Specials
4/5
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About this ebook
Tally thought they were a rumor, but now she’s one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.
But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn’t better than anything she’s ever known. Tally still has memories of something else.
Still, it’s easy to tune that out—until she’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.
Scott Westerfeld
Scott Westerfeld is the author of ten books for young adults, including Peeps, The Last Days, and the Midnighters trilogy. He was born in Texas in 1963, is married to the Hugo-nominated writer Justine Larbalestier, and splits his time between New York and Sydney. His latest book is Extras, the fourth in the bestselling Uglies series.
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Reviews for Specials
2,573 ratings132 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good finish to a great series.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ok, so I was half asleep during the first part of this audiobook, but I just finished it off this morning while working on something. It was sometimes predictable, and I can be bad at spotting predictable, but the adventures of Tally are just fun. I was sad to see her hoverboard off into the sunset...
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Specials is the final book in the Uglies Trilogy which also consists of Uglies and Pretties although Scott Westerfeld has written a sequel of sorts entitled Extras. The third volume provides a mostly satisfying conclusion to the story of Tally Youngblood and the world in which she lives.The basic premise is that human civilization, as we know it, was destroyed when an oil eating bacteria was released upon the world. Humanity survived and adapted, as it is wont to do, now living in high technology Cities that are separated by vast areas of wilderness--completely independent of one another. To keep the population in check, and to prevent war and aggression, a type of brain surgery was introduced and put into practice. A small contingent of people, rebelling against this, left the cities to form a subversive community in the wilderness known as the Smoke.The trilogy follows Tally from when she was an Ugly (before the mind and body altering surgery) to her short time as a Pretty, to her ultimate transformation into a Special--joining the elite, vicious, and mysterious fighting force of her city. As an Ugly, and then again as a Pretty, she learns more and more about the history and current situation of the world around her, joining with the Smokies and helping them and their cause in any way she can. Now, as a Special, she will do anything she can to stop them.One of the great thing about Specials is that Tally is no longer one of the "good guys" and yet is still a sympathetic character--Westerfeld pulls it off magnificently. While the first half or so of the book seemed somewhat slow (which is surprising considering how much is going on) the second half really takes off nicely, and the ending is great. Though, I'm not entirely sold on the last chapter.The writing style is simple enough--short sentences without much detailed description--so it's really the story that carries these three books along. However, the story itself seems a little too straightforward, without much complexity, although it does have some nice twists to it. I very much enjoyed the trilogy (and mean to pick up Extras at some point) and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick utopian/dystopian read. Although obviously aimed towards young adults, there is definitely enough here that older readers will appreciate, too.Experiments in Reading
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me at every YA protagonist ever:
"I thought if you could see the world clearly, you'd think about yourself a little less. It wouldn't just be you and your latest boyfriend; I thought you might let something else matter every once in a while."
The Writing and Worldbuilding
The world really expanded in this one, and even gave me a clearer geographic idea of where the previous books took place. I'm guessing Tally's city is in Oregon or Washington, and that makes me happy because yay! A local!
I liked how the cliches of this series were actually questioned, like Tally's selfishness, and how she's constantly being caught and upgraded.
"I'm not sure what I am anymore, Zane. Sometimes I think I'm nothing but what other people have done to me—a big collection of brainwashing, surgeries, and cures."
Overall, I liked this book, but I wasn't really on the edge of my seat the whole time; I wasn't bored either though, as Westerfeld's writing style is very easy and quick, and the action was fast and well-paced.
The Characters
Tally: My sister warned me last book about Pretty Tally, but honestly Special Tally was more annoying, going on borderline-Speshul Tally.
Shay: I like how Shay continued to call out Tally on all her BS. It was really needed.
Zane and David: There really wasn't as much of a love triangle element in this as there was in the last book (I mean, technically there was, but it wasn't as obvious or important) and so these guys were pretty okay.
Conclusion
Honestly, writing this review, I feel like there's not much to say about this book. It was good, and I liked it more in some ways than the others, but I just don't have much to say for some reason. Any way, I'm glad that Westerfeld wrote Extras and is going to write three more books set in the Uglies world, starting with Imposters, because I really like the world and I'm excited to delve deeper into it, hopefully with less Speshul Tally and more new characters. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I kinda started losing interest in the series a bit with this one. It just started stretching things a bit too much, especially considering it wasn't really my kind of series to start with (which says a lot about the fact I continued reading to this point). That said, I will be reading the next one shortly, and am glad that the announcement regarding the new books put these books back on my radar at a time that I was able to give them a real chance with access to the audiobooks and all, which I didn't have back when the series was first released. It's definitely still worth reading, and is an interesting continuation of the storyline.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Looking around I think I may be in the minority in thinking that this may be the best of the trilogy. I really enjoyed Uglies and, overall, it's probably a more consistent book, but the ending for Specials is very different from what I thought would come from the series. It's hard to describe (without spoiling anything) other than to say that it isn't exactly happy, but it was immensely satisfying.
