The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune
“It's good to talk about how you're feeling, but it's even better to fight for the things you believe in.”
BOOK REVIEWMARIAHREADIT
“Sometimes, the people we want to protect the most might not understand why we do the things we do. But that doesn't mean they love us any less. Only you can decide where your faith lies.”
The banshee scream that just came out of my mouth.
This was laugh out loud funny, cute, sweet, frustating, endearing, cringey, adorable, sometimes heartbreaking and just. insert Lady Gaga meme.
It doesn't get much tougher to follow than "The Extraordinaries"' - an uproariously funny, unique and captivating story about a queer neurodiverse kid finding ordinary ways to be extraordinary.
"Flash Fire" delivers the expected laughs, cuteness overload, best friends-to-lovers excellence, scream worthy second hand embarrassment for the absolute treasure that is one Nicky Bell that makes me read from behind my fingers.
Heavy on family feels, both the kind you're born into and the kind you make for yourself, I will alwas be a sucker for a pack of queer kids trying to find their place in the world and make it just a little bit better along the way.
I also really liked the fact this book didn't shy away from important conversations. In fact, we ended up diving deeper into Nick's dad's job as a police officer, and the issues that often go ignored. I've been having an icreasingly harder time lately reading books that blatantly ignore the problems inherent to the Police and go on as if things don't need to be addressed or called attention to. This book did a great job of having some of those conversations in ways that still fit perfectly with the story.
In this sequel we encounter forces that want to push back against Extraordinaries, from wanting to control them for their own nefarious purposes to wanting to 'cure' them. A narrative queer people have been fighting against for far too long, and I can't put it much better than Gibby: