Specials

July 1, 2006
Gr 8 Up -This final installment in the series is a warning of the dangers of overconsumption and conformity. Set some time in the future, after a human-made bacteria destroyed the modern world, the trilogy tells of new cities established and tightly controlled through brainwashing and a series of operations leading to a compliant society. Tally Youngblood, the 16-year-old protagonist, learns in the first two books that free will and truth are more important than a false sense of security. In "Specials", she has become an elite fighting machine, fully enhanced with nanotechnology and super-fast reflexes, and made to work as a Special Circumstances agent for the nameless city that she fled. As in the first two books, much of the story takes place with characters whizzing through the air on hoverboards, but Tally and her friends are in for some harsh realities here. Readers who enjoyed "Uglies" and "Pretties" (both S & S, 2005) will not want to miss "Specials", but those who have not read those books will not understand much of what is happening. Westerfeld -s themes include vanity, environmental conservation, Utopian idealism, fascism, violence, and love. In this trilogy, the author calls for a revolution in our hearts and minds -think "The Matrix"." -Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public Library"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2006
Gr. 7-10. After stints as a back-to-nature rebel (" Uglies, " 2004), and as a "bubbleheaded" specimen of physical perfection (" Pretties, " 2005)" ," 16-year-old Tally undergoes another dramatic reversal in this conclusion to Westerfeld's blockbuster trilogy. She now belongs to a turbocharged commando unit designed to quash resistance to the government's mass surgical (and neurosurgical) campaigns. Though at first a model Special, enamored of her "almost above human" status, several brushes with her past force her to question the price of her transformation as the stakes escalate. Some plot elements, especially Tally's gradual groping toward independent thought, may strike readers as rather similar to devices used in the preceding books, and the setup feels overcomplicated. But series fans will still relish this final visit to Westerfeld's dystopian world, in which details of the cultlike Specials, especially their imagination-grabbing gadgetry, inventively combine with the premise's winning themes: free will, self-image, and teen-powered subversion of authority. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2011
Westerfeld's unique dystopian "trilogy plus one" receives a full redesign (in hardcover, no less), from covers to trim size and page design, in an apparent attempt to market the books to a crossover audience.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)