Extras (Uglies, #4)

by Scott Westerfeld

Now that the world is in a complete cultural renaissance, fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse, an Extra, just wants to lay low, so when she discovers the secret lives of the Sly Girls, she wants to report their story, but Aya knows that would propel her into celebrity--a status she's not prepared for.

• ISBN10: 1442419784
• ISBN13: 9781442419780
• Publish Date: 3 May 2011 (first published 2 October 2007)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Edition: Reissue
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

My Rating: 3.5 stars
“You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.”
See reviews first on my Blog



Originally my rating for this book was 4 stars. I have since change it to 3.5 stars because; this book isn’t as good as the other three books. I still enjoyed it, but it just didn’t hold my attention as much as the others did.
Having said that though, I did find the concept of how society was based on a social rating and how much people talked about you, meant you got more in life, this is fairly close to how things seem to be when you look at certain celebrities and what they are famous for.
I did like Aya as a character. I found her to be really interesting, and she was adventurous for doing what she did. She does make questionable choices, but they did end up working out and made things better for the most part. I did get annoyed with her occasionally though, especially when she starting being manipulative with the Sly Girls in order to get a story. The Sly girls did get her back though, and showed her some things that ended up being useful later on.

I didn’t really care for the love interest though, and did end up finding him annoying, especially when it got time to resave the world and he just started causing more problems.

The main reason I didn’t care for this story as much, was because of how little Tally and her crew were in it. They didn’t get involved into way into the book. Personally I would have preferred for the story to be told from both Aya’s and Tally’s perspectives. So that we could have seen what that portion of the world had switched to, and still have gotten to see what Tally and David were up to and how they were keeping everything regulated.
I didn’t really find this book necessary though, and if you do plan to read the series, I would say you can skip this last one, and just leave things how they were at the end of the last book.

“I know what it’s like to be manipulated, Aya-la. And I know what it’s like to be in danger. While your city was building you mansions to live in, my friends and I have been protecting this planet. We’ve spilled more blood than you have flowing in your veins. So don’t try to make me feel guilty!"


I am interested to see what Westerfelds other books are like, and I hope to read one this summer if possible.

[Kim Deister]

Extras Extras is the unexpected final book in the Uglies series, following what was originally touted as a trilogy.  The series is set in a dystopian future in which the ideas of beauty and conformity are the central ideals of the society.  This book takes place a few years after Tally's story ended and centers on Aya Fuse.  While conformity is less of a "thing" than it once was, beauty still remains as a measure of worth.  But is apparently no longer enough to be beautiful OR to be unique.  In Aya's city, being famous was the primary goal.  The more famous you are, the higher your "face rank" is and that rank is the currency upon which her society is based.  
 
There are pretty specific cliques within her fame-obsessed world.  There are the tech heads, those that are obsessed with the newest technology.  There are also the surge monkeys, those who are obsessed with the newest and weirdest plastic surgery trends in their quest for physical attractiveness.  And then there are the kickers, those obsessed with tracking down the latest story, the latest gossip, the latest bit of news.  These are posted on feeds, techy versions of our blogs.  Those whose face ranks are at the low end are the extras, the climbers who are obsessed with raising their ranks.  Aya is an extra with a face rank so low that no one knows who she is.  And she is obsessed with changing that.  When she stumbles upon a mysterious group of girls, it changes everything for her.  Most of the book focuses on Aya and her friends and they are all important to the story.  But we also see Tally and her crew again, brought into the story at important moments.  There are a ton of twists and turns in the plot, and quite a few surprises.  
 
In many ways, this is a timely book for this day and age.  It confronts the ideas of beauty and fame both, and turns it on edge in an extreme way that makes you think.  There are also themes of ethics and morality that present themselves in interesting, even if subtle, ways.  
 