A big improvement for me over Pretties, which felt too much like a rehash of Uglies. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Incredibly disappointed with how this series turned out.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Third book in the uglies series. Not as good as the first two but still enjoyable to read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tally is no longer a bubbly headed pretty, no, she is a special. quicker faster, meaner, sharper, better , that's what tally is. She loves her job and her group of the cutters. feeling icy is the best thing in the world. others feel that pretties need to be icy too, the others known as the smokies. the smokies are the outcasts , the rebels, they are a special circumstance. The smokies have gone too far this time trying to overthrow the government, making the pretties bubbly. They failed the first attempt at trying to catch them, losing one of there members in the process. they revert to other methods, using the pretties. Zane also known as Tallys ex-boyfriend. While trying to free Zane from his cell they end up blowing up one of the top government security buildings in the process. While the specials have the pretties leading them right to the new smoke tallys life is a breeze. until tallys city declares war on diego aka the new smoke. Tallys city is bombing Diego and she has to stop it. Guess what? she ends up stopping it (yay) and they live pretty happily ever after , except for the fact that Zane dies. I have to be honest , I hated this book. The books only went downhill. The first amazing , second ehh, third terrible, I don't think I am even going to try with the 4th. Tallys character was pretty normal, she was an interesting character. I feel this would have been better if a little bit more unique -ity to it. But it was worthwhile reading but also not. make sense?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Glad the saga continues... But this book didn't quite have the edge of the first two. Still a fun read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you loose everything and become the thing that everyone fears, are you capable of relearning what it means to be you, and will those who once one your side be patient enough to forget the worse that you've become.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I wasn't sure how I felt about this whole series, but I'm pleased with this third book, and with the ending. It seems right. Looking forward to reading Extras.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Still good, but not as exciting as the first book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I would highly recommend this series (4 in all) to anyone who likes a little bit of sci-fi every once in awhile, especially the type that is a couple of hundred years in the future and shows how mankind could possibly turn out. All three books I have read so far are very thought provoking, exciting, and keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. I have read each one of these books in about a day.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I do enjoy the story told in this series but I wasnt as fond of this book. I thought the treatment of what is essentially the only disabled character in the series to be appalling (intentional or not) and felt like the focus of what was important should have been more on the societal issues than the environmental ones.
Personal note, there is a lot of self harm happening in this book and I found it pretty triggering. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really enjoyed reading your book. I read enthusiastically and understood the story. ... If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to [email protected] or [email protected]
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Specials is the third book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy. In this book, Tally and her best friend, Shay, have been transformed into Specials and made a new division of Special Circumstances called Cutters. This is a task force intended to hunt down and eradicate the New Smoke - their former friends. But try as she might, Tally can't completely get rid of her fondness and love for the people in New Smoke or their cause. So she is left to decide: embrace her new life as a Special and kill the New Smoke people or find away to take down the regime in charge of her City and start a new way of life for everybody.
I keep expecting the novelty of these books to wear off but it never does. These books are well written, fast paced and intriguing. Tally is a girl that is easy to identify with and to want to be. I had seen these books around the bookstores for a long time and thought they looked good but I never made that leap to picking them up and reading them. Thanks to the Books on the Nighstand reading challenge and the Bart's Bookshelf reading challenge for giving me the incentive to finally pick them up and read them. I'm glad I did. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5ok. so on top of all the other stuff i have been reading lately, i became thoroughly engrossed in a series which has not let me down in the slightest. this is a bit long winded, but keep in mind it is in reference to reading three books.. and i am trying REALLY hard not to give away spoilers..
it is hard to write about this book because in the context of the review, the keywords and mannerisms of the characters society seems like nothing but grammar and spelling errors. bear with it though, in the books, you are so washed over with the word use and logic that it actually makes sense in the proper frame.
the Uglies trilogy (now a quadrilogy?) was very engrossing. Book one, Uglies, describes a world where there is no war. there is no famine, hatred, or turmoil. 200-300 years in the past over population, strip mining, clear cutting, genetic engineering of plants and animals laid waste on everything in the world. humans have rebuilt from the ashes after we destroyed ourselves. our generation is referred to as “the rusties” since everything left from our world is covered in rust and falling apart.
Tally Youngblood is 15 years old, and only months away from becoming one of the “pretties”. in this world, to remove all of the dangerous human habits of destruction, you are born and raised by your parents, once you hit a certain age (8 or 9 from what i could tell) you are shipped off to school as an ugly. at the age of 16 you are taken from school where you will be put under the knife and remade as a better person. your bones are ground down and or elongated, you have new muscle tissue added to your body, and you have full facial re-constructive surgery. all “pretties” have a choice on how they look, with in the guidelines of the governments rules of morphology. they effectively remove all extremes in height, hair color, skin color, etc. everyone is similar and there is no need for hatred.
Tally, in waiting for her 16th birthday meets a new friend, Shay, who has no desire to become one of the pretties. a week before their shared birthday/graduation from being uglies, Shay decides to run off to a rumored group of rebels who have shafted the system and stayed ugly, and foregone all efforts to work within the system. Tally however has no desire to join her friend and sticks around for her surge (surgery). her only desire is become pretty and join her friends in New Pretty town, where she can dance and play and enjoy the life she has been programmed to want since birth.
Unfortunately, Tally is roped into a game of social change. she is scooped up by the fearsome and dangerous police force that acts as bogeymen for the government. Special Circumstances (the Specials) only comes forward when needed, generally letting the local police force take care of everything. This being a “Special circumstance” Tally is forced to follow her friend to the encampment of rebels (the Smoke) and betray her friend, and everyone who has escaped so far. if she does not, she will be denies surge and will forever be Ugly. and in this society, this is the worst thing that could ever happen to you.
