So, if you're yet to read the first and second books, I must warn that here be spoilers. So if you don't wanna ruin the earlier books, don't read this review just yet!
Now, Specials is probably my least favourite book in the series, not because I don't like it, but because I don't like who Tally has become (which, of course, is a result of her latest operation). In the first book, she was an ugly. At the very end, she gave herself up to be pretty. In the second book, she was a pretty. Then, at the end of Pretties, Special Circumstances caught her and turned her Special. So Tally has been pretty much everything you can be in the world of her city, and she's still messing things up for herself.
So, have the blurb:
Tally thought they were a rumour, but now she's one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.
But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn't better than anything she's ever know. 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 the tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.
Just as well written as the other two, if not better. And yet... I just don't like it as much. Tally in her new form is not the Tally I've grown to love, and for that reason, I can't attach myself to the book like I did the other two. Now, it's the final in the... trilogy. Except for Extras, but that doesn't really count. And Tally is a Cutter, one of Dr. Cable's special specials. Now, Tally and Shay plan an escape for Zane to get to the New Smoke so they can trick him, capture the New Smoke, get Zane turned into a Cutter, and all live happily ever after. Needless to say, it doesn't turn out that way at all.
One thing I like about Westerfield is that he's nothing if not unpredictable. The twists and turns in Specials will keep you on the edge of your seat, just as in the other books. And of course, there is still a healthy level of hatred for all who are different, by the main characters. But it's not their fault their brains continue to be altered. Also, Specials continues the 'destroying the world' message, but perhaps a little more subtly and eloquently than Uglies did.
Just a word of warning: you will cry. I do everytime. Then I put the book down and curse Scott Westerfield for a while. Then I stop crying, pick up the book, and promptly begin the cycle again until I am past those few pages. It's just not fair.
What do I rate it? Probably *** out of five. Not because of the writing or the plot, but because I don't like Tally. Or the twist. And that's where we'll leave this review, I think! Soon, I'll put the Extras review up. :)
Title: Specials
Author: Scott Westerfield
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 372
Source: Bought
