Summary from Goodreads:
"Special Circumstances":
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. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Review:
Specials was quite a good sequel to Pretties as it explained in detail what being a Special actually felt like. Prior to this, Specials were mysterious and terrifying. Like in previous books, Specials continued the process of exploring personal relationships. It also looked into how becoming a superhuman would affect a relationship.
Westerfeld successfully developed the main characters. However, the secondary characters seemed quite 2D and could have been developed more, for example, Tachs, Ho and many of the other Cutters.
Some parts of the book were slow such as the beginning, whereas other parts were comparatively fast-paced. The author introduced new vocabulary such as ‘icy’ and ‘Randoms’ which showed the Cutters’ perception of the world.
In Pretties, Tally had to rediscover her true memories. In Specials, her memories about the past were inaccurate and twisted which meant she had to rediscover her memories once again which made the book repetitive for readers.
The abrupt changes in the relationship between Tally and Shay throughout the series, but especially noticeable in Specials, was tiresome as they went from being the best of friends to the worst of enemies and to being allies again. Shay’s outbursts of fury towards Tally felt like déjàvu from Pretties and Uglies.
As in previous books, Westerfeld introduced interesting technology such as sneak suits, shock sticks and deadly, all consuming nanos to show the technological advancement of Tally’s society. The sneak suits were especially fascinating as they could change both texture and colour. They could mimic any garment, provide armour and disguise heat.
The last few chapters were written hastily and felt like an epilogue. Tally was removed from the centre of action and saw events unfold from the confines of her prison cell. Westerfeld no doubt intended Tally to have some time to think over her experiences and rewire her brain. Being unable to act meant that she had plenty of time to think.
Also, the ending felt rushed. For someone she loved, Tally did not spend much time mourning Zane’s death. It was less than five minutes. Also, Dr Cable’s sudden change of heart in rescuing Tally at the end of the book was out of character to all that she had done previously. It would have been better if Tally had escaped herself or if someone else rescued her. This would have been more believable.
Personally, I didn’t agree with Tally’s decision to remain a Special as one can only rewire oneself to a certain extent and battling with bursts of intense fury and feelings of superiority could very easily lead to disaster due to her superhuman strength.
Overall, Specials was okay, but not the best out of the series. It was definitely worth reading. Though I stopped reading it once in the middle of the book, I picked it up again and finished reading to the end.
At this point, I wasn’t sure what Extras (the next book) was about, but I hoped it would shed some light as to what had happened to Tally next and what had happened to society after the cure.
Book Rating: 3/5
Cover: Very special;)
Concept: 4/5
Author: Scott Westerfeld
I wrote this review as part of Dystopian August which is going on over at Presenting Lenore. Check it out!
