** spoiler alert ** Summary: Fans of the Uglies series should just avoid this book. Anyone who's not a fan or has never read the others may like this book, but otherwise it's a blemish on an otherwise great book series. Characterizations are all over the place, and it becomes rather confusing and aimless as it goes on. The new choice of setting is cool, but it's not enough to save this book.

2.5/5 stars.

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd give an Uglies book such a low grade. I love that series more than I probably should, really. I always liked the society of 'pretty' people, the 'uglies' with free will, and the 'specials' behind it all, but the books were always rather shallow and it always ended with Tally getting what she wanted in the beginning - whether it was to be pretty or to have free will. Still, though, I stuck to it loyally, wanting to see what happened.

I wish that it had ended in a trilogy, honestly, because what's been read cannot be unread. Trust me, I've been trying to get rid of Breaking Dawn for a long time now.



Extras takes place after the Uglies trilogy and can sort of kind of stand on its own. It explains what you need to know about the series in a few short pages, so you can read it without having read the rest of the series. I would personally not recommend this, and I suggest you go and read the rest of the books and then skip over this one.

Aya Fuse lives in Japan, which is kind of cool. I really wish they had expanded on the culture of new-Japan, because it was the best part of the book to me. Unlike Pretties, where you're forced into having surgery at sixteen, you can choose when and what surgery you have. Status is no longer decided by parties or overall 'pretty-ness', but rather how popular your feeds are. Feeds are obviously the internet. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out.

Aya is ridiculously low on the feed list, so she's obviously not very happy in this fame-driven, superficial society. She decides to do a story about this group of girls that sneaks out of the city and has been doing weird stuff. After telling this story on her feed, she skyrockets up to number two in popularity and gets a cool apartment and everything.

Then Tally has to come and ruin whatever fun the book was having. Seriously, the book was just fine up until she came in and crashed the party. It's like if you were forced to invite someone that you didn't like to your birthday party, and they came and ate your cake and sneezed on your presents and kicked your dog.

Well, maybe that's a little extreme.

You see, Tally forces the plot into motion, and she keeps it going. But it takes a completely different direction than the one it was originally taking. A girl's rise to fame and eventual fall was what the first half promised. And I was going to be okay with it. Sure, there were little hints that there would be action in it, but it didn't seem like there was going to be much but maybe a hover board battle or something.

I guess I got one thing right, though. There are hover board battles. A lot of hover board battles. It's like Sonic Riders, but with less hedgehogs.



The plot of the second half is pretty much aimless. They run around trying to stop some terrorists or something. That sort of gets resolved, and then they go to a party for the rest of the book. And Aya stays famous and is now BFFs with Tally.

Yes, I'm serious.



So basically, our protagonist has gained nothing from this life changing experience. She hasn't decided to sacrifice her fame for her family and friends, decided that fame isn't worth being a traitorous backstabber. No, she remains famous and very happy about that. So yes, this book was a waste of time.

The characters are pretty boring, actually. Tally's also been completely flipped from what she was at the end of Specials. She's brutal, snippy, and madly in love with David, I guess. The rest of her crew just sort of are there to be in the book, and Aya herself is a load of wasted potential. I don't expect every character to completely change their ways, but Aya did not evolve in any way throughout the entire book.

If you're a fan of the Uglies series, it might be best to avoid this book. It adds pretty much nothing to the original plot, though it adds a cool location to learn about. So if you have to read this book, only read to the halfway point. Or you could read all the way through, but Tally as a character is pretty much ruined by this book, at least in my eyes.

Still, it's not the worst read in the entire world, and if I hadn't been so fond of the Uglies trilogy, I probably would have rated this higher. If you're interested in the series, start at Uglies and finish at Specials. Completely avoid this if you can.

2.5/5 stars