The third and final in the main Uglies series. Tally and co return again this time as Specials. There is still tension between Tally and Shay, but it is surpressed now that Shay is the leader. They are still trying to stamp out the New Smoke and Tally is keen to get Zane to join their team to make him better after the events in Pretties. The Specials are fighting machines, they are Cruel Pretties designed to instil fear into others and were created by Dr Cable just in their city.

Shay leads the Crim group in a chase of the Uglies, but they capture Fausto leaving Tally alone to save Shay. They take Shay too and Tally decides to follow them and ends up meeting up with Andre Simpson Smith again to get coordinates. It takes her on a journey to the New Smoke and another city. She learns the truth finally and gets involved in a war.

A great conclusion to the story. I was glad it didn't have a completely happy ending, it was quite a realistic series despite the sci-fi elements and this made it more so. I am interested to see how Extras fits in as the story closes quite nicely. ( )

http://tyranist.blogspot.com/2009/10/... ( )

The third book in this now 4 part series starts off fairly weak but ends very strongly. Tally is now a "special," a super-human with scary-pretty features with unimaginable strength. She belongs to a secretive group of the specials called "Cutters," who are known to cut themselves to feel "icy" i.e. clear-headed. When she and her friend Shay (also a cutter and also her boss) break into a weapons archive and accidentally cause it to be destroyed, they inadvertantly declare war in a society that hasn't had war exist in hundreds of years.

When the book started, I wasn't as in love with it as the previous two. Perhaps I wasn't fascinated by Cutters like I was with Uglies and Pretties. However, after the destruction of the weapons archive, the book picks up steam and becomes thoroughly engrossing. Can't wait to read the 4th book! ( )

The is my favorite so far of the four book trilogy - it's less of a romp and more, well, ugly. Tally is pretty isolated in this book and doesn't have too many warm fuzzy moments. The ending is a little cheesy though. ( )

Sixteen year old Tally Youngblood has had the surgery that has made her a part of the elite and extra-special clique, the Cutters. The Cutters have superfast reflexes and strength—and sport frightening “surges” making them look more fearsome than the regular agents of the secret police, Special Circumstances. Tally finally fits in but she still feels like something is missing. She soon finds herself struggling between what the City has made her to be and what she once was, now buried deep under all of the surgeries and manipulations. ( )

http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blo... ( )

Specials had less social commentary compared to the first two books. While the emphasis was on following Tally’s story, there was underlying themes of thinking for yourself, respect for the natural world, and right vs. wrong. However, this book is definitely not stand-alone; you need to have read Uglies and Pretties to follow the story and characters.

Read my full review on my blog: http://www.monniblog.com/2009/09/spec... ( )

After the disappointment of Pretties, I was surprised to discover that Specials, in a sense, redeems the trilogy. The characters are presented in a far more complex, three-dimensional, manner. Their world becomes more complex too. In fact my main complaint in Pretties was the presentation of some characters as pure evil or pure good. Here characters are shown to be capable of both good and evil, and it is sometimes their choices that impacts which way they behave, but other times it is circumstances beyond their control. While I wish the trilogy was stronger in Pretties, Specials redeems it enough to make it a worthy read. ( )

My favourite of the entire series, possibly because Tally finally comes into her own and stops being a coward.

That and the abilities of the Cutter Specials are really awesome. :D

I'd love to have a prequel to the series, though. I'm happy with 'Extras' as a sequel to check in in terms of what happened after the Mind-Rain, but I'd like to see what happened before 'Uglies' started. ( )