Book one was so good, that i had an itch to move on to book two immediately. i hate doing that. i love to stretch a series out if possible, and draw out the enjoyment from the story line. so when book one was finished, though i really wanted to move on to the second book, i ramped myself down and read the Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja book. Book two immediately followed and when finished i lost all self control and my fingers and eyes forced me to read book three next.. it took about two days with my schedule.. two lousy days.. why couldn’t it last longer… i wasted a great book by reading it too soon..
well, not a waste. damn. it was so good, i had no choice really.. it was in my best interest to read the book. or so i keep telling myself. there is a fourth book. it was written after the trilogy was announced, so it is a bit of an anomaly, thus the trilogy quadrilogy notation above. unfortunately, the book Extras is still in hardback edition, so until it hits paperback, i will have to force myself to wait.. this sucks..
these books, written by Scott Westerfeld, fall into the teen-fiction category. they are written for teens, but the story line and books themselves do not lend themselves only to teens. being thirty years old, i literally could not stop reading these books. if you need a good break from your normal reading schedule, i would throw these in the mix and read them. they all rank around 300 pages of single space small print, so they are not some little read you would use to sturdy the kitchen table. instead, they are full of vibrant ideas, technology, tattoos that i wish were a reality. there were no obvious plot twists that made me think “why am i reading this” or “how predictable” instead, i was often surprised and left feeling “bubbly” as they state in the book.
imagine a world full of barbie dolls being slowly destroyed by barbie’s cyber-punk kid sister that has been kept in the closet for years.
i was sad to come to the end of this series, but glad to know that i will have at least one more book to close it all up in the near future.
anyone who is interested should note that all three of the first books can be bought in a boxed set for under 20 bucks.. this is how i got sucked into them.. a really good price for a nice story line idea turned into one of the best purchases i have made on books in a while. now, i just have to hope that hollywood has not gotten their hands on the thought of movies. these would be thoroughly ruined and not done justice.. read them before someone fucks them up for you… thats all i have to say on the matter. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5it was pretty good.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I cried sooooo much.. This was the first book that made me cry and that itself just explains how amazing this book is!!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5this book is very interesting i'm 13 and I love it
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The first three books follow the adventures of Tally Youngblood in a post-collapse world in which the surviving humans are living well in tightly controlled cities. In Tally’s city, everyone gets a special operation to become Pretty at age 16, at which point their lives become perfect. At least that’s what Tally thinks, until she meets Shay, a girl with a line to the outside world—who then runs away in order to stay ugly. When Tally is forced to betray Shay, she sets off a chain of events that leads to her discovery of the dark side of the Pretty operation, and ultimately to the transformation of her world, not entirely for the better. Because Tally’s mental state changes a number of times during the first three books—she generally wants whatever situation she most recently had, but that situation keeps changing on her because of her own acts—the reader often sees the world quite differently than she does. And though Tally makes key choices, she’s not the moral center of the books; I would like to read a short story from Shay’s perspective.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5ok. so on top of all the other stuff i have been reading lately, i became thoroughly engrossed in a series which has not let me down in the slightest. this is a bit long winded, but keep in mind it is in reference to reading three books.. and i am trying REALLY hard not to give away spoilers..
it is hard to write about this book because in the context of the review, the keywords and mannerisms of the characters society seems like nothing but grammar and spelling errors. bear with it though, in the books, you are so washed over with the word use and logic that it actually makes sense in the proper frame.
the Uglies trilogy (now a quadrilogy?) was very engrossing. Book one, Uglies, describes a world where there is no war. there is no famine, hatred, or turmoil. 200-300 years in the past over population, strip mining, clear cutting, genetic engineering of plants and animals laid waste on everything in the world. humans have rebuilt from the ashes after we destroyed ourselves. our generation is referred to as “the rusties” since everything left from our world is covered in rust and falling apart.
Tally Youngblood is 15 years old, and only months away from becoming one of the “pretties”. in this world, to remove all of the dangerous human habits of destruction, you are born and raised by your parents, once you hit a certain age (8 or 9 from what i could tell) you are shipped off to school as an ugly. at the age of 16 you are taken from school where you will be put under the knife and remade as a better person. your bones are ground down and or elongated, you have new muscle tissue added to your body, and you have full facial re-constructive surgery. all “pretties” have a choice on how they look, with in the guidelines of the governments rules of morphology. they effectively remove all extremes in height, hair color, skin color, etc. everyone is similar and there is no need for hatred.
Tally, in waiting for her 16th birthday meets a new friend, Shay, who has no desire to become one of the pretties. a week before their shared birthday/graduation from being uglies, Shay decides to run off to a rumored group of rebels who have shafted the system and stayed ugly, and foregone all efforts to work within the system. Tally however has no desire to join her friend and sticks around for her surge (surgery). her only desire is become pretty and join her friends in New Pretty town, where she can dance and play and enjoy the life she has been programmed to want since birth.
Unfortunately, Tally is roped into a game of social change. she is scooped up by the fearsome and dangerous police force that acts as bogeymen for the government. Special Circumstances (the Specials) only comes forward when needed, generally letting the local police force take care of everything. This being a “Special circumstance” Tally is forced to follow her friend to the encampment of rebels (the Smoke) and betray her friend, and everyone who has escaped so far. if she does not, she will be denies surge and will forever be Ugly. and in this society, this is the worst thing that could ever happen to you.
