Extras (Uglies Series #4) by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis: Fame. It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends, and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on a bazillion different cameras. The world is like a gigantic game of American Idol. Whoever is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules. As if being fifteen doesn't suck enough, Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. Her only chance to escape extra-land is to find a big story to kick--something wild and unexpected. Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks, yet are deeply secretive of it. But the Sly Girls are hiding something bigger--an explosive discovery that may change the face of the brave new world forever. If Aya kicks this story, she'll be propelled into the world of fame, celebrity...and extreme danger. A world she's not prepared for.

~~

Extras doesn't focus on Tally anymore. It's more of an add-on to the trilogy that focused on Tally. This is about Aya and the world that Tally has left in her wake after destroying the uglies/pretties/specials regime, like the synopsis says. The new world after Tally is totally different than the world we're introduced to in the first three books. Everything has changed, and the loss of "bubbleheads" is affecting their economy and way of life. Old traditions are coming back, extreme surgeries are gone, and there is mixing of uglies and pretties, at least during the day. They must start to adapt to the new freedom, and they do that by expanding the cities dangerously fast and building a new economy. As in, the fame and cameras. They have merits that you earn by being famous or by doing good work around the community. 

This story was partly better than Specials (see my review here) because it goes faster than Specials. You are instantly propelled into the world of extras and the cameras. The first 200 pages went by really fast, but not in a bad way. It was a little action packed, mostly focusing on how Aya puts her stories together and figuring out the economy. Then they meet these alien-like people and it goes slower as Aya doesn't listen to Tally and she starts to look a little moronic. I didn't like Aya as much as Tally. She doesn't grow really, at all. She's so sucked up into this virtual world that she doesn't believe life on the outside and that fame could be a bad thing. It really bugged me, but the plot made up for Aya.

There are three main side characters: Hiro, Aya's older brother; Ren, Hiro's best friend; Frizz, Aya's boyfriend. They don't seem to grow either, but they are more intelligent than Aya and are fine without the cameras. They understand the predicament more than Aya does and seem to listen better than she does. They're not so much fame-obsessed as Aya is, and I liked them a lot better. Tally only comes in at the end and you can tell that she still hasn't fully cured herself of the Special mind. She wars with herself and still has anger flashes.

Overall, Extras was a great final installment in the Uglies series. The first two parts went by fast, and the last part dragged on. The plot was messed up, though, as I thought the entire thing was about the Sly Girls and another government plot. But it turned completely around in the second part of the book and it confused me for awhile. But I finally got back into the swing of things, but the story was still confusing. They kept switching from believing the alien-people and not believing them. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't one of the best.

The Cover: I still like the incorporation of people, and Aya really was described like the girl on the cover. Her eye mainly showing I didn't really get, but now I understand that it's supposed to be like a camera, giving you the feel of always being watched. This cover somewhat freaked me out, but I thought it was still put together well. Although I thought the blue background on the back cover kind of ruined the mood. I didn't think it quite fit.

Specials (Uglies Trilogy #3) by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis: Special Circumstances. Tally thought they were a rumor, but now she's one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down the the pretties stupid. But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn't better than anything she's ever known. Tally still has memories of something else. But it's easy for her to tune that out--until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

~~

First, I would like to point out that Tally never thought that Special Circumstances was a rumor. I would just like to make that clear. She had never even heard of Specials before, true, but that does not mean they were a rumor spoken to her. When she met Specials, she didn't even know what they were much less who they were so, no, Tally did not think Specials were rumors. Just to make that known.

This book was action-packed. I mean literally, Tally was at one battle, then another, and then another. The book starts out with her trying to stamp down the New Smoke's influence on New Pretty Town. And then it goes to rescuing Zane, which goes to destroying something, which goes to her and Shay taking off, which goes on and on until the end, which was a bang, might I add.

Tally has changed so much during her journey through the three books. First she was ugly, sentenced to be ugly unless she found Shay. And when she did, she put aside all of her selfish feelings in trying to help the New Smoke thrive. When she was a pretty, she was battling for control over her brain. And now in Specials, she's battling against herself, fighting the instincts that the city placed in her versus her own natural feelings. And all of this happened in under a year. That's right, she's still sixteen in Specials. Freaky, huh?

There wasn't much love interest in these books. Westerfeld focused most of his writing on trying to help Tally get through her predicament(s) and trying to find herself through it all. But there was David and then there was Zane. I thought that Tally had her hands full trying to deal with newly found facts and her own raging thoughts, and I thought it might have been a too overcrowded book if Westerfeld had added more tension in Tally's love life.

Over all, Specials was awesome. I thought Tally grew so much more in this book and she really was different in thinking, too. I loved the pace Westerfeld had throughout the book, letting it crescendo and then slow. It was amazing and the end was perfect, not much of a cliffhanger, but also seeming like it would make way for another book. Which it somewhat did, for Westerfeld has made another book, Extras, but it doesn't focus on Tally so much as the aftermath of her actions. Best (to me) by far.

