#pyro storm

“Be gay. Do crimes.”

- THE EXTRAORDINARIES by TJ Klune

This was the landslide winner of the September Fanart Poll on my Patreon! (Sorry it’s late—I got sick at the end of September and it majorly delayed all my projects!)

I came at this one a little differently than usual since I wanted to get Nick, Seth, and Owen in the shot but also highlight the fact that Nick writes spectacularly funny fanfic about the Extraordinaries. And then I thought it might be cool as a variant cover, so there ya go.

I love it.

This post contains SPOILERS (you've been alerted)

yesterday I was almost done with Heat Wave (the last book) and I was thinking how grateful I am that I read these books. I have re-read the first two books 3 times now and I just re-read the final book for the first time since it came out.

This story still has such an emotional chokehold on me. It is so good. Nick is such a ridiculous character, I love how he is. How he is written and how he develops in the three books. I love how unapologetic he is.

I would just like to share some scenes that have had such an emotional impact on me (i don't know how to begin to explain why but I still want to).

In the first book, The Extraordinaries, for me is when they talk about how Nick and Seth met. When they were just 6 years old (maybe 7). The way I cried and still cry when I read it, says a lot. If you've read it, you know. It is the swing set scene. where Nick met Seth while he was alone swinging on this old set while eating chocolate pudding. How Seth was just a shy little boy and you can feel how his world turned technicolor when he met Nick. He was just a baby, had lost his parents in a train crash, and meeting Nick helped him. I cry when I read it, but it is nothing compared to how much I cry when I read a similar scene.

when Nick's dad was in the hospital, and Martha (Seth's aunt) visits Nick. She told him about the little boy who had lost a lot and was still grieving. How he didn't talk a lot and how her and Bob (Seth's uncle) were so worried about him. Oh my God, but when she says how he came home and kept just talking about this boy he met called Nicholas Bell and how they were going to be best friends forever.

Again, the emotional hold those two parallel scenes have on me, on my heart is unreal. I love them so much. TJ Klune does an amazing job weaving this story where you care about all the characters that appear on it. Minor or not. and I love it.

As of right now, in Flash Fire I think my favorite scene is when Nick tells Seth that he loves him. In the prom. When they were fighting against Ice and Smoke. How Seth smiles (MY TENDER HEART CANNOT). Don’t get me wrong. The whole book is so unbelievably good (all of them are). They are in the midst of chaos and that scene made me cry so damn hard again.

In Heat Wave, the whole book is on a totally different plane compared to the other two. In the story, Nick’s mother has been dead for 4 years now yet somehow she re-appeared. When you read the book, it is the real villain’s wife that can shapeshift (among other stuff). That whole thing is unreal. It is so cruel. It is so unbelievably cruel. Nick and his Dad went through all the grieving process. They still had issues in the first and second book but they worked through it so well. Becoming stronger. And then this. This was so mean. It is crazy to me how TJ Klune was like: you know how to write this book? PAIN. That’s how. And then he had to double down by killing Owen.

Like…how dare you? It is still pretty freaking good though.

Objectively, I know why Owen had to die. By the way that he was, where they all gave him multiple opportunities to turn around (in the first and last book, he is not present in the second one) but he just didn’t. I know that dying was the only way to resolve it. It was pretty hard though. He was just a kid, a villain, but just a kid. When you read the books, you find out that his parents were not good. His dad experimenting on him, used him like he was a tool (which probably was only the tip of the iceberg). When I think about him I think about Akito Sohma (if you’ve seen Fruits Basket you know). Akito was the source of torment to all the members of the zodiac. Hurt them physically, emotionally and psychologically. You find out Akito was hurt by her mother. Which, doesn’t justify it. Nothing ever does. It just allows you to understand them better but not to totally gloss over everything. Owen felt that same way. Which is why it hurt how he died. Rip.

One of my favorite scenes is after they find out that Nick’s mom is not Nick’s mom but an imposter. Nick and his dad have to live at Jazz’s house until the home is repaired. It makes my heart hurt when Nick is woken up by his dad. His dad snuggles for a while with Nick and cries his heart out (along with Nick). It feels like they have to go through the grieving process again. It is not the same though. Because they didn’t lose Nick’s mom again. She was never there. But they toyed with their emotions. It is just so twisted and so jarring.

It might seem cliche but my other favorite scenes are in the epilogue. When they are 26 (Jazz, Nick and Seth) and 27 (Gibby). It is Jazz’s and Gibby’s wedding. My favorite, favorite part is when Nick is saying how he has decided to propose to Seth. Using the wedding ring that his mother, Jenny Bell, gave her father. Only for Seth to also propose to Nick using his own father’s ring. I cry just a little harder in this scene. It isn’t quite the same as having matching necklaces. Like some couples do. It is so much more impactful. Nick’s dad loved his mom from the moment he met her. The life they build together. The pain they both felt when she died. The fact that he gave Nick his ring. It makes it so much sweeter. As well as for Seth. He loves his aunt and uncle. They became his parents in all the ways that mattered. But he always kept close to his heart the fact that he lost his own parents. There is this instance in the first book where Nick is at Seth’s home and sees the pictures on the wall. And he talks about how Seth doesn’t have a lot of memories from his parents but the ones that he does have he protects them so fiercely. So the fact that he gave Nick his father’s ring is also so impactful.

My last favorite little scene is almost at the end of the epilogue. When Jazz and Gibby are kissing at their wedding and Nick says how they took a picture right at that moment. Where Nick is cheering loud and Seth is quietly smiling. jazz and Gibby have a sweet kiss. And how he hung that picture in his home with Seth. Right next to the one he has of his mom. The one at the lighthouse. My heart cries.

It is such an amazing book and I wish the fandom was a lot bigger and that it also had a lot of fanart. I wish it had a graphic novel or a manga. And a good animated show (not a live action). I wish a lot more people talked about this series. Hopefully it will get the recognition it deserves.