Review: Specials

Title: Specials
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse, Pg 384
Publication Date: May 9, 2006
Format: Trade and Audio
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Source: Purchased and Library

Oh goodness, I really should have read this book back in the day when I read the first two in the series. I loved those two books, but the shine is definitely off the apple with this one. Maybe it is because in the intervening years, I have read some remarkable young adult dystopian / science fiction novels and this one is showing its age.

Originally published in 2006, the third book in the Uglies trilogy (which I have come to find out that there is a 4th book in the trilogy) has Tally becoming a member of the surgically enhanced group called the Cutter. This group has found that if you cut yourself, you will become more clear-headed in spite of the brain lesion used to make people pretty-minded. Because of this ability, they have been recruited into Special Circumstances where they are giving additional abilities.

Yes, this is a bit confusing, but when you start the series from the beginning, it does make perfect sense.

This book gets a bit confusing and twisty when a cadre characters and multiple situations are brought in, and once again, if I had read them all at once I am sure I would not constantly be playing catch-up. The Crims, the Smokies, Rusties, Crumblies, Fausto, Zane, etc., your mind begins to reel with the who’s and what-for’s.

Being a Special is not all it is cracked up to be, you become pretty-minded and are repulsed by those less attractive and skilled than you are, so when Tally is cured, a whole new world and set of responsibilities open up for her. What will she do with this and how will she ensure that nature is protected from mankind's excesses.

Apparently, there is a movie in the making for this series. Uglies opened the door for books such as Delirium and Hunger Games, so I guess that it is fitting that Hunger Games continues to hold the door open for Uglies in hope that there is a large enough market for this type of futuristic teen in peril plot.