Extras

I want to start off by saying that I really liked this book, but I felt like it was so radically different than the first three books. It is almost like Westerfield built off the fame of the first book to just include this one in the series, although it could have been the start of another great series. I really felt closure at the end of Book 3, and this book reopened the Tally/David story, without giving me any closure.

On that note, once again, Westerfield does a great job at capturing human nature in the purest form. This time, he emphasizes the importance of reputations and social standing. Aya is an average, nobody, just like Tally was in the first book. She is struggling to make something of herself, and by the end, she realizes that being pretty and having a good reputation is meaningless.

The great part of the book is that the end sets things up that if Westerfield wants to create another book, he could certainly do so. I am curious to see what the future holds for Miss. Fuse!

Wasn't expecting another book in the series but this was brilliant.

Things have changed in the world- whether it's for the better or worse depends on how you see it. What people care about is their face rank and who's invited to Nina Love's party. Aya is so obsessed with her face rank that she doesn't care about who her kicked story will affect. She's determined not to be an Extra.

I loved the Sly girl and i think they're really cool. I liked that they are different from everyone else and don't care about their rank. I would have loved this story better if the Sly Girls were shown in more depth.

I also loved that Tally was in the book. The book shows how other people saw her and what they think of her.
The Technology in this book was brilliant (and i wouldn't mind having one of my own.)
All in all , this was a good read.
Good job Scott!

This book is set in Japan, a few years after the "mind-rain", when Tally Youngblood got rid of the "bubble-heads". Now inew technology, strange surgeries and so on have drastically set apart all the cities of the world. We have a new protagonist in this book, Aya.

There are lots of new aspects of this world, of which I'll only explain a couple, because saying them all would take too long. So, everyone has a "feed", which is basically their own space where they can put things they have done/information about themselves on it. Another different thing is that everyone doesn't get their own free stuff anymore. They get merits for doing work, or just being famous. Everyone wants to be famous, and they've all got their own ranking. In the first three books, Scott told us about how people can't be perfect and humanity's inability to be perfect. In this book, he explained to us the human obsession with popularity and how people can make someone a celebrity in an instant... or un-make them. Also there are all sorts of people. There are "surge-monkeys", those who have extreme surgeries, "tech-heads", those who like creating new inventions, "kickers", those who look for stories to reveal to the world to boost their face rank. Aya is a kicker.

When I was reading the first three books, I sometimes found Tally quite annoying, but she had grown on me by the end of the third book, so I was kind of sad when we had a new protagonist, and was hoping that Tally would reappear. She did.

Okay. The first thing that I want to say about Aya, something that I kept thinking throughout the book. YOU IDIOT AYA, STOP OBSESSING ABOUT YOUR FACE RANK!!! SERIOUSLY! IT's NOT ALL ABOUT THAT! Finished now. No, seriously. Aya was SO obsessed with her face rank throughout the book, basically all she ever thought about was creating a great story to kick to the world. I'm not kidding, if you removed all of Aya's thoughts about kicking a story and boosting a face rank, you would lose two thirds of the book. And I think that Aya didn't really learn her lesson at the end of the book. She should have realised that fame is bogus and totally unprivate, and then become like the Sly Girls at the end, doing dangerous stuff and not caring about her face rank. In fact, at the end, the Sly Girls kind of lost their interest for staying off the charts, which I found annoying, because that's what made them interesting.

I found the setting incredibly confusing. In fact, I didn't know that they lived in Japan and spoke Japanese until they met Tally (yes, she reappears in this book, but she has changed a lot. It is strange to be looking at her from the outside) and Scott was like "She spoke in rapid-fire Japanese" or "She switched to English" or "She was unsure of the English word" or something like that. The city name was not even mentioned once.

If you have enjoyed the other three Uglies books, this is definitely worth checking out, but it isn't as good as the others, in my opinion.

Extras, the final book in the Uglies series, is set a couple of years after the "mind-rain," a few earth-shattering months in which the whole world woke up. The cure has spread from city to city, and the pretty regime that kept humanity in a state of bubbleheadedness has ended. Boundless human creativity, new technologies, and old dangers have been unleashed upon the world. Culture is splintering, the cities becoming radically different from each other as each makes its own way into this strange and unpredictable future . . .

One of the features of the new world is that everyone has a "feed," which is basically their own blog/myspace/tv channel. The ratings of your feed (combined with how much the city interface overhears people talking about you) determines your social status--so everyone knows at all times how famous they are. As Scott Westerfeld explored the themes of extreme beauty in the first three Uglies books, now he takes on the world's obsession with fame and popularity. And how anyone can be an instant celebrity.

I think that at the end, Aya should of realized it isn't all about fame and became more like the Sly Girls, not caring about popularity and having fun on dangerous hover board riding. Aya should of NOT be so obsessed with her face rank, and gotten on with her life, one without the fame, she should of learnt what happens with it from her brother.