Book one was so good, that i had an itch to move on to book two immediately. i hate doing that. i love to stretch a series out if possible, and draw out the enjoyment from the story line. so when book one was finished, though i really wanted to move on to the second book, i ramped myself down and read the Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja book. Book two immediately followed and when finished i lost all self control and my fingers and eyes forced me to read book three next.. it took about two days with my schedule.. two lousy days.. why couldn’t it last longer… i wasted a great book by reading it too soon..
well, not a waste. damn. it was so good, i had no choice really.. it was in my best interest to read the book. or so i keep telling myself. there is a fourth book. it was written after the trilogy was announced, so it is a bit of an anomaly, thus the trilogy quadrilogy notation above. unfortunately, the book Extras is still in hardback edition, so until it hits paperback, i will have to force myself to wait.. this sucks..
these books, written by Scott Westerfeld, fall into the teen-fiction category. they are written for teens, but the story line and books themselves do not lend themselves only to teens. being thirty years old, i literally could not stop reading these books. if you need a good break from your normal reading schedule, i would throw these in the mix and read them. they all rank around 300 pages of single space small print, so they are not some little read you would use to sturdy the kitchen table. instead, they are full of vibrant ideas, technology, tattoos that i wish were a reality. there were no obvious plot twists that made me think “why am i reading this” or “how predictable” instead, i was often surprised and left feeling “bubbly” as they state in the book.
imagine a world full of barbie dolls being slowly destroyed by barbie’s cyber-punk kid sister that has been kept in the closet for years.
i was sad to come to the end of this series, but glad to know that i will have at least one more book to close it all up in the near future.
anyone who is interested should note that all three of the first books can be bought in a boxed set for under 20 bucks.. this is how i got sucked into them.. a really good price for a nice story line idea turned into one of the best purchases i have made on books in a while. now, i just have to hope that hollywood has not gotten their hands on the thought of movies. these would be thoroughly ruined and not done justice.. read them before someone fucks them up for you… thats all i have to say on the matter. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The final volume of the Uglies trilogy, it had a lot of plot threads and philosophies to tie together. I was surprised and pleased at how effectively Westerfeld turned the revolution on its head.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The follow-up to "Uglies" and "Pretties," this third book in the
series finds Tally Youngblood transformed into one of the very elite
force that she formerly tried so desperately to escape. Her body has
been technologically enhanced - but she no longer seems to remember
some of the things that were most important to her. But when Tally is
assigned to wipe out her former friends, the anti-technology rebels of
the New Smoke, her new bosses may have pushed her too far. Her former
allegiances war with the new perceptions and her belief in her
superiority as a Special.
Obviously, these books are entertainingly written - I've now read 3 of
them. However, the more of them I read, the more I also get aggravated
by their simplistic treatment of complicated issues. Obviously, giving
people brain damage in the process of pursuing a Utopian society is
not going to be acceptable to many people - but Dr. Cable is portrayed
as horribly evil to the exclusion of her seeming human.
The New Smokies are portrayed as the heroes - but nothing is shown
that will convince the reader that they're not on a path that will
lead to be old problems of overpopulation and environmental
destruction that initially destroyed society.
Westerfeld fails when he twins the positive elements of the "Pretties"
society and technological enhancement with the negative aspects of it.
In this world, it seems, either you can be a "regular" human, or an
unnatural, brainwashed creature (whether "Pretty" or "Special.". The
possibility of utilizing the amazing technological advances (both
aesthetic and practical) that are portrayed, without the mind-numbing
brainwashing techniques employed by Dr. Cable, is not discussed - and
it's such an obvious solution that its lack becomes a failing in these
books.
However, there's now a 4th volume in the series - so I guess I'll have
to read that one next! - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5"Uglies" was really the standard-bearer for me. This wasn't as compelling.
Tally and best friend Shay are Specials, beautiful girls with a sharp
edge and superhuman abilities. A caper to steal a cutter tool from the
Armory results in the two completely destroying the Armory in order to
escape detection. The consequence is an attack by New Pretty Town on Diego, the town they suspect of attacking the Armory and current hotbed of runaways seeking freedom and a cure from their limited social statuses as Pretties, Ugies, etc. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nicked this off my teenage daughter without reading uglies or pretties first. I quite enjoyed it, especially the whole concept of the world S W has created which I enjoyed more than the characters but then, I haven't seen Tally and Shay grow over the previous two books so I'm probably being unfair. I think SW handles the tension between characters well but I found the pacing a bit slow at times. Loved all the gadgets though.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I liked how there's at least one other person who thinks like me! For most people this book would serve as another view on a really important problem and for others offering something relatable.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow.
At times I wasn't sure what side I was on, and it turns out, neither did Tally. I loved the ending--no book-throwing here. This has to be the only trilogy that just kept getting better and better. Highly recommended.