Here I go again ending another trilogy. Specials is the final installment of the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. I must admit that out of the three books, Specials is my favorite.When we ended Pretties, Tally Youngblood is getting ready to be turned into a lethal Special. After the operation Tally is now a Cutter a branch of Special Circumstance that headed by Tally’s friend Shay. They are called cutters because unlike their pretty counterparts they have cunning speed, clarity, strength and focus, but sometimes in order to become even more in focus they inflict pain on their selves by cutting.Their mission is to find the New Smoke and destroy it once and for all, but Tally can’t help but feel that there is something more to this mission.Tally and Shay enlist Zane and a group of other Crims to run away to the New Smoke. Although Tally hates to feel the way she does, she can’t help but see Zane as weak and inferior. Zane and the other Crims have no desire to turn the New Smokes location over to Special Circumstances, but they may not have a choice with Tally and Shay following their every move.When Tally finally makes it to the New Smoke, it isn’t what she was expecting at all. It isn’t like the Smoke at all. It is actually another city called Diego. But this city is nothing like the city she knows. Pretties and Uglies are interacting, there are variations to the pretties beauty that she has never seen, ranges in skin tone and hair color. They aren’t forced to have the operation, they get to choose, and they also get to choose what they want to look like.Unfortunately events that Tally and Shay executed previously, leave Diego as a suspect for attacking an armory and Dr. Cable has started a war. Now Tally must clean up the mess she started, listen to what her heart is telling her, and save the New Smoke.If you’ve read Uglies and Pretties, you will love Specials. Although if you haven’t read the two previous novels, you won’t understand much of what is happening in Specials. Specials was an exciting and provocative ending to the Uglies trilogy. It’s action-packed, full of suspense and awesome writing! Kudos to Scott Westerfeld for such an thought-provoking series! ( )

http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/20... ( )

A morality tale skillfully disguised as a fast-paced, futuristic adventure story and a wonderful conclusion to the Uglies trilogy. ( )

Specials follows on from Pretties, it's worth reading them in order [the experience will be much better] start with Uglies.

Specials almost felt like a conclusional book, but knowing that Extras was soon to be released it didn't seem likely. A very exciting and unusual plot twist towards the end will give you an idead of what Extras is going to be about.

The characters just get better and better, Tally has evolved again and she still has problems, on the annoying scale of 1-10 she floats around 4-7, but it's what makes the story - the story. I love the world and the little things in this book. Can't wait for Extra's to get to the UK, it's very frustrating :( ( )

This book is very capitvating. The reader is able to see how Tally has grown from the first book to this book. The book keeps the reader wondering what will happen next and never gets dull. ( )

In some ways this was my favorite book in the series (which I read over the course of 5 or 6 days, by the way). In addition to the themes Westerfeld broaches in “Uglies” and “Pretties,” “Specials” also addresses the issues of giving up power and freedom in return for security. I simply love that you can read this as a young adult fantasy novel, a dystopian novel, or as thinly veiled social commentary, it works no matter what. Yes, I am aware that dytopian works by their nature must include social commentary, but the “Uglies” trilogy looks not only at where we might go if things continue to progress, but where we are right now.

Seriously, this is some of the best young adult literature I’ve read in awhile. I know it is popular, but this is much more deserving than Twilight to be the runaway blockbuster series. It is engaging, smart, and doesn’t include borderline-abusive relationships with shimmery vampires. Go ahead. Start with Uglies. If you aren’t sure about it, get the books from the library, but I would recommend getting all of them at once because once you finish one, you won’t want to wait for the next one. ( )

Opening Sentence: '...The six hoverboards slipped among the trees with the lightning grace of playing cards thrown flat and spinning ...'

So starts the final book of the 'Uglies' Trilogy. Set in the future, after a human-made bacteria destroyed the world, this trilogy tells of new cities established and tightly controlled through brainwashing and a series of operations leading to a compliant society. The premise of all this happening is to not allow the world to be destroyed again. Humans now start off 'Ugly' then they have an operation to become Pretties when they turn 16. Part of this operation is to operate on the brain so they become bubbleheaded and incapable of serious thought. For a selected few this is not the end - some Pretties are different, they start to think for themselves, so they are recruited, undergo further operations, and become Specials.

Tally Youngblood has become a Special, a sort of elite police force of the city, she has super strength and speed, unbreakable and unbeatable. Life should be perfect.

Yet Tally can't forget Zane, her boyfriend from her pre-special days, tragically damaged in his attempt to reverse the mind-dulling effects of becoming Pretty, damage Tally still blames herself for. She just wants revenge against the 'Smokies' the humans who live in the wild and choose to remain as Uglies. It was the Smokies who made the pill that Zane took which damaged his brain.

As Tally evolves through the three books, her character changes, she is lean and mean in this one. I think she is tired of listening to others and just wants to be free to make her own life choices, and thinks others should too. You can like her, love her or hate her - but you can't be indifferent to her. ( )

As the culmination of the trilogy, I expected a lot more from Specials than I actually got. Expected the story to be thrilling, coherent and most of all: resolved. The story was sort-of thrilling in spots, the way that a book written as a companion to a movie has excitement only as it can pull memories from said movie. Unfortunately, this has not been made into a movie (yet). The characters seem foreign from the previous book and as compared to the first are practically complete strangers to the reader.

