The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June is a novel by Robin Benway, released in 2010.
Sisters April, May and June already have enough on their plates when their parents divorce. Their father moves to Houston for a job opportunity, and their mother moves them from their old school and house in Orange County to a new one in the Valley where they know no one. Then one fateful afternoon, the sisters find out they have powers. Figuring out a new school becomes the least of their worries as they try to learn to control and hide their newfound abilities.
Tropes in this novel include:
- The Ace: April is smart, friendly, and responsible, leading her parents to put her in charge when they're busy much to the consternation of May and June.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: June to April and May, especially with her relative vapidness and talkative tendencies.
- Attention Whore: June loves and craves positive reinforcement from others.
- Bait-and-Switch: On the car ride to school, June says "ew" at a homeless man they pass and April lectures her on not looking down on people for being poor. When it's revealed that June has mind reading powers, she says she was actually reacting to the man's thoughts, not his living circumstances.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: April's the Brain, May the Brawn, and June the Beauty.
- Beware the Mind Reader: June uses her ability to read people's thoughts to manipulate Mariah into being her friend. She also uses it to tease her sisters about their crushes.
- Big Sister Instinct: Nobody messes with April's little sisters. It's one of her qualities Julian says attracted him to her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: June appears to Mariah to have all the right opinions and gives the latter an appreciated heads up that her friends think badly of her behind her back. Of course, Mariah doesn't realize that June only knows and does these things because she can read minds and thinks Mariah is the key to popularity.
- Blessed with Suck:
- April has visions of the future, but the visions can be vague and she can't tell when they are meant to happen, which especially becomes an issue when she has a vision of her baby sister June and her crush Julian being involved in an accident.
- When May gets flustered, her body disappears in parts rather than as a whole, usually starting with her feet. At one point she can't even walk her study date to the door because the entire bottom half of her was invisible.
- June often has trouble sleeping at night because she can hear everybody's dreams and thoughts. In the case of a mentally ill homeless man who lives near them, June is distressed by some of his disturbing thoughts.
- Deadpan Snarker: May, a trait she is said to share with her father.
- Drowning My Sorrows: May's preferred coping mechanism when she gets extremely upset. She does it when her parents announce their divorce and again when her crush Henry publicly denies that he is into her.
- Dumb Blonde: Averted. Pale blonde April is a stellar student and avid bibliophile. Dirty blonde May is smart, but often doesn't apply herself. Brunette June is the least Book Smart of the sisters.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: June and May are the Foolish to April's Responsible.
- Friendless Background: May isn't said to have any friends at her new school or her old one.
- Genius Ditz: June may not have the biggest vocabulary and has unrealistic expectations of high school, but she is a surprisingly good schemer.
- Go-Getter Girl: April is very academically motivated, and is the most responsible and deferential daughter of the sisters, enough so that May complains that she always has to be the "perfect daughter" all the time.
- Gotta Pass the Class:
- May is failing European History, which is how Henry gets assigned as her tutor.
- June first officially interacts with Mariah when the latter is in the office for a conference over her low Spanish grades.
- The Hecate Sisters: June is the young and naive Maiden, April the motherly Matron, and May the sharp-witted Crone. Interestingly, April is older than May.
- Invisible Introvert: May is a loner with the power to turn invisible.
- Manipulative Bastard: Once she realizes she can read people's minds, June uses the ability to get into Mariah's good graces and become more popular.
- Middle Child Syndrome: May has a case of this, hard.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Because of her vision that June and Julian will be involved in an accident together, April says this to Julian.
- Omniscient Hero: April has the power to see the future.
- Noodle Incident: When her parents announced that they were divorcing, May got drunk on tequila, and what she did after that was bad enough that her parents thought they should move for her wellbeing.
- No Sense of Humor: May says this about April.
- Parent with New Paramour: The girls' mother goes out on a date with a man named Chad.
- Power Incontinence: April and May are a Justified version still learning to control their newfound abilities, June gets a handle on hers much more quickly.
- Recessive Super Genes: The grandmother and great-aunts of April, May and June are suggested to have had the trio's same powers. The girls' mother, however, had no siblings and does not appear to have powers.
- Relationship Sabotage: June reveals the nasty thoughts Mariah's friends privately thought about her so that Mariah would stop being friends with them and turn to June instead.
- Shrinking Violet: May hates speaking up in crowds and always does her best to blend in and be unnoticed.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Henry and Mariah. Henry is studious and serious while his sister is a wild child.
- Skipping School: June does it frequently once she befriends Mariah. May has also done it before.
- Soapbox Sadie: At various points April judges other characters for smoking, littering, and picking on the homeless.
- The Social Darwinist: June points to Darwinism when defending her wish to be popular to her sisters.
- Stepford Smiler: It's implied by May that some of June's permanent perky demeanor is a coping mechanism for her inner turmoil over their parent's divorce and the move. May even says she feels kind of sorry for June that the latter doesn't feel comfortable showing her more vulnerable side.
- Theme Naming: April, May and June, naturally. Mariah even asks June if the latter's parents are hippies for naming them that.
- Town Girls: Often scowling, snarky May is the Butch, often smiling, bubbly June is the Femme, and April is the Neither.
- The Weird Sisters:
- April, May and June are three sisters with the power to see the future, turn invisible, and read other's minds.
- June later connects the dots that their grandmother and two great-aunts probably had the same abilities.