Great for discussing ethics & responsibility in this age of scientific progress. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Special Circumstances." Those words send shivers down the spine. Often thought of as a boogy man or merely rumors to scare young children into behaving. That is until Tally finds herself as one of them. Now as a Special she is fiercely beautiful, a superb fighting machine, ready to protect the city and all it stands for. The strength, the speed, the clarity of focus... yet why is she plagued by questions? Why this nagging doubt that not all is quite right? The doubts are easy to ignore until she's given the opportunity to stamp out the New Smoke once and for all. Now the question is does she listen to that tiny voice or carry out her mission as programed?Specials is the third in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. The story takes off and doesn't let go! It is action packed throughout and quite a wild ride. We rejoin Tally about a month after where book two leaves off. After becoming Special everything is more intense for Tally and that definitely comes through in the new descriptions. I have enjoyed how Westerfeld keeps giving us new insight into the world he has created simply by changing the tone of the writing through Tally's different stages.Tally is really put through the wringer in this book. Physically, mentally, emotionally, she experiences it all. Her entire personality shift from Uglies to now is amazing, both at how she starts off acting as she is "supposed" to and then how her underlying personality fights to break through those barriers.Some of the themes this time around take a disturbing turn. The idea behind the Cutters in particular is concerning and sometimes painful. Yet it remains fairly realistic in the depiction of the psychology behind the act.While the ending is not exactly happy, there is hope. I found this to book to be a great read and good ending to the trilogy.
Book preview
Specials - Scott Westerfeld
Part I
BEING SPECIAL
By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
—Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds
CRASHING A BASH
The six hoverboards slipped among the trees with the lightning grace of playing cards thrown flat and spinning. The riders ducked and weaved among ice-heavy branches, laughing, knees bent and arms outstretched. In their wake glowed a crystal rain, tiny icicles shaken from the pine needles to fall behind, aflame with moonlight.
Tally felt everything with an icy clarity: the brittle, freezing wind across her bare hands, the shifting gravities that pressed her feet against the hoverboard. She breathed in the forest, tendrils of pine coating her throat and tongue, thick as syrup.
The cold air seemed to make sounds crisper: The loose tail of her dorm jacket cracked like a wind-whipped flag, her grippy shoes squeaked against the hoverboard surface with every turn. Fausto was pumping dance music straight through her skintenna, but that was silent to the world outside. Over its frantic beat Tally heard every twitch of her new monofilament-sheathed muscles.
She squinted against the cold, eyes watering, but the tears made her vision even sharper. Icicles whipped past in glittering streaks, and moonlight silvered the world, like an old, colorless movie come flickering to life.
That was the thing about being a Cutter: Everything was icy now, as if the world were opening her skin.
Shay swooped in beside Tally, their fingers brushing for a moment, and flashed a smile. Tally tried to return it, but something shifted in her stomach as she looked at Shay’s face. The five Cutters were undercover tonight, black irises hidden under dull-eyed contacts, cruel-pretty jaws softened by smart-plastic masks. They had turned themselves into uglies because they were crashing a bash in Cleopatra Park.
For Tally’s brain, it was way too soon to be playing dress-up. She’d only been special a couple of months, but when she looked at Shay she expected to see her best friend’s new and marvelous cruel beauty, not tonight’s ugly disguise.
Tally angled her board sideways to avoid an ice-laden branch, breaking contact. She concentrated on the glittering world, on twisting her body to slip the board among the trees. The rush of cold air helped her refocus on her surroundings rather than the missing feeling inside herself—the one that came from the fact that Zane wasn’t here with the rest of them.
One party-load of uglies up ahead.
Shay’s words cut through the music, caught by a chip in her jaw and carried through the skintenna network, whisper-close. You sure you’re ready for this, Tally-wa?
Tally took a deep breath, drinking in the brain-clearing cold. Her nerves still tingled, but it would be totally random to back out now. Don’t worry, Boss. This is going to be icy.
"Should be. It is a party, after all, Shay said.
Let’s be happy little uglies."
A few of the Cutters chuckled, glancing at each other’s fake faces. Tally became aware again of her own millimeters-thick mask: plastic bumps and lumps that made her face zitted and flawed, covering the gorgeously spinning web of flash tattoos. Uneven dental caps blunted her razor-sharp teeth, and even her tattooed hands were sprayed with fake skin.
A glance in the mirror had shown Tally how she looked: just like an ugly. Ungainly, crook-nosed, with baby-fat cheeks, and an impatient expression—impatient for her next birthday, the bubblehead operation, and a trip across the river. Another random fifteen-year-old, in other words.
This was Tally’s first trick since turning special. She’d expected to be ready for anything now—all those operations had filled her with icy new muscles and reflexes tweaked to snakelike speed. And then she’d spent two months training in the Cutters’ camp, living in the wild with little sleep and no provisions.
But one look in the mirror had shaken her confidence.
It didn’t help that they’d come into town through the Crumblyville burbs, flying over endless rows of darkened houses, all the same. The random tedium of the place she’d grown up in gave her a sticky feeling along the inside of her arms, which wasn’t helped by the feel of the recyclable dorm uniform against her sensitive new skin. The manicured trees of the greenbelt seemed to press in around Tally, as if the city were trying to grind her down to averageness again. She liked being special, being outside and icy and better, and couldn’t wait to get back to the wild and strip this ugly mask from her face.
Tally clenched her fists and listened to the skintenna network. Fausto’s music and the noises of the others washed over her—the soft sounds of breathing, the wind against their faces. She imagined their heartbeats at the very edge of hearing, as if the Cutters’ growing excitement were echoing in her bones.
Split up,
Shay said as the lights of the bash grew close. Don’t want to look too cliquey.
The Cutters’ formation drifted apart. Tally stayed with Fausto and Shay, while Tachs and Ho broke off toward the top of Cleopatra Park. Fausto adjusted his soundbox and the music faded, leaving only rushing wind and the distant rumble of the bash.
