Specials

Well, I thought Uglies was pretty good. Pretties was a little less thrilling. This one just really dragged. Nothing really compelled me to keep reading except wanting to finish and be done.

Opening up the wider world and bringing in politics between the cities was the only mildly interesting part. The biggest problem is Tally is a terrible character. Supposedly a strong driving force but mostly just sways with (or perhaps against) whatever prevailing wind is blowing. I probably won't bother with #4.

I kept expecting the series to fail me. But I enjoyed this as much as the previous two books.

I was not prepared for Tally being captured by the specials at the end of book two. It should have been obvious she would be ...

But this is the book that contains the Cutters and the cutting. This should really have been presented in a more balanced way. I am missing someone arguing against this. Especially after Tally turns into a Cutter herself.

This one pales in comparison to the previous two. It kind of feels like a rehashing of the plot of Pretties without much extra. The writing is different as well. Each book contained more and more of the colloquialisms of the culture Westerfeld created in the actual narrative.

Unfortunately, this instalment felt like an action sequel without much of the literary meat that the first and to a lesser extent the second instalments had. Tally Youngblood is once again transformed and manipulated and Westerfeld once again expands the curtain covering the world a bit more. However, by this point this is the third time we have been through this character development arc, and Tally has become a less empathetic character. Though given her forced transformations at this point, there isn't much humanity left, which may have been one of Westerfeld's points, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

I still tore through the book quickly and Westerfeld does a good job of pulling the reader along despite shallowness of the characters at this point. I'm just a little disappointed that it didn't have the punch and commentary of the first book in the series.