world” superhero coming of age romance so I picked it up. I had to keep reminding myself that as an adult I am not the audience for a YA novel, because I was exceptionally frustrated by this book's protagonist Nick. He has ADHD and is very impulsive, OK. Got it. He's obsessed with superheroes and can't put together the pieces that his best friend/crush IS one of the city's superheroes??????? When it's so obvious?? Everyone else puts it together? Like I guess it would just be hard to believe that such greatness could be right under your nose? And I guess sometimes it's fun to know more than the characters know. But I was like NICK GET IT TOGETHER.

Also BTW, Nick's single dad is a hero cop who tragically got demoted for punching a suspect in the face while interrogating him?? And everyone feels bad about this and knows that he was a really great cop who was just grieving his late wife?? When I read that I was like “uhhh is this book older than I thought?” but no it came out in 2020?? Big Blue Lives Matter energy for a queer romcom from 2020!!! WHY??? Is it because you're Canadian, TJ Klune?? READ THE ROOM. Like I get that superheroes & cops have a longstanding friendly antagonism in fiction, but this ultimately kinda feels like you're taking the cops' side? And also if you wanted to have your main cop character be in trouble at the department couldn't it have been for like, forgetting to file paperwork due to wife grief? Letting a suspect get away due to wife grief? Why did he have to punch someone in the face due to wife grief?????

update: https://www.tjklunebooks.com/new-blog/2020/7/29/a-message-about-the-extraordinaries

The good news is the series isn't over. On Wednesday, July 15th, I sent my publisher an email because I wanted to open the conversation about how to make this right in my work going forward. The second book in the series is already written but hasn't been edited. My editor and I will be taking this conversation very seriously going forward. If Nick were living in our world over the past few months, he would have a lot to say about police brutality and he would be on the right side of history. OK I GUESS??

I did think the romance was cute but personally I was too busy gritting my teeth over the rest of the plot to really enjoy it. Some readers might get more out of this.

OH AND I know there's a sequel to this that I'm almost tempted to read bc this book has an epilogue from the dad's POV that reveals that the medication Nick takes for his "ADHD" is actually medication to suppress his superpowers??? not to pre-judge but uhhhhhhhhhhh certainly seems like that could go in a problematic anti-medication direction!