Grade 8 Up–This final installment in the series is a warning of the
dangers of overconsumption and conformity. Set some time in the future,
after a human-made bacteria destroyed the modern world, the trilogy
tells of new cities established and tightly controlled through
brainwashing and a series of operations leading to a compliant society.
Tally Youngblood, the 16-year-old protagonist, learns in the first two
books that free will and truth are more important than a false sense of
security. In Specials, she has become an elite fighting machine,
fully enhanced with nanotechnology and super-fast reflexes, and made to
work as a Special Circumstances agent for the nameless city that she
fled. As in the first two books, much of the story takes place with
characters whizzing through the air on hoverboards, but Tally and her
friends are in for some harsh realities here. Readers who enjoyed Uglies and Pretties (both S & S, 2005) will not want to miss Specials,
but those who have not read those books will not understand much of
what is happening. Westerfeld's themes include vanity, environmental
conservation, Utopian idealism, fascism, violence, and love. In this
trilogy, the author calls for a revolution in our hearts and minds–think
The Matrix.
Description: