Specials (Uglies, #3)

by Scott Westerfeld

After being captured and surgically transformed into a "special," teenaged Tally Youngblood, now a government agent programmed to protect society from outside threats, is ordered to eliminate the rebel colony New Smoke, Tally's former home.

• ISBN10: 1442430087
• ISBN13: 9781442430082
• Publish Date: 3 May 2011 (first published 1 May 2006)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

“This decision was about who Tally Youngblood was inside, whether ugly or pretty or special.”

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

See reviews first on my blog

This book started only three months after the last one ended. With Tally now a Special and one of Shay’s group known as the cutters. They are Dr. Cable’s specials they do her bidding and know more about the cure more than anyone else in the city, and they are to stop it from getting to all of the new pretties in pretty town. Once they start this mission and follow all of Shay’s orders they realize that it has been entering pretty town for a while now. This starts a new mission, one where they must find the new smoke and destroy it all on their own. The only problem is that Tally remembers her old life, and what it was like, she still loves Zane and wants to help him get better and bubbly again. But she also realizes the problems that becoming bubbly creates now, and she is torn.
Once Tally finds a way to get Zane to be special, she decides to use any means necessary to make it happen. With Shay’s help they find a way for him to leave the city and find the smokies, but he isn’t okay and Tally really struggles with this, she loves him, but she can’t stand to see him.
Along the journey to find the smokies, we really start to see all of the changes Dr. Cable made to her and how terrifying specials are. What we don’t expect though is where the new smokies are, or who they now have helping them as well.
But when they try to change Tally back to being “normal” she doesn’t want it and she decides instead to become the person who monitors everything that happens in the outside world with David’s help. Yes David and Tally are finally working together again, not in a relationship, but friends of sort.
I can’t wait to see what happens in the final book, and how Westerfeld decides to end it all.

“ I love you all. But it’s time to say good-bye, for now.

be careful with the world, or the next time we meet, it might get ugly.

-Tally Youngblood”

[Kim Deister]

Specials I have such mixed emotions about this book. It was originally supposed to be the final book in a trilogy, although there is now a fourth book in which Tally appears as a non-central character. So, even though this ended up not being the final book, it is really the final book in which Tally is forefront. Because of that, the ending felt a little unfinished for what was in essence the end of her story. But then again, those imperfect endings are a reality of life.
 
Tally was also a lot less likeable in this book. This is not because of a lack of character development, but rather the fact that her character has undergone some extreme changes within her story arc. Her character has changed so much across the course of the three books to date. In the first, she was an Ugly, full of humanity as we know it. In Pretties, she was changed into a Pretty and her personality changed with it. Even when things changed for her, her personality was never really as it had once been. And now, as a Special, she is nothing as she once was. Her humanity is almost entirely gone, more cyborg than human.
 
The plot was extremely action-packed and there were some fantastic twists and turns throughout the story. Like the other books, there was romance, but it wasn't the central focus of the plot. That is something that I generally appreciate, although even I hoped for a little more. But I suppose romance is difficult when one has virtually no humanity.
 
The one thing that drove me insane for most of the novels was some of the vernacular. Emotion words are changed a bit and the style was fairly annoying at first, until I realized the reasons for that linguistic twist. Emotions are expressed as "bubbly" or "happy-making" or "fear-making." Even among the Pretties, emotions are less inherent and more manufactured. There is a distance between the Pretties and truly feeling emotion and the language really supports that.
 
Despite my misgivings about the ending, it is still an engaging read. One of the things I love most about these novels is that the author doesn 't neatly tie everything up into happily ever afters. There might be happiness or resolutions, but they aren't complete. There is still failure, destruction, death, disappointment, and loss. Life never has a perfectly happy ending and the author isn't afraid of showing that. Bittersweet emotions are a fact of life.
 
My Recommendation
 
I love this series! I love that these books make you think about your own values and beliefs, about the world we live in. Such a great thing! I gave it 4.5 mugs!

[Chelsea]

This series just keeps getting worse. Plus every book is the same. Book one: Tally runs away and turns pretty. Book two: Tally is pretty, runs away and becomes special. It’s all the same. This is probably going to be the same review I did for the other two books. I really don’t like that every time Tally gets surgery she has a new personality you have to get used to. It’s like a new character every time. She is especially annoying in this book because of her “special” surgery. She’s really mean and puts down everyone who isn’t like her. I feel like she’s supposed to get through this during the book but she never does.

I also really hated the “cutting” part in the book. I think it’s a little too much to put in a book like this. I thought it was really stupid. The whole society doesn’t have any morals at all. They cut, they drink underage and they live all together when they’re only 16. It’s kinda weird.

I guess the story line wasn’t too bad in this book but I was too annoyed and distracted by everything else that I didn’t really enjoy it.