Despite all that, it is not a bad novel. It does have a sort-of resolution which is sadly unsatisfying. I could see this series being made into quite successful movies if the right director were put on the project, but as a book series, the novels fall short of scintillating the reader. ( )

This is the last book in Tally's story and I am a little disappointed. Fist the good, by book 3 the slang is no longer annoying. The bad, Tally character is a lot weaker in this book. I can understand the reason behind her character flaw, but I expected her to deal with it better. Kind of like she did in the first two books, when she progressed. What connections I formed with her in "Pretties" were wiped out in this book. I did not care for her in this book (just like in Uglies), she was too much of a follower.

I also had a problem with how the ending was wrapper up too nicely. There is an art to wrapping up a story and Westerfeld did not do it in this story. I hate when a another wraps up all characters lives in the last chapter. I would rather be left guessing the what happens then to have a wrap up were an author basically states: so and so did that, and she does this. That is the formula that Westerfeld uses.

Even though I have one more book left in the series (Extras, which is sort of an epilogue with a new main character). I think this series as a whole would have been better if the author had done these things:

1. Extended the time period. Yes, revolutions can happen fast but it takes longer than a year to fully contemplate there is a problem and then overthrow the system. Especially if you are 16. Westerfeld packed a lot for just one year. And it takes away from the believability of the story (and yes I know it is science fiction, but it could have been executed better).

2. This series would have been better is the target audience had been adults. The young adult genre can be restricting. It has to be hard to try to convey emotions and concepts that are mature but keep them in a clean wholesome young adult reader format. It seemed that the Uglies "Trilogy" as a whole suffered from this restriction. The relationship that Tally formed with those around her would have been more believable if the reader did have to remind themselves that they were dealing with a 16 year old girl. Not a 20 something year old woman.

Pros: Not as slang ridden
Cons: Plot, Characters, Ending

Overall Recommendation: I would only recommend this if you have read the other two books and have a desire to at least see how Tally Youngblood's story ends. It is a fairly quick read (like the other two), so it will not feel like a complete waste of time. ( )

I like how the story in the end played out. I like that fact what Tally did for The Dr. Then she came back and helped her. My other favorite part in when her and David are going back out on an adventure. The sadest part is when Zane dies. ( )

So Tally wakes up changed...again. She has to beat her programming and figure out the truth...again. She needs to track down the Smoke...again. Pretty much the same general plot points as Pretties, but the meat is different. That and "bubbly" isn't used 300 times. They use "icy" in this book, but it's not annoying because it happens very little.

Tally is now a Special, and her newest assignment is to figure out how the residents of the Smokes are smuggling cure pills to pretties. To help out one of Tally's other friends, Tally and her friend, Shay, perform a trick that ends up endangering everyone in her city. Tally follows a group of pretties and finds that the world outside her city is much more different than she ever could have imagined. While there, Tally is confronted with a series of choices that will help to shape the future of humanity. Tally did have a couple of defining realizations, which made me like her character much more:

"I'm not sure what I am anymore ... Sometimes I think I'm nothing but what other people have done to me - a big collection of brainwashing, surgeries, and cures ... That, and all the mistakes I've made. All the people I've disappointed."

"Travelling alone gave Tally a lot of time to think, and she spent most of it wondering if she really was the self-centered monster Shay had described. It didn't seem fair. When had she even had a chance to be selfish? Ever since Dr. Cable had recruited her, other people had made most of Tally's choices for her. Someone was always forcing her to join their side in the conflict between the Smokies and the city. Her only real decisions so far had been staying ugly in the old smoke (which hadn't worked out at all), escaping from New Pretty Town with Zane (ditto), and splitting up with Shay to protect Zane (not great so far). Everything else had happened because of threats, accidents, lesions in her brain, and surgery changing her mind for her. Not exactly her fault."

One of the characters dies, and it's sad. The ending is decent, but not mind-blowing. I wasn't in awe of it, but it wasn't as bad as Pretties either. In terms of the series as a whole, I'd say Uglies was the best, followed by Specials, and finally Pretties. ( )

"Freedom has a way of destroying things" but total control has a way of destroying MUCH more!

