Specials

Title: Specials

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publication date: 2006

Book's setting: The ~Future

Random facts: Third book in a series of four.

Plot summary: Tally has spent the last month under the knife, becoming a Cutter for Special Circumstance. That means that basically she is a human weapon. She is smarter, faster, and more dangerous than any other Special. She and her fellow Cutters are trying to locate New Smoke for Doctor Cable, but when David captures one of the team their plan begins to unravel. Tally and Shay turn to Zane, weak and crippled from the lesions cure, in order to track down New Smoke and get Fausto back.

Favorite aspects: I was really happy with this book. Everything I thought was missing from the previous two was addressed in this volume, mainly the other cities and the international politics under the lesions system. Specials had a much broader scope, the world that Westerfeld created finally felt three dimensional and real because he finally showed me the big picture. Also Zane was wonderful. I really love that boy's character, he's so unchangeable and constant. Surrounded by characters like Tally and Shay who have had so many surgeries they hardly know who they are anymore, his consistent compassion and sweetness was a breath of fresh air.

Least favorite aspects: I know Tally is a special snowflake... literally. But still, Westerfeld! She's not a frigging god! I was a bit disappointed that after everything Tally had done to free her world from their crazy mind control government, she immediately had to prove that she was still superior and would be watching them for failure. The New System had barely got started before she decided she would be the secret Special Circumstance. I understand that it is because of her surgeries- she is still smarter and faster than everyone else... but it made the freedom a bit anti-climactic. The pessimism about the future set in before anyone could even decide what that future might be.

Other works it reminded me of: The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne DuPrau; The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Sadie's merciless break-down: So I was pretty happy with the way that the series panned out. I guess Tally and David will go live in the forest and raise lots of free children or something. The only thing that bothered me was the Cutters. The concept of the Cutters worked really well in his dystopian society, but it made me a bit uncomfortable sometimes. Cutting is a serious problem within youth culture today and I don't think he took it seriously enough in Specials. It was a clever plot device and he certainly didn't celebrate the concept of self-harm, but it was a bit too nonchalant. I've never done anything like that, nor do I know anyone who cuts, but considering the audience of the Uglies series I'd have thought that Westerfeld might have been a bit more sensitive.
I'm not saying all teens who read ya sci-fi would be cutters, obviously. But given the amount of people reading these books I'd bet some of them do. He made it seem almost... glamorous? Obviously it was glamorous when Tally and Shay were under the influence of the Special Circumstance surgeries, but Westerfeld didn't justify it later. It didn't really bother me too much, but I think it probably seriously bothered someone else.

Recommendation rate: Now that I finished the core three books, I'd say it's worth reading if you're into futuristic society and politics.