Reviews of EXTRAORDINARY

It took a few months, but reviews have started to come in for Extraordinary. Here's the latest, from School Library Journal:

Gr 9 Up–Simply put, this story is funny. Despite what Eileen Codlin wrote in her best-selling book about Jennifer Van Der Berg, the 14-year-old’s life is no fairy tale. Sure, her days might consist of real vampires, a pooping unicorn, and a fake fairy godparent, but mostly Jennifer is just a girl trying to figure out her place in the world. Extraordinary follows what really happens when drunk and foul-mouthed Gregory Grue presents himself to Jennifer as her fairy godfather. His arrival sparks a chain of events that includes vampire conversions, a murder, and a dreamy long-lost friend coming back to town. The “real” story is peppered with excerpts from Codlin’s book, which are basically some not-so-subtle jabs at the most popular young adult books of the past couple of years. Selzer has created a unique story that will surely find a place in the hearts of teens who gag over the romances of sparkling vampires. The book is unpredictable, silly, and compelling despite the repeated mention of how vile unicorn poop is. Selzer has found a great balance between the fantastical and relatable, tapping into the teenage challenge of being original by doing more than just dying your hair purple. A fun and timely parody.–Emily Chornomaz, Camden County Library System, NJ

A couple of recent blog reviews:

Flamingnet: "Adam Selzer did an amazing job...while reading Jennifer's story, I felt everything she felt. That's how realistic Selzer's writing was."

San Francisco Book Review: "A comedic tightrope Selzer strolls across with style."

Princess Althea's Magical Elixer: "Adam Selzer's humor is brilliant. I tip my tiara to you, sir. You have made a new fan."

Kiss the Book

Parkersburg News and Sentinel

These all go along well with the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books review:

In a world where vampires and zombies are accepted as fact (and even enrolled in high school), you might think that the appearance of a fairy godmother wouldn’t be that surprising, but when Gregory Grue shows up looking like an unkempt drunk and claiming to be Jennifer’s “fairy godmofo,” he’s not what she’s expecting. Still, he manages to deliver all three of Jennifer’s wishes, including a request to reconnect with her childhood sweetheart, Mutual. What Gregory fails to mention, however, is that as payment for her wishes, Jennifer must complete a task of Gregory’s choosing; his choice involves Jennifer kissing and/or being converted by a vampire who is decidedly not Mutual. The premise has all the trappings of a predictable supernatural rom-com, but Selzer zigs where other authors would zag, turning the genre on its head and offering up an entirely refreshing and wonderfully witty romp that involves romance, intrigue, negotiations with vampire clans, and an enormous amount of unicorn poop. Realistically flawed and well aware of it, Jennifer is an immensely relatable protagonist, and her choices ring true to her character instead of being merely convenient to the plot, making the structure of what turns out to be a rather complicated storyline feel even more, as the title suggests, extraordinary. Readers familiar with Selzer’s I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It (BCCB 3/10) will no doubt recognize the “post-human” world and its details, but knowledge of the previous book is not at all needed to enjoy this deliciously irreverent tale of not-totally-happy endings. KQG