Uglies #4

My Spring Break has been uneventful, so I have been reading a lot. Because of this, I finished "Pretties" and have now moved onto "Specials," the third book in the series by Westerfeld that came out in 2006.

In this book, Tally has become a Special, a scary sort of police officer that keeps Pretty Town in order and possesses super-human skills. Right now, she is on the hunt, chasing down her old friends from the Smoke, a rebel party who do not believe in becoming pretty. As a sequel to "Pretties," this book is all right so far. "Uglies" is definitely the best book in the series; the other two books are too predictable. From the beginning of "Pretties," the reader knew that Tally would successfully cure herself of the brain lesions. In "Specials," based on the books predictable plot line, I foresee Tally going back to the smoke and having internal conflicts as to whether or not she should turn her old friends Pretty. I am actually getting kind of tired of these books, probably because I read them all in one week, but also because the plot line, besides being predictable, is also cliche; it is full of teen melodrama found in basically every teen book, movie, and TV series. For example, Tally first falls in love with David, a leader of the Smoke who has vowed to stay ugly. But then once Tally becomes pretty, she finds a new boyfriend, Zane, who is pretty as well. As Tally journeys back to the Smoke, she realizes that she still has feelings for David, even though he is ugly and she is in love with Zane. This sort of teen angst situation is fine once in a while, but Westerfeld puts his characters in all too many cliche situations, which makes his books a bit boring and annoying at times. But overall, I still like the books; it is easy to lose yourself in cliche plot lines even though they are unoriginal.