Tally took another nervous breath, and the crowd’s scent flashed through her—ugly sweat and spilled alcohol. The party’s dance system didn’t use skintennas; it blasted music crudely through the air, scattering sound waves into a thousand reflections among the trees. Uglies were always noisy.
From her training, Tally knew that she could close her eyes and use the merest echoes to navigate the forest blind, like a bat following its own chirps. But she needed her special vision tonight. Shay had spies in Uglyville, and they’d heard that outsiders were crashing the party—New Smokies giving out nanos and stirring up trouble.
That’s why the Cutters were here: This was a Special Circumstance.
The three landed just outside the strobing lights of the hoverglobes, jumping off onto the forest’s floor of pine needles, which crackled with frost. Shay sent their boards up into the treetops to wait, then fixed Tally with an amused stare. You smell nervous.
Tally shrugged, uncomfortable in her ugly-dorm uniform. Shay could always smell what you were feeling. Maybe so, Boss.
Here at the party’s edge, a sticky bit of memory reminded her how she always felt arriving at a bash. Even as a beautiful bubblehead, Tally had hated the trickle of nerves that visited whenever crowds pressed in around her, the heat of so many bodies, the weight of their eyes upon her. Now her mask felt clingy and strange, a barrier separating her from the world. Very unspecial. Her cheeks flashed hot for a second beneath plastic, like a rush of shame.
Shay reached out to squeeze her hand. Don’t worry, Tally-wa.
They’re only uglies,
Fausto’s whisper sliced through the air. And we’re right here with you.
His hand rested on Tally’s shoulder, gently pushing her forward.
Tally nodded, hearing the others’ slow, calm breaths through the skintenna link. It was just like Shay had promised: The Cutters were connected, an unbreakable clique. She would never be alone again, even when it felt like something was missing inside her. Even when she felt the lack of Zane like head-spinning panic.
She plunged through the branches, following Shay into the flashing lights.
Tally’s memories were perfect now, not like when she’d been a bubblehead, confused and muddled all the time. She remembered what a big deal Spring Bash was for uglies. The approach of spring meant longer days for tricks and hoverboarding, and lots more outdoor parties to come.
But as she and Fausto followed Shay through the crowd, Tally felt none of the energy she remembered from last year. The bash seemed so tame, so listless and random. The uglies just stood around, so shy and self-conscious that anyone actually dancing looked like they were trying too hard. They all seemed flat and artificial, like party extras on a video wall, waiting for the real people to arrive.
Still, it was true what Shay liked to say: Uglies weren’t as clueless as bubbleheads. The crowd parted easily, everyone sliding out of her way. However zitty and uneven their faces, the uglies’ eyes were sharp, full of nervous stabs of awareness. They were smart enough to sense that the three Cutters were different. No one stared for too long at Tally or realized what she was behind her smart-plastic mask, but bodies moved aside at her lightest touch, shivers playing across their shoulders as she passed, as if the uglies sensed something dangerous in the air.
It was easy seeing the thoughts ripple across their faces. Tally could watch the jealousies and hatreds, rivalry and attraction, all of it written on their expressions and in the way they moved. Now that she was special, everything was laid out clearly, like looking down on a forest path from above.
She found herself smiling, finally relaxing and ready for the hunt. Spotting party-crashers was going to be simple.
Tally scanned the crowd, searching for anyone who seemed out of place: a little too confident, overmuscled, and suntanned from living in the wild. She knew what Smokies looked like.
Last fall, back in ugly days, Shay had run away into the wild to escape the bubblehead operation. Tally had followed to bring her back, and they’d both wound up living in the Old Smoke for a few long weeks. Scrabbling like an animal had been pure torture, but her memories came in handy now. Smokies had an arrogance about them; they thought they were better than people in the city.
It took Tally just seconds to spot Ho and Tachs across the crowded field. They stood out like a pair of cats gliding through a waddling flock of ducks.
You think we’re too obvious, Boss?
she whispered, letting the network carry her words.
Obvious how?
They all look so clueless. We look… special.
"We are special." Shay looked back at Tally over her shoulder, a grin playing on her face.
But I thought we were supposed to be in disguise.
"Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!" Shay suddenly darted away through the crowd.
Fausto reached out and touched Tally’s shoulder. Watch and learn.
He’d been special longer than she had. The Cutters were a brand-new part of Special Circumstances, but Tally’s operation had taken the longest. She’d done a lot of very average things in her past, and it had taken a while for the doctors to strip away all the built-up guilt and shame. Random leftover emotions could leave your brain muddled, which wasn’t very special. Power came from icy clarity, from knowing exactly what you were, from cutting.
So Tally hung back with Fausto, watching and learning.
Shay grabbed a boy at random, yanking him away from the girl he was talking to. His drink sloshed onto the ground as he started to pull away in protest, but then he caught Shay’s gaze.
Shay wasn’t as ugly as the rest of them, Tally noticed, the violet highlights in her eyes still visible even through her ugly disguise. They glittered like a predator’s in the strobe lights as she pulled the boy closer, brushing against him, a flex of muscles gliding down her body like a flick through a rope.
After that, he didn’t look away again, even as he handed off his beer to the random girl, who looked on open-mouthed. The ugly boy placed his hands on Shay’s shoulders, his body starting to follow her movements.
People were watching them now.
I don’t remember this part of the plan,
Tally said softly.
Fausto laughed. Specials don’t need plans. Not sticky ones, anyway.
