Title: Extras
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Uglies, #4
Genres: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Young Adult
Publisher: Simon Pulse (Imprint of Simon & Schuster)
Date Published: October 2nd, 2007
Edition: Paperback
Rating:
The world has become a different place since Tally Youngblood upset the Uglies, Pretties, Specials applecart. What it’s like? Well, visualize an all-day, everyday version of American Idol, where everybody’s a contestant and there are cameras everywhere. In this constant competition, teenager Aya Fuse ranks as a nobody; 451,369 to be exact. Of course, such obscurity has its small rewards, all of which have now become endangered by her friendship with the Sly Girls. Another futuristic thriller by Uglies trilogy author Scott Westerfeld.
My Review:
At first I was kind of struggling with whether or not I wanted to read this book. It seemed like an extra book (no pun intended) that didn’t need to be in the series – like a book just meant to make extra money.
But I gave in because I heard that Tally and David’s story came in a bit into the story so I wanted to read about that.
I wasn’t really into it being from another person’s point of view. The whole series has been about Tally and her friends. So that was just weird. Although I did like Frizz’s character. Like the main female characters in the past books, Aya, the main female character, seemed rather shallow most of the time. I think that Scott has a problem with females. All the males in the series seem to be sincere and good people, while the females are always backstabbing, sneaky, and selfish.
But aside from that, I did like the story for the most part. It did wrap up the Tally and David story, although
, I highly doubt that her and David spent three years in the wild together, alone, and never kissed. They never got back together until this story, three years later? I’m having a hard time believing that.
But nonetheless, I’m glad they did because David is a good guy – probably too good for Tally though.
I also still have a bit of a problem with the mentality of the people in these books. I know that destroying all the wilderness is bad, but it makes us (the Rusties) seem like we’re just these terrible people who just need to find this magical space matter that can replace iron. It just bugs me. It also bugs me that all the people still have a problem with people looking “ugly” or in other words “normal”. Despite all the things that happened in the previous books, the resolution of people being happy in their own skin never came, even here at the official end of the series. That makes me sad, especially since these are teen books. Sure, Tally told Aya to keep her nose, and that seemed like a lesson learned. But not by everyone and that just bugs me about these books.
As a story it’s really interesting and an easy read, but it still has some messages it’s sending off that just aren’t good in my opinion. That’s why I gave it a three, instead of a four, star rating.
But, I’m glad the series is over and I can move on. While I did enjoy reading them, they were a bit disturbing and some of the characters were just hard to relate to, like I’ve mentioned above. I just warn people reading them to not take their messages seriously. I don’t think we can come up with a magical material to replace iron and I don’t think we all NEED some kind of plastic surgery (whether freaky or techy or pretty) to look non-ugly. We just don’t. People are not as bad in general as these books let off. So if you decide to read this series, just keep that in mind. Just read it as fiction, not as an underlying message to follow into your own life.
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