I think it is very important to remember that Specials (along with Uglies and Pretties) is Young Adult Fiction which should give it a little more leeway in the review. I would not want a young teenager to read this series because though the beginning was fun and thought provoking, it became quite dark. I did not like reading about the self mutilation and how "icy" it was to the "cutters". Jumping off buildings, hanging onto helicopters, and many more idiotic moves just to get a clearer mind was just stupid! I had a hard time identifying with Tally throughout the series. I liked her in the first book, but grew to despise her, pity her and eventually, just wish she would go away! I would prefer to read a book where I can relate to the main characters in some way.

The series took many twists and turns along the way giving us some interesting ideas of what happens when we lose control over our own lives, when Government takes over, and when everything is provided for us! It was interesting to learn what the characters thought was beautiful. The sixteen year olds in this book had MUCH too much power! They were children and by nature of their age, should have never EVER been given so much control!

I would NOT recommend this series to any other adult, but did give it to my 19 year old son's girlfriend. I'd bet that she loves it! I am ready for an adult book! ( )

Sixteen year-old Tally has gone from Ugly to Pretty and now, to Special. She has super human senses and physical abilities, owing to ceramic bones, monofilament muscles and presumably, some kind of neurological engineering. Again, her brain has been toyed with, but this time, she has been convinced to fight for the enemy in this epic battle of freedom-fighters vs. Big Brother-types. As in the other two books, there are a number of increasingly implausible chase scenes throughout the book. All the while, the reader is hoping that Tally will once again overcome the government's surgically-altered mind control on her own due to the innate strength of her character. At times in this book, more than in the other two, Tally comes off as quite shallow and fickle, leaving the reader to wonder, is this Tally or the surgery? This story can be taken on two levels. It can be read strictly as a young adult action series involving the adventures of Tally Youngblood. Or it can be seen as a commentary on human nature, which is how I preferred to read it. The moral of the story to me is that humans, left to their own devices, will pillage and destroy nature and ultimately, themselves every time. Therefore, some type of counter-force must be installed to prevent mankind from going down the wrong path time and again. However, the problem always arises; who will oversee the counter-force to make sure that it stays on the straight and narrow itself?? These are interesting ideas but the author seems to have a more cynical and negative outlook on mankind than I do. One other point that I did not appreciate was the author's somewhat tacit approval of 'cutting' or engaging in high risk behaviors such as flying off buildings as a way to sharpen the senses and gain mental clarity (getting bubbly or icy). To risk sounding like an old fogey, these suggestions (and others such as constant champagne drinking by sixteen year-olds) seemed inappropriate in a book geared to young adults. ( )

This was really more of 3.5 stars.
This is the 3rd book in the Uglies trilogy and while it was a good book it did not grab me as much as Uglies did. In a way it was sort of a repeat of Pretties taken up to another level. Tally once again has been transformed without her consent and has to “rewire” herself to remember who she really is. There is continued tension between she and Shay which I was really hoping would get resolved in a happy way. I would have liked to see more interaction between Tally and Zane. The ending was a little cheesy but I am satisfied.

Stop here if you don’t want any spoilers.



I have to say I was satisfied with the ending except that Zane was killed off! That really bugged me. In Pretties it was such a big deal how “bubbly” Zane was and how Tally chose him over David. In Specials Zane is pretty crippled and is portrayed in a pretty sad light. Tally is disgusted by his averageness and it never really gets resolved until he dies and even then you never really know what would have happened between teh two of them if he was cured. What I also found cheesy is how she ends up back with David and goes off to live with him. There wasn’t much build up as to why she started to like him again and it seems so sudden after Zane’s death that you really have to wonder about Tally’s fickleness.

See my other reviews here: http://debbiesworld.wordpress.com ( )

The Uglies series never slows, which reoccurs in Specials. It's so frusturating to watch Tally finally get a grasp of her own thinking, only to see her thrown back into a new surgery that changes her yet again. But I think that is what makes Specials so addicting. Just when I start to think I can predict what will happen, everything changes.
Specials is just as adventurous as the others, maybe even more-so now that Tally is practically a superhuman. I felt that this book spent more time describing the mental games and processes within Tally than the others. Instead of focusing primarily on events and the grand scheme of things, Specials spent time describing everything from Tally's perspective, the mastermind behind everything.
To me, Specials is the most detailed and well thought out of the series, and made me extremely hungry for the next book, Extras.
Loved it of course! 4/5 ( )

everything is not what it seems in this book. ( )