Specials is the third book in the popular Dystopian Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld and while I didn’t like it as much as the other two I still enjoyed it. Again, for those wanting to read the series you may want to skip reading this as there is no possible way to avoid spoilers from the first two books.
At the end of Pretties Tally is captured again and this time she wakes up as a Special, but a different branch of them called Cutters and her friend Shay runs the group. The Cutters are more powerful and very much more adventurous than a regular Special with unbreakable ceramic bones, sharp teeth and nails, better hearing and vision – basically they are like machines. They cut themselves to feel more ‘icy’ meaning more in control of the situation they’re in.
Tally’s biggest issue is that Zane is not with her. Zane was Tally’s boyfriend who in Pretties ingested some pills with her to take care of the lesions in their head but unfortunately he got the pill that ate up his mind instead. Tally wants Zane to be a Cutter because she is completely turned off by him being just a pretty. One thing the Cutters seem to have is a very over-inflated ego and they feel they are above all others. So she keeps at Shay until Shay agrees to make Zane a Special but with conditions. Zane must lead them to the New Smoke.
Even though Tally is this machine like person now, she still seems to have some of her old Tally self lingering. When Zane tells Tally to start thinking for herself again, this starts her to wondering what this new life of hers is really all about. Then Tally and Shay decide to pull off a stunt that changes everything, even the scope of their own world and when Tally reaches the New Smoke she realizes how much.
The story takes off from here and we’re back to hoverboarding everywhere and Tally doing things that made me hold my breath at times. Tally is still my favorite character but at times I was annoyed with her in this book because she so easily followed Shay. I know she was programmed to be the way she was and over the course of the story she does try to think for herself again and that brings me back to liking her again. I think it’s important that Tally realized that she didn’t need to cut herself to be special – a very important point to get across.
Specials is the final book in the Uglies trilogy and for me it both disappointed me in some ways and impressed me in others and well that’s all I can say about that without ruining the story for anyone. I will say though that the ending did surprise me as it wasn’t what I expected and while it wasn’t what I may have wanted, it was a satisfying end to the trilogy. There is another book Extras but it isn’t a continuation of this story. I will read it at some point but not right now. You can see my reviews of Uglies here and Pretties here; the first two books in the series.
Darlene
I have read over and over that the series loses its lustre at this stage. Still I am tempted to at least try the first two!
Uglies and Pretties are better in my opinion too. I still need to read Extras as well.
I've found that the later books in a series tend to fall short of the first couple. I'm still looking for one to change my mind about this.
I'm still on the fence with this series, though if I can tame my TBR tower, I'll probably give it a go.
–Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
I shall skip this one for now Dar. As I still have Pretties to read. I really need to get on with that.
A book that can stir all those emotions must be alright.
Good review.
I have all three of these books because Carl read them. He really enjoyed the series and talked about Tally for a while. I need to make time to get to them.
I will have to move these books up in priority I think…though this last one sounds like its not as good as the others.
Okay, now this cover just creeps me out!
I've to skim through your review because I want to read this series! 😉
I keep my dystopias to a minimum but a good one can be great. I don't know quite what to make of this but it sounds interesting!
I think during my Spring Break this year that I will dedicate it to those YA books that I keep meaning to read, which of course includes this series!!
I am not reading this review as I have the 1st book in the series and I really need to read it 🙂
My goodness…I just HAVE to read this series..great review,Dar.
I think I was one of the few who liked the third book better than the second. Extras is separate from the series, but some of the same character do show up peripherally, and I think that as long as you don't have too high of expectations it's a fun read.
I read Uglies, but just didn't care enough to read either of the others. I'm glad you at least like this one, though.
I didn't read your review because I hope to read it – soonish. I only had 1, 3 and 4, so I was stuck. I just got 2 a couple weeks ago, so I'm good to go now. I look forward to it.
Thanks for sharing your views about the series. I am not sure I'll read them now but it's definitely in my radar for future reading. 🙂
I so want to read this series and have the first book waiting for me. I hope I like them as much as you did, but I didn't read your whole review for fear of spoilers!
Nice review! I just finished up this book last night and will be posting my review shortly. I wish the second two books in this series had lived up to the first, but by the end I was happier with this book than I initially thought I was going to be.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!