There is no question that I loved this series and the thoughts it provoked.  But I can't help but wish that perhaps it took all of these themes just a bit further.  Like any good dystopian story, the author criticizes current society and focuses on aspects of it that are disturbing in their potential for disaster.  He took those things to extreme levels and based the world of his books on those aspects.  Beauty, conformity, fame... all of these things have the potential for disaster.  And all of these things are questioned.  But in the end, Tally still becomes Pretty and Aya still becomes famous.  True, as characters they have questioned those things and they are aware of the darker side, but they still became the very things that are at the center of controversy.  While both of these girls rebelled against the system, they both benefitted from it and I am not sure that was the intended message.  Of course, I do tend to over think things!
 
My Recommendation
 
This is an well-written series with some important issues as the focus.  It is engaging and thought-provoking and a fantastic reading experience.

[Chelsea]

Why did he write a fourth book? Book three would have been a perfect ending but no he had to continue to write. This book was pretty bad I think. The original characters are in the last quarter. That's it. What's the point? And were at a completely new city too. It doesn't make any sense. I had the hardest time trying to finish this one.

[nannah]

Surprisingly, I liked this book better than Specials. I thought the characters were engaging, as well as their relationships with each other, and when Tally and her friends finally appeared, their personalities were still spot-on, which is something I worried about before picking up this book.

As always, the technology and the atmosphere in Extras is thorough and well-imagined. This is a setting and novel of which readers become a part, not something they observe from the outside. Westerfeld is a genius with well-written and beautiful prose and it keeps the pages turning and the book from straying out of my hands.

A wonderful read. :)

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Extras is an excellent addition to the Uglies series, a book that tackles big themes but different big themes and with different characters. Westerfeld gives his readers the satisfaction of seeing what happens after the world changes, but is smart enough to tell the story from a fresh perspective—that of Aya Fuse, a fifteen-year-old Japanese girl with dreams of becoming as popular as her older brother. Society has accepted a broader definition of beauty (though what is ugly still seems to be quite clear), and the new obsession is fame. Westerfeld expertly explores the value of fame, the meaning of fame, and how far one should go to acquire it. There is a fair amount of discussion about truth and integrity in journalism, though the conclusions are a little hazy. Of course, amongst all the philosophy he gives readers action, adventure, and romance of the caliber that colored the first three books.

The one annoying element (and this is very much a matter of opinion) is the continuation of the comments about Rusties’ horrible treatment of the planet. Many readers will agree that pollution is something better avoided and that, yes, humans ought to have some respect for nature, but the characters’ constant condemnation of all the Rusties’ habits is somewhat insulting since we are the Rusties. Westerfeld (and the characters harp on the topic so much that they do eventually come across as Westerfeld’s opinions) begins to give the impression he does not like us very much.

His viewpoint also changes from normal concern for the earth to something very radical. The characters are against cutting down trees, killing animals, and mining. There is also a lot of talk about keeping the population under control, which might be the most troubling of all. Their worries are hypocritical since they do actually eat meat and since it is rather convenient that a bunch of trees were cut down and a ton of metal was mined before they were even born, thus allowing them to live the lifestyles they do. But things get far out of control at the end of the story when (spoiler ahead!) a great plan is revealed to send people to live in orbit around the planet, thus allowing them to both keep the population down and take lots of metal with them so that the earth dwellers will be unable to expand their cities further into the wild. This is all seen as amazingly praiseworthy for some reason, although it comes across to me as another group of people controlling everyone else by force (or at the very least stealing, since the vast metal reserves are not actually theirs). This was bad when the Specials did it, but apparently good now since now since these people are “saving the planet.” Uglies seemed to be promoting dialogue and decisions made by societies instead of secret elite groups working “for the benefit” of people too stupid to know what was good for them on their own, but in Extras those rules just do not apply.

I loved this book, and it is really very good. Anyone who liked the first three will definitely want to read it. But there is something about saving the environment that makes Westerfeld a little crazy, and it became a little too obvious in this final book for my comfort.

This review was also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.