Review: Uglies, Pretties and Specials

I love this series. I have not been this enthusiastic about a YA series since I read Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Scott Westerfeld is a magician with the written word. No description is wasted; everything in the story is pertinent, beautiful and ugly and well captured in words. There is no awkwardness of text.

Uglies begins the story of Tally and Shay, two teenaged girls who are almost old enough to turn Pretty. For the residents of Ugly town, the ultimate dream is to turn pretty. Everyone does it at the age of 16--just like getting a license. However, fate will take that dream away and turn it into a dark reality for Tally and Shay.

In Pretties, the operation has happened but Tally knows there is something wrong. She and her boyfriend Zane take a cure together, but Zane gets sick and the two of them have to go to further and further extremes to stay bubbly.

Tally and Shay are Cutters in the newest book Specials. Cutters are an extreme arm of the Special Circumstances--an elite secret police. They are charged with finding New Smoke--where all the excaped Uglies and Pretties go after they get the cure for their bubleheadedness. Things get out of hand and suddenly a war has broken out. What will Tally and Shay do to set things right?

This series is a good read for teens of all ages. Specials claims to be the last book in the series, but we now know that there will be a fourth called Extras. I am excited to get my hands on it!