Specials Author: Visit Amazon's Scott Westerfeld Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1442419792 | Format: PDF
Specials Description
From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up–This final installment in the series is a warning of the dangers of overconsumption and conformity. Set some time in the future, after a human-made bacteria destroyed the modern world, the trilogy tells of new cities established and tightly controlled through brainwashing and a series of operations leading to a compliant society. Tally Youngblood, the 16-year-old protagonist, learns in the first two books that free will and truth are more important than a false sense of security. In
Specials, she has become an elite fighting machine, fully enhanced with nanotechnology and super-fast reflexes, and made to work as a Special Circumstances agent for the nameless city that she fled. As in the first two books, much of the story takes place with characters whizzing through the air on hoverboards, but Tally and her friends are in for some harsh realities here. Readers who enjoyed
Uglies and
Pretties (both S & S, 2005) will not want to miss
Specials, but those who have not read those books will not understand much of what is happening. Westerfeld's themes include vanity, environmental conservation, Utopian idealism, fascism, violence, and love. In this trilogy, the author calls for a revolution in our hearts and minds–think
The Matrix.
–Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Scott Westerfeld‘s other teen books include the Midnighters series,
Peeps,
So Yesterday, and
The Last Days. He divides his summers between Sydney, Australia, and New York City.
- Age Range: 12 and up
- Grade Level: 7 and up
- Series: The Uglies (Book 3)
- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Simon Pulse; Reissue edition (May 3, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1442419792
- ISBN-13: 978-1442419797
- Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Specials is the final book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy (after Uglies and Pretties). In this installment, Tally wakes up from surgery and finds herself part of an ultra-cool team of Specials (bio-engineered, covert law enforcement personnel) called the Cutters. She has snazzy techno-features, like embedded computer chips, unbreakable ceramic bones, and razors that come out of her fingernails. She's the ultimate weapon.
It's a bit disturbing to read a book in which the heroine of the series has been essentially co-opted by the bad guys. Tally now works for Shay, her complex best friend, and is expected to find and betray the New Smokies (her friends of the first book). But she does maintain traces of her former self, and she is particularly motivated to find Zane (her now brain-damaged love from the second book), and convince Dr. Cable to transform Zane into a Special, too. However, when she does find Zane, she is revolted by his weakness, by his not being "special" like she is. She struggles with herself, knowing deep inside that she loves him, but programmed to see the world so keenly that his imperfections grate on her, and so sure of her own superiority that she can't really imagine being with him again.
A series of adventures follow, during which Tally and Shay pull a stunt that turns out to have disastrous consequences, and then set off on the trail of the New Smoke. Tally re-encounters David (her love from before she met Zane), and has to go up against the seemingly invincible Dr. Cable. The ending is satisfying in many ways, although the resolution of the Zane vs. David choice is a bit of an anti-climax.
Overall, I found it a fascinating story, full of unexpected twists, chases, and cool special effects.
This is a review on the audio book version of "Specials" performed brilliantly by Carine Montbertrand.
I will assume that anyone reading this book has read the previous books in this series. If not than stop reading this review and go read them. The last we saw of Tally Youngblood, she had escaped pretty town and on her own made it to the New Smoke ready to reunite with her boyfriend Zane. Poor afflicted Zane, who took the cure with her and started to experience terrible headaches. At the Smoke, Tally is told by her old beau Ugly David that the cure pills were meant to be taken together (although in their directions they never said so!) and Zane got the Nanobytes that apparently lurved to snack on brain matter nonstop, while Tally got the pill that stopped those Nanos from that third trip to the buffet. Tally realizes that she has cured herself of pretty-mindedness. She is sort of like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix but without the leather outfit or Laurence Fishburne.
Tally is soon revisited by her old friend Shay, who is now a Special by her own choice. Shay wants Tally to be Special too, and whisks her back to Pretty town for yet another operation. Specials are like the Men in Black from our society, you hear of them but never see them, yet you fear them anyway. They don't have the brain lesions, so they aren't airheads like the Pretties. Specials have all sorts of add-ons, for sight and stealth and strength. They have "skintennas" built in so they can talk to each other on a network, they can see in the dark, and have tattoos covering their bodies. They also have wolf like features and sharpened teeth, the better to eat you with my dear!
Tally, as a special, is deadly beautiful.
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