Extras by Scott Westerfeld

book: Extras
written by: Scott Westerfeld
genres: Dystiopian, young adult
pages: 417
own / library / borrowed
release date: January 1st 2007
series?  Uglies #4
publisher, version I read: Simon Pulse


note: I already read and reviewed the other books in the series, Uglies, Pretties and Specials. Click on the titles and the links will take you to the reviews :)


the book: 

Aya Fuse is just an extra, someone who's not important and has a very low rank of popularity. She has to work for her 'merits' (money) and has to find a way to boost her popularity rank, which is 451369. One of the ways you can boost your rank is by kicking  a story. You kick a story when you spread gossip and/or trends via the city feeds. There are no more bubbleheads, and Tally Youngblood has become a legend. She is the most famous person in the city, but nobody has ever seen her in person. Then Aya meets the Sly Girls, and she sees a great story that will make her famous. But then she finds out something far more important and dangerous than the Sly Girls. But will kicking that story put her in danger?

my review:
The series is getting more of the same. But at least this was a new main character and a new city. Also you were introduced to one more type of people with strange brain surge, the other Extras. I did not like this city, because now it was not about who's pretty and who's ugly, but about who's popular and who isn't. When you have an average face rank, and meet someone who's pretty famous you should bow for them and use all this names to show them that they are better than you are, and to me that's horrible. It's like the whole world is one big episode of gossip girl.
Luckily, Tally Youngblood did return. She was still a very interesting character, with her own problems and own way of thinking. And she was saving the world, again *her saving the world did become kinda boring, but still* Girls rule the world :)
The cover of this book is the best cover of the whole series, I love the eyes :D She is an ugly, but looks pretty to me. Only a big nose, which makes everyone call her Nosey :)
We are also introduced to Frizz in this book. He seems awesome, because he has this awesome type of brain surge, Radical Honesty. That means he cannot lie. I think it would suck if you could not lie, but also I think it is a very good way to stop lying. I would call this a great invention which can cause a lot of trouble...
But this book was not as good as Specials, some parts bored me and wanted me to give up reading this book, while other parts of this book were great, which made me feel very confused.


so total:
2.5 stars for Extras!

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Hello Everyone :D
Another review post :D


book: Uglies
written by: Scott Westerfeld
genre: dystopian, romance, young adult
pages (my version): 425 
release date: februari 8th, 2005 
own / library / borrow
series: yes, #1 of the series 'Uglies'
publisher: Simon and Shuster


note: This book taught me one thing: Never ever judge a book by its cover. The cover of this book (the version I read) is just so very ugly. But it did not matter, and was even funny to me because there were 'dead' barbies, and below there was written uglies cuz they're ugly :)


the book:
The book takes place in a world 300 years from this one. There are the pretties and the uglies. Below the age of 16 everyone is ugly, and after the age of 16 hardly anyone. On their 16th birthday people will turn pretty, with an extreme version of plastic surgery. Now you are most likely thinking: "How can this be a bad thing, with everyone being pretty?!"
Tally, an almost 16-year-old girl, is left without friends on Uglytown. Her friend, Peris, turned pretty and did not return to Uglytown. Tally goes to New Pretty Town and finds him. He has changed, turned pretty. She was recognised as ugly and had to leave New Pretty Town. Peris told her not to do anything wrong. That they would be together in 3 weeks. 
But, of course, there had to happen something. Tally meets Shay, another girl her age from Uglytown. Together they pull lots of bad tricks. They get out of town. They become good friends, best friends. But Shay is still doubting if she wants to be pretty. She wants to run away to her friends in the Smoke. But does this whole Smoke place excist? 


my opinion:

• on the characters: I liked that the girls ruled in this book. They (Tally and Shay) dared to do more than anyone. And the fact that a man wrote this book makes it even more fantastic. Tally is this girl you want to have as a friend, but you are too shy for. (or at least, I'm to shy for being her friend) and Shay is this one girl that is pretending always. Pretending that she dares to do everything. Pretending her life is perfect. But you will find out her life is not perfect after all when you get to know her better...
• on the future the book displays: Okay, this is very hard to say without spoilers. I liked the world at first, it seemed all perfect and better. But when you get to know this world and its secrets you will be horrified! There are some pretty cool inventions like hoverboards on which you can fly and bungeejackets with which you can bungeejump without the elastic cord :D
• on the way the book was written: The way this book was written annoyed me, a lot. It was way to simply written. Example (book) She wore a green T-shirt. (better) She wore a shirt. It was green, with a few spots on it that showed how often it was already worn. The shirt was a little bit oversized, but she looked very good in it. (or whatever) That was a very bad example, but I hope that you get my point
• on the cover: This cover sucks! There also are other versions of this book, and their covers are way more pretty. But I still think the cover has something to do with the books
• the end: Great, unespected, but a torture. I will say it always, so also now: I hate cliffhangers!

total: 

I liked this book, I even liked it very much! The amounts of girlpower, romance and hate are perfectly balanced. I think this book is more enjoyable for children a little younger than me, about 11-12 years old. It was a pageturner, but I could put it away, so it was not a very pageturnery pageturner... I'll give this book

3.5 stars

I hate cliffhangers because they make me want to read the next book as fast as possible, and so did this book. I will defenitely read part 2 in this series, Pretties.

Next review: I still have to choose

1) Beautiful Chaos

2) Halfling (ARC)

xoxo Mar, your reading-reviewing crazy girl <3