Extras by Scott Westerfeld (Uglies Series, Book 4)

Books Completed: 60
Completion Date: February, 2009
Pages: 432
Publication Date: October, 2007

Reason for Reading: Sci-Fi Experience, Next Book in the Series

Fame

It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends, and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on a bazillion different cameras. The world is like a gigantic game of American Idol. Whoever is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules.

As if being fifteen doesn't suck enough, Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. But Aya doesn't care; she just wants to lie low with her drone, Moggle. And maybe kick a good story for herself.

Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks, yet are deeply secretive of it. Aya wants desperately to kick their story, to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are. But doing so would propel her out of extra-land and into the world of fame, celebrity...and extreme danger. A world she's not prepared for.

Finally! It's almost April and I am writing the last review for February! I am going to try and post a lot for the rest of the month in the hopes that I can start off April fresh... Hopefully this will work! I find the farther I get behind, the less I want to actually write the reviews. Not to mention reviews are a lot fresher when you haven't read the book almost a month prior.

Extras is the fourth book in the popular Uglies series. I am very amazed with the fact that I actually read all four books this year! That's a very rare thing for me. It seems that I am very good at starting series, but very bad at actually finishing them! I was a little worried about this book, though. I really liked Tally and she is not the narrator for this one. Even when she was using her very annoying Pretty talk, I find her a likable character. She grew during the course of her three books, so you felt like you really got to know her by the end. She had come to the conclusion that she only wanted to make changes to herself if she wanted to, not because she had to or because it was expected of her. Like I said when I wrote my review of Specials, it could have been the last book and I would have been satisfied. I guess other fans were not, though, so Westerfeld stretched his trilogy into a quartet.

This book is told from the point-of-view of Aya Fuse. Aya is living after everything has changed. There is no more surgery to cause brain damage, so they have found new ways to act and live. Aya is a 'kicker'. She is living in a society that is all based on rankings, so you have to do something 'amazing' to move up them. Aya's brother is very good at it, but she is still young and still working on her next big story. Then, she stumbles across a group of women that ride hovertrains. They do it in secret and with hoverboards, so it is a lot different than train-riding of this day! Aya decides that this super-secret group of girls is going to be her next story. The only problem is that they don't want to be known. They are not interested in the boast in numbers that comes from having a lot of attention thrown their way. This is something that takes Aya a while to come to terms with because she is all about numbers.

What turns out as an attempt to move into the top 1000, though, becomes a very different story. Aya stumbles on something that could mean the end of her society, which makes a much more interesting story. Pulling her brother and his friend into the mix, though, becomes very dangerous. It gives an excuse for Tally and Shay to enter the story and cause some trouble, which is good for the series. I actually found that I really liked this book. It still has some of the annoying talk in it, though. If people really talked like this I would walk around with ear plugs all the time!

Another recommended read!