Type of bind: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Simon Pulse
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: September 11, 2007
Publishing house: Simon Pulse
Age index: Young Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 371210
Studio: Simon Pulse
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'Special Circumstances':
The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumour -- frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. But Tally's never been ordinary.
And now she's been turned into one of them: a superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.
The strength, the speed, and the clarity and focus of her thinking feel better than anything Tally can remember. Most of the time. One tiny corner of her heart still remembers something more.
Still, it's easy to tune that out -- until Tally'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.
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Rated by buyers 
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Specials (The Uglies)
Personally I loved this book. It was very intense and kept you on your toes at all times. Scott Westerfield did a great job of illustrating mental images. If you loved the very first two books then your bound to love the third one!
Rated by buyers 
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I loved the very first book in the Uglies trilogy, but the last 2 were mediocre at best. Hoverboard adventures don't work anymore. "Pretty" talk is old already. And I didn't care for the glamorized self-cutting that helped the Pretties think more clearly. The only new things here are Pretties turning into Specials and the sneak suits that change colors and textures based on your surroundings.
There were also very few pages where storyline was interesting enough to slow down and read rath...more I loved the very first book in the Uglies trilogy, but the last 2 were mediocre at best. Hoverboard adventures don't work anymore. "Pretty" talk is old already. And I didn't care for the glamorized self-cutting that helped the Pretties think more clearly. The only new things here are Pretties turning into Specials and the sneak suits that change colors and textures based on your surroundings.
There were also very few pages where storyline was interesting enough to slow down and read rather than skim boring conversation and contrived action sequences.
I disliked Shay as much as ever, but suddenly Tally was just as despicable. I had a hard time believing Tally was even the same lucid character as before. All the likable characters from past 2 books had been boiled down to characters with very little personality. When one of them died, I didn't even care.
I can't see myself wasting money on the 4th book in the series
Rated by buyers 
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Tally has changed since she was caught by Special Circumstances. She has become one of them; a Special. Her body and mind have been altered and she is now an elite fighting machine with super-fast reflexes and a hardened body that can withstand almost anything...but none of this can really make her happy. Tally is surrounded by "friends" but none of them can take away her memories of her friends from the Smoke and the lessons they taught her. Then her and Shay get a breakthrough and once again whiz off into the wild on their hoverboards searching for the elusive "New Smoke" where the rebels are said to be hiding. If they can find the New Smoke and bring their boss Dr. Cable to it their lives will be easy at last...or so they think.
Although it was great to be once again back in the futuristic world that I have come to know and love that Westerfeld created, "Specials" lacked a certain charm that was palpable throughout "Uglies" and "Pretties," this books predecessors.
In "Specials" Tally is actually the antagonist as opposed to the protagonist and the flip in positions is a giant leap from the end of "Pretties." What disturbed me most about "Specials" is that I stopped liking Tally. She became sort of a mean person and I was less drawn to her character. I don't really know how to describe it other than that she became less...interesting? I don't know if that's the right word.
In any case, the end of the series for me was less than satisfying to say the least. "Specials" left me disappointed. I felt Westerfeld definitely took the easy way out by ending the series the way he did, and I will probably protest his subsequent book because of it. If you've already read "Uglies" and "Pretties," you will have to read "Specials" just to satisfy your curiosity, but don't expect much. It's quite maddening actually.
Three Stars.
Rated by buyers 
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Ever since the very first book(Uglies), I have loved Tally. I love how she can always be herself and escape what other people try to force her into being. They can't force her to look a certain way or be a bubblehead. She chose that on her own, to help her friend, Shay. This book, Specials, kind of made me sad. It seemed like Tally stopped caring about other people, and she did some pretty selfish things. But it was an amazing book. It shows just what society and social standards can do to people. It also shows how people can change for the better and the worst. I think this is a great book for teens.
Rated by buyers -
"Special Circumstances"
The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumor- frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast."
And Tally is now one of them; in fact she is a part of a special group called Cutters, the best of the Specials, the most dangerous, the most crazy in some cases... And she now has a new choice to make to stay the way she is: a fast, deadly fighting machine or to be just normal pretty again, even if it means undoing everything that's been done to her and everything she's been through.
This was actually recommended to me by my mom, who was told about it from a friend at work (yay for being a high school English teacher), and she lent it to me. I liked this whole series a lot and I'm looking forward to looking into the fourth book of the trilogy (even the author still calls it a trilogy) Extras.
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