He stood close behind Tally, his arms around her waist. She felt his breath on the back of her neck, and a tingle started moving through her body.
Tally pulled away. Cutters touched one another all the time, but she wasn’t used to that part of being a Special. It made her feel even stranger that Zane hadn’t joined them yet.
Through the skintenna network, Tally could hear Shay whispering to the boy. Her breathing deepened, though Shay could run a klick in two minutes without breaking a sweat. A sharp, unshaven sound sliced through the network when she brushed her cheek against the boy’s, and Fausto chuckled when Tally flinched.
Relax, Tally-wa,
he said, rubbing her shoulders. She knows what she’s doing.
That much was obvious: Shay’s dance was spreading, sucking in the people around her. Until now, the party had been a nervous bubble hovering in the air, and she’d popped its surface tension, releasing something icy inside. The crowd started to pair off, arms wrapping around each other, moving faster. Whoever was crewing the music must have noticed—the volume went higher, the bass deeper, the hoverglobes overhead pulsing from blackness to blinding radiance. The crowd had started jumping up and down with the beat.
Tally felt her heart accelerate, amazed at how effortlessly Shay had brought them all along. The bash was changing, flipping inside out, and all because of Shay. This wasn’t like their stupid tricks in ugly days—sneaking across the river or stealing bungee jackets—this was magic.
Special magic.
So what if she was wearing an ugly face? Like Shay always said in training, the bubbleheads had it all wrong: It didn’t matter what you looked like. It was how you carried yourself, how you saw yourself. Strength and reflexes were only part of it—Shay simply knew that she was special, and so she was. Everyone else was just wallpaper, a blurred background of listless chatter, until Shay lit them up with her own private spotlight.
Come on,
Fausto whispered, pulling Tally away from the thickening crowd. They retreated toward the party’s edge, sliding unseen past the eyes locked on Shay and her random boy. You go that way. Stay sharp.
Tally nodded, hearing the other Cutters whisper as they spread out across the party. Suddenly, this all made sense….
The bash had been too dead, too flat to cover the Specials or their prey. But now the crowd’s arms were up, waving back and forth with the beat. Plastic cups flew through the air, everything a storm of movement. If the Smokies were planning to crash the party, this moment was what they’d been waiting for.
Moving was tricky now. Tally made her way through a swarm of young girls—practically littlies—all dancing together with eyes closed. The glitter sprayed across their uneven skin flashed in the hoverglobes’ pulsing light, and they didn’t shiver as Tally pushed through them; her special aura had been drowned out by the party’s new energy, by Shay’s dance-magic.
The ugly little bodies bouncing against hers reminded Tally how much she had changed inside. Her new bones were made from aircraft ceramics, light as bamboo and hard as diamonds. Her muscles were sheathed whips of self-repairing monofilament. The uglies felt soft and unsubstantial against her, like stuffed toys come to life, boisterous but unthreatening.
A ping sounded inside her head as Fausto boosted the skintenna network’s range, and snatches of noise drifted through her ears: screams from a girl dancing next to Tachs, a rumbling beat from where Ho stood close to the speakers, and under it all the distracting things Shay was whispering in her random boy’s ear. It was like being five people at once, as if Tally’s consciousness were smeared across the party, sucking in its energy in a blend of noise and light.
She took a deep breath and headed toward the edge of the clearing, seeking the darkness outside the hoverglobes’ light. She could watch better from out there, keep better hold of her clarity.
As she moved, Tally found it was easier to dance, going with the crowd’s motion rather than forcing a path through it. She allowed herself to be pushed randomly through the throng, like when she let high wind currents guide her hoverboard, imagining herself a bird of prey.
Closing her eyes, Tally drank the bash in through her other senses. Maybe this was what being special was really all about: dancing along with the rest of them, while feeling like the only real person in the crowd….
Suddenly, hairs stiffened on the back of Tally’s neck, her nostrils flaring. A scent, distinct from the human sweat and spilled beer, sent her mind reeling back to ugly days, to running away, to the first time she’d been alone out in the wild.
She smelled smoke—the clinging reek of a campfire.
Her eyes opened. City uglies didn’t burn trees, or even torches; they weren’t allowed to. The party’s only light came from the strobing hoverglobes and the half-risen moon.
The scent must have come from somewhere Outside.
Tally moved in widening circles, casting her eyes over the crowd, trying to find the source of the smell.
No one stood out. Just a bunch of clueless uglies dancing their heads off, arms flailing, beer flying. No one graceful or confident or strong…
Then Tally saw the girl.
She was slow-dancing with some boy, whispering in his ear intently. His fingers twitched nervously across her back, their movements unconnected to the music’s beat—the two looked like littlies on an awkward playdate. The girl’s jacket was tied around her waist, as if she didn’t mind the cold. And along the inside of her arm lay a pattern of pale squares where sunblock patches had been stuck.
This girl spent a lot of time outside.
As Tally moved closer, she caught the scent of wood smoke again. Her new and perfect eyes saw the coarseness of the girl’s shirt, woven from natural fibers, lined with stitched seams and giving off another strange smell… detergent. This garment wasn’t designed to be worn and then tossed into a recycler; it had to be washed, lathered up with soap, and pounded against stones in a cold stream. Tally saw the imperfect shape of the girl’s hair—cut by hand with metal scissors.
Boss,
she whispered.
