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Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Book 3, The Uglies series
Genre: YA dystopian fiction
Pages: 372
Published: 2006
"Special Circumstances":
The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumor -- frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. But Tally's never been ordinary. And now she's been turned into one of them: a superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid. The strength, the speed, and the clarity and focus of her thinking feel better than anything Tally can remember. Most of the time. One tiny corner of her heart still remembers something more.
Still, it's easy to tune that out -- until Tally'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 book read for the year.
I can say at once that it was not as good as the first, but then it is hard to top a thing like that, and this book evolved in its own way so we get to follow all "different" kinds of people, from the uglies, to the pretties and now the special.
Tally is now scary, with fangs, and all hard angles, she has the body of a machine, and on top of that she cuts herself like the rest of the cutters. it is something to feel, to make them more special. yes I am very sure Westerfeld has a point with that, and how some fall into it to feel, when everything else is dark.
She also looks down on everyone else and thinks the specials to be the greatest people ever. Even Zane, her pretty ex is just boring and average. She is scary in her believes, and it is hard to like her in this book. But then she is the extreme.
The story in this book is how to get Zane special too, and by doing that they start something really bad. That and fighting the rebels will shape her world. It has been crumbling for a while now and the governments are not happy, and they are also scared.
I like his world, and the history he made into it. And even if it is an extreme world they do have points. By making everyone pretty there is no jealousy, wars, and fights (and yes they have stuff in their brains). And they are not destroying the earth. The question here is whether freedom is more important than the earth itself. For when people are free it will start again.
One thing I did have a problem with, the way things gets fixed, it seems so easy even though it is hard, and it does makes Tally to the center of the world. But other than that this is a most to the trilogy, and to find out how it all ends for this beautified world.
Blodeuedd's Cover Corner: I like it, I can see the fangs almost there, she looks scary pretty.
Reason for Reading: Library book.
Final thoughts: Not as shocking as the first, but still an ok finish to the series. And there is one more book too even if Tally is not in that one.
