Product Description

"Special Circumstances" - These words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a rebellious Ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumour - frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. But Tally's never been ordinary...Now she's been turned into one of them: a superamped 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: carry out the mission she's programmed to complete, or listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat telling her that something's wrong...Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67166 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"The most challenging of the three books in the trilogy, and for that and many other reasons, its easily my favourite of the bunch."
--The Book Smugglers, 6 Aug 09

About the Author
'YA's hippest author' Scott Westerfeld is the author of the hugely popular Uglies series. As well as the Midnighters series and three stand alone YA novels, he has written five science fiction novels for adults. He and his wife, Justine, divide their time between Sydney and New York.

Customer Reviews

WOW.
I was blown away by this book [and in fact the whole trilogy!]. Aside from having a stunning plot which is able to spread across three books without becoming tedious; the world in which Tally and others live is perfectly thought out and utterly believable. Its a brilliant book but very hard to describe to others- many people would turn their nose if you said "its set in the future and everyone has had an operation to make them pretty." BUT DONT BE DISCOURAGED! Tally's story is so down to earth and exciting this book is one that will be glued to your hands, and your brain, for a long while.

Another point. When you're finished the debate is on: Is the city evil with its operations, boundaries and runaway-rules? Or are the Smokies really driving the world back to rusty times of environmental damage?.....

Nip/Tuck vs urban escape
Do you like stories about people who all look and dress the same?, do you like futuristic urban sci-fi stories? Do you like stories about ordinary people who refuse to conform to the ''norm'' or be a sheep?

If so you will like this book and its follow-ups, this story tells the tale of a young girl called Tally, she is about to become a 'pretty' and live in the city with all the other 'pretties', but Tally doesnt want to conform.

Tally is an ordinary girl, while some part of her wants to become a 'pretty', her spirit and determination of living her own life becomes more important. Discover tally's adventures as she escapes the urban pretty city, and lives life in a new rural world, where she meets ordinary people who have also managed to escape.

A little too neat an ending to an excellent trilogy
The first two books focus on Tally's choices and in particular, her decision to be free. In this book, Tally's previous experiences mean that she works hard to preserve the status quo rather than her own needs. The implication is that this is because of the re-wiring she's had done to make her a Special, but it's difficult to root for a character who's fighting to stay trapped and I often found myself frustrated with her actions in the story.

For the first time the reader sees another city, Diego. Westerfeld shows how the Smokies were essentially able to take it over by distributing nano-pills to the population, drawing so many people to the city that the infrastructure is unable to cope. The city is forced to expand into the forest, using the same techniques used by the Rusties and which eventually led to their destruction. For me, this raised questions as to how the cities operate - it seems strange that the superior technology and power sources that Westerfeld hints at should now be unable to cope with more people and it took me out of the book.

The resolution to the Shay storyline is too pat. Shay is a conflicted and disturbed character, intensely jealous of Tally and her relationships and bitter about her memories of Tally's betrayal. Tally's guilt about what she's done and desperation to make it up to Shay form a central plank of her character and much of this book is taken up with Tally's attempts to make things right. However, the resolution of this occurs (a) off page and (b) at the hands of the Smokies and because the girls don't talk through what's happened, it feels unsatisfying. The resolution of the love triangle between Tally, David and Zane was also too neat and I'd have liked to see more of what draws Tally and David together

The Specials have to cut themselves to stay icy, but you don't see a great deal of this on the page and Westerfeld sticks to talking about the psychological effects. Given the amount of time dedicated to the attempts to stay 'bubbly' in PRETTIES, it's noticeable that the same attention to being icy isn't made here.

Saying this, it's a very fast-paced book and the world-building is well imagined. Those who've read the previous books will want to check out the conclusion.