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A review by natalie_and_company
Specials by Scott Westerfeld
1.0
Coming back here I gotta say, I am glad I only ever read the first one when I was growing up. As that’s the only one of the series that truly holds up. Scott Westerfeld manages to create a very captivating premise that he pumps cringy piece after cringy piece progressively until the very final words of the story make you want to just roll your eyes.
*Spoilers*
He begins the series off with much urgency, a quickly approaching deadline, and a question being proposed. Uglies introduces its characters quite well, and sets a mysterious and even dangerous tone in response to the “Normalness” of the state of Tally’s society. This creates atmosphere and tension leading to quite the cliffhanger at the end of the novel as Tally is finally turned pretty by her own actions, an empowering difference between the submission that is assigned to “pretties” normally.
Unfortunately, when Pretties ended up being nearly the same novel with the same story beats as Uglies, I was thrown a bit, left wondering what might be in store for me with the next novel. Only to find a very similar story with familiar story beats in Specials as well. With the additional last 100 pages of messy resolution tacked on. This creates a dramatic pacing issue. Westerfeld spends 2 and a half books creating the atmosphere and then spends less than 100 pages fixing it all. In a way that resolves nearly all problems, and the singular problem that it does not resolve is thrown into the last three pages as a “suspenseful ending” but seems to the reader to be just plain lazy. There was definitely enough time to address the nature issues pending in this book, there was also time to expand on the premise, talking about disabled people and their experiences in this world. But these seemingly essential parts were left out for a repetitive completion and a draining of the life, urgency, and importance of the story. The ending does not inspire impact in any emotional way, it almost feels like a footnote at the end that Scott Westerfeld has forgotten until the last pages of the book and suddenly feels the need to fill this plothole with a declaration from Tally that is almost antithetical to the theme of the series. By declaring that Tally is the one who will avenge the wild she pumps herself full of that self-importance that Scott Westerfeld spent his entire series trying to prove a point about. The main character leaves with her feelings of superiority in tact, as if she is the only one that deserves to feel they are better than others.
If you’re looking for a hit nostalgia here, pick up the first book and be satisfied at that. That is truly the only one that holds up anyways. Leave the rest back in 2005.
*Spoilers*
He begins the series off with much urgency, a quickly approaching deadline, and a question being proposed. Uglies introduces its characters quite well, and sets a mysterious and even dangerous tone in response to the “Normalness” of the state of Tally’s society. This creates atmosphere and tension leading to quite the cliffhanger at the end of the novel as Tally is finally turned pretty by her own actions, an empowering difference between the submission that is assigned to “pretties” normally.
Unfortunately, when Pretties ended up being nearly the same novel with the same story beats as Uglies, I was thrown a bit, left wondering what might be in store for me with the next novel. Only to find a very similar story with familiar story beats in Specials as well. With the additional last 100 pages of messy resolution tacked on. This creates a dramatic pacing issue. Westerfeld spends 2 and a half books creating the atmosphere and then spends less than 100 pages fixing it all. In a way that resolves nearly all problems, and the singular problem that it does not resolve is thrown into the last three pages as a “suspenseful ending” but seems to the reader to be just plain lazy. There was definitely enough time to address the nature issues pending in this book, there was also time to expand on the premise, talking about disabled people and their experiences in this world. But these seemingly essential parts were left out for a repetitive completion and a draining of the life, urgency, and importance of the story. The ending does not inspire impact in any emotional way, it almost feels like a footnote at the end that Scott Westerfeld has forgotten until the last pages of the book and suddenly feels the need to fill this plothole with a declaration from Tally that is almost antithetical to the theme of the series. By declaring that Tally is the one who will avenge the wild she pumps herself full of that self-importance that Scott Westerfeld spent his entire series trying to prove a point about. The main character leaves with her feelings of superiority in tact, as if she is the only one that deserves to feel they are better than others.
If you’re looking for a hit nostalgia here, pick up the first book and be satisfied at that. That is truly the only one that holds up anyways. Leave the rest back in 2005.