The languages as well were very confusing, and the location of the story to. I had no clue what so ever that Aya and her friends spoke Japanese until halfway through the book, and this to panic from me in the form of flicking back through the pages. And the location of the city was never said, not even the name of city in fact.

Over all, if you enjoyed the last three books of the Ugly series, than Extras is worth the read, but be warned, it is not as awesome as the others, but still pretty good.

Reader reviewed by Manda Kay

This fourth installment of the Uglies series is listed as a companion novel on Scott Westerfeld's website, but it was way more than that.  Told from the point of view of Aya Fuse, 15 year old Uglie, this book follows nicely in the footsteps of the previous three books.  It takes place several years after Specials.  Aya is a kicker who is trying to up her face rank and falls upon a very interesting story that is definitely worth sharing.  The release of her story draws the attention of Tally Youngblood and pulls them all into a journey that only could be written by Westerfeld.  Once again, Westerfeld paints this over materialistic world that mirrors things in our world today. He paints a picture of the consumerism we live in, but gives it a hint of fantasy.  Readers will be pulled into this book much like the rest of the series, and it is quite a fantastic ride.

Reader reviewed by Kath

the 3 book of the series... but not the best one!
At the beginning Tally is not there in the book and we miss her...then she finally gets in the story and she is just mad about everything.  Tally's character was pushed too far. About the story, I didnt find that it was as good as the 2 first books. This said, there is still plenty of action and loving new characters.
kath

Reader reviewed by Dede

Extras was an okay book and there were parts of it that really caught my attention. However, it started feeling repetitive. I'll explain why: Aya Fuse is an Extra. She wants to be popular (like Tally wanting to be Pretty) like her older brother. She learns that what she wants may not actually be what she truly wants. Tally has a robot friend name "Moggle" who has been tweaked to record/take pictures/follow her around. She joins this click of girls who do crazy stunts but don't want to be famous. They witness mysterious beings opening a "door" into a tunnel and moving in mysterious orbs. Tally breaks the story and becomes famous and gains the attention of none other than Tally Youngblood, who comes to help Aya through the trouble that comes from breaking the story. At times, Tally is portrayed as not very like-able and I got tired of reading how much it would hurt if you fell from the hoverboard and the crash bracelets yanked you to a stop, or reading about these actual falls. We are reintroduced to Tally, Shay, Fausto, David and Andrew Simpson Smith to name a few, and the adventure Aya goes on is interesting, but only in certain places and not really enough to keep my attention for long. The ending was worth reading the whole book though. As much as I like this series, I hope Scott leaves it be now.

Reader reviewed by Lucy

Unlike the first three books in the trilogy, Extras focuses on the character Aya instead of Tally. Several years have passed since the mind rain and cities have drastically changed. The city where Aya lives is controlled by the desire to be famous. The more people know your name, the more privileges and money you get. Aya desperately wants to be famous and goes nowhere without her hovercam Moggle, always on the watch for a juicy story. Her pathetically low face rank of 451,369 proves that so far none of her stories have been successful. That is until she discovers the Sly Girls, a clique of girls who pull the craziest tricks, but do their best to stay hidden and unknown. At first, Aya tricks the Sly Girls into believing that she wants to join their clique, while secretly filming everything that they do for her next big story, which she hopes will boost her face rank. However, the discovery of a huge secret that could mean the destruction of the world abruptly changes Ayas story.
Extras is a great book with lots of action and adventure that will surely please fans of the first three books. It also gives you a lot to laugh about, and of course also to think about. Is fame really as great as it seems? How much are you willing to sacrifice in order to become famous? The only thing that bothered me about the book was that it didnt really fit among the other books in the series. It didnt really manage to measure up to the first three and wasnt necessary because the story in the first three books is well closed off in Specials. But just because it wasnt necessary doesnt mean that I didnt enjoy it, because I did and I know others will too.

Reader reviewed by mlecompt

This book is set about three years after Specials. Aya lives in a world where popularity is key. Your face rank is the key to economic easy street. Aya is ranked pretty low and wants to push herself into the top tier, so she scouts out a story on the Sly Girls. The Sly Girls take thrill ride on the top of trains, but don't want anyone to know about them. After infiltrating the group, Aya thinks she has a great story, but then they stumble upon something even bigger. Strange-looking being are stashing something inside of a mountain near Aya's city. Are they dangerous? The Sly Girls investigate and Aya gets a story that might make her super-famous.

This book got off to a slow start. I thought the parts about riding on top of the train were a little boring and the Sly Girls are really just a device to launch the rest of the story. However, once the real story gets going it is very page-turning. The idea of popularity as currency is very interesting and Westerfeld provides a lot of real world parallels like kicking stories out to feeds (posting major stories on blogs). Worth a read if you have read the Uglies series.