Specials

Title: Specials
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Genre: YA science fiction
Got it from: library
Why I read it: third in a series
Grade: B+

Synopsis:
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: 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: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete.

My review:
I liked this one a bit better than Pretties.  There was none of the vapid, annoying language that was in pretties.  Or at least, not as much.  I was still annoyed with the characters, though.  But I guess, in a way, I'm supposed to be.  Maybe that's the whole point of these novels, or at least a large part.  The characters are programmed to think and act in certain ways.  And the programming is not always attractive.

This is definitely an interesting series.  The world that Westerfeld has created is different, but not unrecognizable.  It's a future America that could, although probably wouldn't, happen.  There are moral dilemmas throughout all three books, and at the end, the reader is left wondering if the right choices were made, and what will happen to their world.

There were parts of this book that left me feeling very depressed.  To me, most of this book is not happy, it's not hopeful, it was just kind of sad and depressing.  Still, I do like Westerfeld's writing, and will be reading more of his books, starting with Extras.  I would recommend this series.