Specials: Read it to satisfy your curiosity

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

Tally has changed since she was caught by Special Circumstances. She has become one of them: a Special. Her body and mind have been altered and she is now an elite fighting machine with super-fast reflexes and a hardened body that can withstand almost anything…but none of this can really make her happy. Tally is surrounded by “friends,” but none of them can take away her memories of her friends from the Smoke and the lessons they taught her. Then she and Shay get a breakthrough and once again whiz off into the wild on their hoverboards searching for the elusive “New Smoke” where the rebels are said to be hiding. If they can find the New Smoke and bring their boss Dr. Cable to it, their lives will be easy at last… or so they think.

Although it was great to be back in Scott Westerfeld’s futuristic world which I have come to know and love, Specials lacked a certain charm that was palpable throughout Uglies and Pretties.
In Specials, Tally is the antagonist instead of the protagonist, and the flip in positions is a giant leap from the end of Pretties. What disturbed me most about Specials is that I stopped liking Tally. She became sort of a mean person and I was less drawn to her character.

So, the end of the series was less than satisfying, to say the least. Specials left me disappointed. I felt that Westerfeld took the easy way out by ending the series the way he did.

If you’ve already read Uglies and Pretties, you will have to read Specials just to satisfy your curiosity. But don’t expect much. It’s quite maddening, actually.

Julie Waineo, one of our earliest guest reviewers, earned an MBA at Bowling Green State University. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with a minor in French. Now living in Virginia with her husband and dog, Julie is an avid reader of not only fantasy, but historical fiction, the occasional “chick lit,” and children’s literature.