Extras - Scott Westerfeld

I gave both Uglies and Extras 4/5 stars. I thought that these two were the best of the bunch. I didn't care much for the other two. They were very repetitive when it came to those annoying new word creations. Extras does have it but it is not so much in your face.

This book introduces a whole new bunch of characters as well as bring in the old ones. It even brings in new worlds and hoe each country is still different from one another. Let's just call them "cultures". Extras is mainly set in Japan. All new new characters "speak" Japanese (even though we never hear/read it, we know it). Fame is very important and everyone has a face-rank number and to be in the top 1,000 is supposed to be considered a celebrity of some sort. Most people achieve this by posting "news" on message boards and the like. The ones with the best stories move up in rank. It was pretty interesting. Money is still not an issue but people did work for merits. The more you've helped (ie: babysitting, volunteering, doing homework) the more merits you earn and these merits earn you things. It's sorta like money but everything is earned honestly and by doing the right things.

If only....

Specials - Scott Westerfeld

So this is the third in the series and I assume Extras would be the last. I gotta admit that this one was better than the second, Pretties but Uglies, was still the best one out of the three.

I gave Specials 3/5 stars because it was a good read and that only. I liked how the incorporated all the regular characters and the ending was very surprising and I liked how it did a massive switch but still I felt the language was annoying. Pretties had it the worst with all the dizzy-making and all bubbly but Specials only really had icy. I feel that the author kinda just created a new language for the average teenager. A friend of mine said she feels like he watched Clueless over and over again and I agree. I also feel that since this is supposed to be like hundreds or thousands of years after our time (I know he mentions it in the book but I forgot how long really) so maybe Scott Westerfeld was simply creating a new language for them all together. Either way, it was a fun read and I will be getting to Extras sometime soon.

Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

So this is one of my favorite Young Adults novels. I never really got into them as an adult but this one was very good. It is also good for young adults to understand that beauty is within and to be different is wonderful. I liked the whole concept and enjoyed futurific quality of it. Uglies is basically about how everyone is "ugly" until their 16th birthday and then they get operations that smooth their skin, fix their thought (making them grown-up) and do complete 360 and make the into the Pretties where life is great and they party all the time. The Uglies and the Pretties don't associate. In fact, they are not even allowed to live with each other. They are separating and until the Ugly becomes Pretty they will have no contact until the transformation.

It is a great concept and I like the style writing. It's fun and it grips you into it. I think that young adults would very much enjoy this. It was a very quick read and now I got to get on the whole series now. Pretties is next. I gave this book 4/5 stars based on my view of a YA novel.