Shay’s voice came back sleepily. "So soon, Tally-wa? I’m having fun."
I think I got a Smokey.
You sure?
Positive. She smells like laundry.
I see her now,
Fausto’s voice cut through the music. Brown shirt? Dancing with that guy?
"Yeah. And she’s tanned."
There was an annoyed, distracted sigh, a few mumbled apologies as Shay disentangled herself from her ugly boy. Any more?
Tally scanned the crowd again, making her way around the girl in a wide circle, trying to catch another whiff of smoke. Not as far as I can tell.
Nobody else looks funny to me.
Fausto’s head bobbed nearby, winding his own path toward the girl. From the other side of the bash, Tachs and Ho were closing in.
What’s she doing?
Shay asked.
Dancing, and…
Tally paused, her eyes catching the girl’s hand slipping into the boy’s pocket. She just gave him something.
Shay’s breath cut off with a little hiss. Until a few weeks ago, Smokies had brought only propaganda into Uglyville, but now they were smuggling something far more deadly: pills loaded with nanos.
The nanos ate the lesions that kept pretties bubbleheaded, ramping up their violent emotions and raw appetites. And unlike some drug that would eventually wear off, the change was permanent. The nanos were hungry, microscopic machines that grew and reproduced, more of them every day. If you were unlucky, they could wind up eating the rest of your brain. One pill was all it took to lose your mind.
Tally had seen it happen.
Take her,
Shay said.
Adrenaline flooded Tally’s bloodstream, clarity blanking out the music and the motion of the crowd. She’d spotted the girl first, so it was her job, her privilege to make the grab.
She twisted the ring on her middle finger, felt its little stinger flicking out. One prick and the Smokey girl would be stumbling, passing out like she’d had too much to drink. She’d wake up in Special Circumstances headquarters, ready to go under the knife.
That thought made Tally’s skin crawl—that the girl would soon be a bubblehead: pretty, beautiful, and happy. And monumentally clueless.
But at least she’d be better off than poor Zane.
Tally cupped her fingers around the needle, careful not to stab some random ugly in the crowd. A few steps closer, and she reached out with her other hand, pulling the boy away. Can I cut in?
she asked.
His eyes widened, a grin breaking out on his face. What? You two want to dance?
It’s okay,
the Smokey girl said. Maybe she wants some too.
She untied the jacket from around her waist, pulling it up over her shoulders. Her hands went through its sleeves and into the pockets, and Tally heard the rustle of a plastic bag.
Knock yourself out,
the boy said, and took a step back, leering at them. The expression brought another flash of heat into Tally’s cheeks. The boy was smirking at her, amused, like Tally was average and anyone’s to think about—like she wasn’t special. The uglifying smart plastic on her face began to burn.
This stupid boy thought Tally was here for his entertainment. He needed to find out otherwise.
Tally decided on a new plan.
She stabbed a button on her crash bracelet. Its signal spread through the smart plastic on her face and hands at the speed of sound, the clever molecules unhooking from each other, her ugly mask exploding in a puff of dust to reveal the cruel beauty underneath. She blinked her eyes hard, popping out the contacts and exposing her wolfen, coal black irises to the winter cold. She felt her tooth-caps loosen, and spat them at the boy’s feet, returning his smile with unveiled fangs.
The whole transformation had taken less than a second, barely time for his expression to crumble.
She smiled. Buzz off, ugly. And you
—she turned to the Smokey—take your hands out of your pockets.
The girl swallowed, spreading her arms out to either side.
Tally felt the sudden rush of eyes drawn to her cruel features, sensed the crowd’s dazzlement at the pulsing tattoos that webbed her flesh in scintillating black lace. She finished the arrest script: I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.
You won’t have to,
the girl said calmly, then she did something with her hands, both thumbs turning upward.
Don’t even think…,
Tally started, then she saw too late the bulges sewn into the girl’s clothes—straps like a bungee jacket’s, now moving of their own accord, cinching themselves around her shoulders and thighs.
The Smoke lives,
the girl hissed.
Tally reached out…
… just as the girl shot into the air like a stretched-taut rubber band let go from the bottom. Tally’s hand passed through empty space. She stared upward, open-mouthed. The girl was still climbing. Somehow, the bungee jacket’s battery had been rigged to throw her into the air from a standstill.
But wouldn’t she just fall straight back down?
Tally spotted movement in the dark sky. From the edge of the forest, two hoverboards zoomed over the bash, one ridden by a Smokey dressed in crude skins, the other empty. At the top of the girl’s arc, he reached out, hardly slowing as he pulled her from midair onto the riderless board.
A shudder went through Tally as she recognized the Smokey boy’s jacket, leather and handmade. In a searing flash from a hoverglobe, her special vision caught the line of a scar running through one of his eyebrows.
David, she thought.
Tally! Heads up!
Shay’s command pulled Tally from her daze, drew her eyes to more hoverboards shooting over the crowd at just above head level. She felt her crash bracelet register a tug from her own board, and bent her knees, timing the jump for its arrival.
The crowd was pulling away from her, shocked by her cruel-pretty face and the girl’s sudden ascent—but the boy who’d been dancing with the Smokey grabbed for her. She’s a Special! Help them get away!
His try for her arm was slow and clumsy, and Tally flicked out her unspent stinger to stab his palm. The boy pulled his hand back, stared at it with a stupid expression for a moment, then crumpled.
By the time he hit the ground, Tally was in the