A throwback review from July 2012! I hope you all had a wonderful July 4th!!! Extraordinary* the true story of my fairy godparent, who almost killed me and certainly never made me a princess is a YA urban fantasy humor novel by Adam Selzer.
Straight-A, Shakespeare-lover Jennifer just wants to chill out during her senior year. She’s already been accepted to a college that is of high-standing in Iowa and she’s ready to relax after all the hard work.
Also, she wants to start taking steps toward being the eccentric, cool woman she aspires to be. First step? Color her hair purple. She loves purple. Second step? Finally go to a school dance by getting the relatively cute guy in her Human/Post-Human Alliance group to ask her – and hope that helps her get over her absurdly long crush on Mutual Scrivener whom she hasn’t seen since sixth grade when he mysteriously disappeared with his parent’s overnight.
Pathetic? Yeah.
The next events in Jennifer’s story have been sorely misrepresented by Eileen Codlin’s horrifically inaccurate Born to Be Extraordinary. This is supposedly a portrayal of Jennifer’s soon-to-arrive fairy godmother and how she became a princess.
Princess? Ha ha.
It did not happen like that. First of all, there was no sparkly, kind, frou-frou fairy godmother. He was a sloppy, unkempt, odious little man named Gregory Grue – and he preferred to be called a fairy godmofo.
And he almost killed her. This is the TRUE story of Jennifer’s “magical” senior year…
Extraordinary is truly a hilarious novel, and a breath of fresh air!
This is a wacky, inventive, unpredictable fairy-tale taking place in an alternative, contemporary Iowa setting where vampires are an accepted truth – the principal is one! – and zombies attacked the prom. Then we have Jennifer with her chubby, intellectual, clever, relatable ordinary-ness.
Sadly, the cover of Extraordinary really misrepresents Jennifer. It gives off a more little-kid, Disney movie poster feel with a thin girl with brown hair! Not the case at all! Not only does Jennifer look totally different, but the tone is far more older-teen oriented – and funnier than it looks.
We get hysterical snippets of Born to Be Extraordinary, the false book based on Jennifer’s experiences, which is a satirical, laugh-out-loud terrible idea of a “typical” teen book.
Extraordinary was unique, fast-paced and very, very fun – providing chuckles, hee-haws, giggles, and snorts! It’s imaginative, entertaining, and surprisingly morbid. I really, really liked it!
Adam Selzer creates a story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a story that plays with the clichés and tired plotlines that have been recycled over and over. Plus, the cast of secondary characters are vibrant and amusing as well!
I recommend it for sure!
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