The Cover: This was my favorite cover. I loved Tally's flash tattoos and her plain makeup. I liked how the photographer made her look superior but also that she looked cautious and expectant, as if she was waiting for something to happen. It's wonderful in its simplistic beauty.

Pretties (Uglies Trilogy #2) by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis: Gorgeous. Popular. Perfect. Perfectly wrong. Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she's completely popular. It's everything she's ever wanted. But beneath all the fun--the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom--is a nagging sense that something's wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remember what's wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold. Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life--because the authorities don't intend to let anyone with this information.

~~

This book was better than Uglies. But I didn't like how Westerfeld repeated Tally's story throughout the entirety of the book. He kept going back to ugly days and repeating what had happened to Tally, even though she knew what had happened and mostly every character in the book did, too. I understand that Westerfeld might have been doing this for the benefit of readers who haven't read the first book, but I would think that you would read the first book since it is on the back of Pretties.

Tally's point of view on the entire world has been altered thanks to her pretty operation. I loved how Westerfeld didn't pretend like nothing had happened to Tally during the operation and how he changed her mind into a pretties. She sees the world like a pretty and she acts like a pretty, wanting to be bubbly for her friends. She knows that something's wrong but pushes it away while she becomes bubbly. And even when she finally remembers everything from her past, she still tries to push it away. She doesn't want to accept everything. But she has to. And eventually, she does. Which is why I have a love-hate relationship with Tally as the heroine of these books. She's somewhat selfish until she sees the damage she could do with her own selfishness and she turns against her own mind and tries to do something right.

Westerfeld introduces lots of more characters in this book, added onto the others that Tally met in Uglies. But it's not overwhelming, which I found so amazing. He lets you learn each character and then he'll introduce another, leaving you enough time to get used to one character before you meet another. Westerfeld is very good at making each character seem real and alive. I found myself being sucked into the story when I opened the book and it stuck with me long after I closed it.

Overall, Pretties is a wonderful addition to the Uglies trilogy. I love how Westerfeld gives you the insight to each part of Tally's world, starting with Uglies, going to Pretties and ending with Specials. His writing is amazing and i loved entering each world that he's created. The Uglies trilogy are intriguing books and I highly recommend them to anyone, whether you're a boy or girl.

Uglies (Uglies Trilogy #1) by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis: Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license--for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only gob is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks, Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world--and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

~~

I got these two years ago and failed to pick them up until recently. And boy am I glad I did. Tally's world is so strange and different from the world we know today. It's based in the future, referring to us right now as Rusties. They have built off of our mistakes and created a utopia when you are a littlie, an ugly, a pretty, a middle pretty and finally, a late pretty, or crumbly. And Tally knows she wants to be a pretty. Her best friend Peris already is a pretty, and Tally is lonely and dying for her sixteenth birthday. When she meets Shay, who's friends have either become a pretty or run away. Shay opens a different side of being ugly, like long nights hoverboarding and better pranks. But the day before they're combined birthday, Shay informs Tally that she's leaving, going to the Smoke: a town outside of their city where you don't have to have an operation at sixteen. Tally's really nervous and tries to talk Shay out of it, but it's useless. Shay leaves, giving Tally vague instructions on how to get to the Smoke, if she ever wants to.

On the day of Tally's birthday, she's sent to Special Circumstances where the pretties are scary-looking and want Tally to give up Shay. But Tally doesn't know where Shay is and refuses to give anything up, saying she promised Shay that she would never tell. They give her a choice: help turn Shay and the Smoke in, or never turn pretty. After four days of thinking, and Peris and her parents chatting, Tally decides that it's best if she finds Shay and turn pretty with her. She agrees and sets off to find Shay. She leaves with only Shay's note and survival gear.

It takes a week to find Shay and the Smoke and she learns why they choose to be there and not in the city. She learns ugly secrets about becoming pretty, and she decides not to help the Specials and to instead stay in the Smoke with Shay and her friends. But the Specials drop by, anyway, and Tally is forced into hiding with David, the leader of the Smoke. Together, they return to the city and help break their friends out of Special prison. And then there's a dark, spoiler twist that I'm not going to tell you.

Overall, I loved Uglies and am almost finished with Pretties, the next installment of the trilogy. Westerfeld really knew how to build a not-so-perfect utopia and I was shocked at everything they said about us Rusties. Tally is a believable character who knows nothing except what the schools teach her. She feels she needs to turn pretty to go on with life but Shay and David (the Smoke leader, as I mentioned) help break her out of her society's mold and she becomes a very rebellious ugly. I liked Shay at the beginning of the novel, but I grew to dislike her by the end. Westerfeld makes the side characters a large part of the novels but they're not dwelt upon throughout the books. The ending was surprising to me and I can't wait to finish Pretties and go on to read Specials, the last in the trilogy.