Book Review: Specials

Specials
Uglies #3
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 384 pgs
Reading Level: YA
Published: May 3rd 2011 (new cover)
Review Source: Library
Available: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Borders

Summary: (from goodreads) "Special Circumstances":
The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumor — frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. But Tally's never been ordinary. And now she's been turned into one of them: asuperamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid. The strength, the speed, and the clarity and focus of her thinking feel better than anything Tally can remember. Most of the time. One tiny corner of her heart still remembers something more. Still, it's easy to tune that out — until Tally's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

I listened to the audio book for this one, also. I enjoyed reading about the adventures that Tally and Shay had while members of Special Circumstances. I admit that I cringed every time that Tally called Shay "Boss", even though she was the one responsible for making Tally "Special". I just feel that Tally is too independent of a character to be calling anyone "boss". And throughout the whole series their friendship goes through many ups and downs, which is really both of their faults.

Things I liked: Shay and Tally becoming friends again, and getting to see David again. Oh, and I liked what happens to Dr. Cable in the end.

Things that I wish would have been different: I didn't like how the "cutters" (Tally and Shay's group of Specials) stayed "icy", and I wasn't happy with Zane's storyline. I also was a little surprised by the ending. Not what I expected (but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised), but I'm not giving anything away. If you want to see what happens, you'll need to pick this one up.

Overall, this is a good series. I'm not disappointed that I read them, but I can't say that I absolutely loved them or anything. The best part of this trilogy, for me, was seeing how the main characters: Tally, Shay, and David developed throughout the series. There is one more book in this series called Extras, but it is told from a different point of view than Tally's.