Before You Press Play
- Performance: Michael Lesley's upbeat performance captures Nick's ADHD-driven tangents and enthusiasm as genuinely lived-in, matching AudioFile Magazine's praise for the same whimsy and heart.
- What it covers: Queer coming-of-age, superhero fandom, ADHD representation, friends-to-more romance
- Feel: Chaotic, warm, and funny
- Our call: A genuinely affirming, comedic YA superhero story elevated by Lesley's narration, ideal for listeners who want heart alongside the humor.
Nick Bell is not extraordinary, not in a city full of superpowered heroes, but he might be the most popular fan-fiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom, which counts as its own kind of superpower in TJ Klune's YA debut. The Extraordinaries audiobook runs thirteen hours across Michael Lesley's narration, and it follows Nick chasing a plan to make himself genuinely extraordinary after a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City's biggest hero and Nick's biggest crush, with reluctant help from his best friend Seth Gray, who may or may not also be the love of his life.
I listened to most of this over a week of morning commutes, and the thirteen hour runtime earns its length through Klune's characteristically dense character work rather than padding. AudioFile Magazine specifically praised Lesley's performance for capturing 'the whimsy, humor, and heart' of the story, and having listened through it myself, that assessment holds up; Lesley finds a register for Nick's ADHD-inflected narration, the tangents, the hyperfocus, the racing enthusiasm, that reads as genuinely lived-in rather than a performed quirk layered on top of a more generic teen voice.
First, the Big Picture
One reviewer admitted to spotting the major plot beats within the first thirty pages and initially worried the book would be predictable and boring as a result, only to end up staying for the characters anyway, and that arc mirrors my own experience with it closely. The superhero fandom premise is familiar territory, comparisons to Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl and Marissa Meyer's Renegades are not accidental, but Klune's specific interest is less in the twist than in Nick himself: his ADHD, his fixations, his genuine sweetness underneath the chaos, and how those traits shape both his friendship with Seth and his crush on a hero he barely knows in person.
Klune's later, better known work, The House in the Cerulean Sea and the Green Creek werewolf series among them, would go on to make found family and chosen belonging into something like his signature thematic territory, and The Extraordinaries shows those interests already fully formed in his very first published novel. Nick's fandom community, his found family of fellow superhero obsessives online, functions as a genuine emotional support system in the book, not just a quirky hobby detail, and that early instinct toward taking online community seriously as a real source of belonging feels ahead of where a lot of YA fiction from the same period landed on the same subject.
The Best Parts of The Extraordinaries
Lesley's narration is doing real work translating Nick's internal chaos into something an audio listener can track without getting lost, which matters enormously for a first-person voice built around distraction and tangential thinking. The comedic timing lands consistently, and Lesley differentiates Seth's steadier, more grounded energy from Nick's racing enthusiasm clearly enough that scenes between them read as a genuine friendship dynamic rather than one voice doing two jobs at once. For a queer coming-of-age story that wants to be affirming without losing its sense of humor, that vocal contrast is doing more thematic work than it might initially seem to on the surface.
Lesley also handles the book's action and superhero spectacle sequences with real energy, which matters given how much of the plot eventually depends on Nick getting closer to actual heroism than his fan fiction writing ever anticipated. Those sequences could easily read as a tonal mismatch against the book's more grounded character work, but Lesley's narration treats both registers, the comedic domestic scenes and the higher stakes superhero action, as part of the same continuous story rather than jarring shifts between two different books stitched together.
What Might Not Land
This is book one of an ongoing series, and while it resolves its central emotional arcs satisfyingly, the superhero world building leaves clear threads for future installments to pick up. Listeners who came to Klune through The House in the Cerulean Sea, as at least one reviewer had, should recalibrate tonally; this is a louder, more chaotic, more overtly comedic book than that quieter fantasy, even though both share Klune's underlying warmth toward flawed, searching characters. The rating count on this edition is thin, just two ratings despite the Indie Next Pick recognition and strong critical notice, so do not weigh the numeric score too heavily against the actual critical reception it earned.
The found family and online fandom elements will land most strongly for listeners who have some personal experience with fan communities themselves, whether fan fiction specifically or fandom culture more broadly; the specificity of Nick's relationship to his own writing and his online community is clearly drawn from genuine familiarity with that world rather than an outsider's approximation of what fandom looks like from a distance.
Who Should Listen to The Extraordinaries
This is a strong pick for YA listeners who want a queer coming-of-age story with genuine comedic energy, ADHD representation that reads as authentic rather than a symptom checklist, and a slow-building friends-to-more dynamic between Nick and Seth. It also works well for existing superhero fans who want the fandom and fan-fiction culture around heroism examined rather than just another origin story retread. Skip it if you are looking for something quieter or more contemplative, Klune's other titles serve that mood better, or if thirteen hours feels like too much commitment for a first read of his YA work.
Parents and educators considering this for a teen reader should know the book handles both ADHD representation and queer identity with a light touch that avoids feeling like an issues book; Nick's diagnosis and his sexuality are simply part of who he is rather than the central conflict the plot revolves around, which many listeners in the reviews specifically praised as a refreshing approach to representation done well.
Is The Extraordinaries audiobook a good follow-up if I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea?
Tonally, expect a shift. This is louder and more overtly comedic than that quieter fantasy, though Klune's underlying warmth carries through both.
Is The Extraordinaries audiobook LGBTQ+ representation forward?
Yes, it is a queer coming-of-age story built around Nick's crush on a hero and his slow-building relationship with his best friend Seth.
