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Whistle Stopper - Extras (Uglies)
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List Price: $16.99
Our Price: $4.98
Your Save: $ 12.01 ( 71% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9781416951179
ISBN: 1416951172
Label: Simon Pulse
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2007-10-02
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: 2007-10-02
Studio: Simon Pulse
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Comment: If you're looking for something like Uglies this isn't it. I felt as though it had written by a different author!
Customer Rating:
Summary: not as great book, good time passer
Comment: the few objections to the book i have is this:
1.aya can be very annoying. she is obsessed with fame in a way that wildly surpasses tally's obsession with being a "pretty" in the book uglies.
2.aya is simply not as interesting a character as tally, or even shay. i would have enjoyed a book more that was about tally and more tally. she has developed, struggled, failed, and won, and she is a really fascinating character in this book. i wanted to know what was going on in her head.
3.now that i think about it, this book does have a pretty boring ending, but it wasn't bad or anything. the whole book was so confusing and unexpected that it was a bit of a relief for things to go back to normal(as normal as they can be in aya's world.
4.i didn't love the characters. the books before? i loved them. they fascinated and frustrated me to no end. the ones i didn't love in the former books were still pretty cool to watch. this book left me still loving the older charasters, but not the new ones. i didn't hate them, but they weren't as powerful.
my commendations:
1.it was kinda interesting to see tally and shay and david from the outside. tally is a lot more insane then i realized.
2.plot was cool, in some ways. the adventuresome girls in this novel that aya plans to publish are pretty darn cool.
3.i've already said it partially, but the parts with tally in them are still the most interesting.
so it kinda was cool, but it didn't spellbind me. don't get me wrong, most readers will be so dazzled they will LOVE it at first, like i did. and it was a good book. i don't think you should avoid all "add-ons", especially not this one. it won't screw up tally's story (and make you wanna forget you read it beacause it ended wrong like some last books in series). read it, like it, and then go reread pretties or uglies so you can make up for the lack of true character struggle or characters that you care enough about to wait through their struggle.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Extra Good
Comment: Pros: An original, believable concept, great characters.
Cons: Ending is a bit of a let down.
I was a bit reluctant to read this book, as I thought that Westerfield's last attempt, Specials, was the weakest in the series. Nevertheless, I am a fan of the series in general and when I saw this book in Borders, I had to pick it up. I was not disappointed.
Aya, a fifteen-year-old living in a society with a reputation based economic system, makes a more interesting protagonist than Tally Youngblood. Her curiosity, independence, and ambition drive the story along much better than Tally's initial wishy-washiness in Uglies. Aya's cohorts Ren and Hiro are also very well done and I am left with the impression that the weakest characters in the whole thing are the ones who from the previous books who show up in the last few chapters.
The story concept is just as original and fascinating as Uglies, if not more. In a world where people are constantly checking their internet popularity, Aya's world which tracks the number of times a person's name is spoken and gives extra goods and services to those with a high number seems eerily familiar and yet remote enough to make an good fantastical concept. The only flaw in the way that Aya's city is presented is that I find it hard to believe that the system would work so seamlessly only a few years after the end of the "pretty" system.
I would conclude that Extras is altogether the best book in the series, but I do have to say that the ending is comparatively weak. The middle is good -- we build up from Aya wanting to be famous to Aya uncovering a conspiracy -- but the ending is a bit anticlimactic. I won't say more for fear of spoiling the book.
Still, Extras is a well written Young Adult novel, with a great premise, complex characters, and page turning suspense. Five stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: ...
Comment: The newest book in the Uglies series, this one takes place in Japan a few years after Tally has freed the planet from the mind control it was under. This book follows Aya Fuse, a kicker in Japan. Since the mind rain, Japan has leapt into advancing itself in as many ways as possible to make up for the fact that for 3 centuries there was very little advancement. They are set up on a system of popularity, the more popular you are; the better everything you have is. Thus we have different groups: Kickers look for new stories to report, to kick. Tech-heads: people that made new technologies and showed them off. Surge-monkeys: People that liked to change the way they looked constantly. Reputation Bombers: Cliques that would chant a member's name as much as possible to get the member's number up. NeoFoodies: Those that made up new food and new ways of eating them. The more you are paid attention to, the higher your number goes.
Aya is doing a story on a new group, one that wants to stay under the radar: the Sly Girls. Aya saw them mag-lev riding on the trains one night and wants to find out more about them. To do so, she becomes a part of the group and uncovers something a lot bigger then a group of girls doing tricks. It looks like a group of people are using the old hollowed out mountains that were made to protect world leaders, to bulid something. Something that looks an awful lot like missiles the Rusties had in their time.
I like this series, it's interesting and I look forward to seeing if there's going to be more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: the extra book in the series
Comment: What happens after everything you take for granted in the world completely changes forever? Lots of ideas come forth and are explored.
It's now a few years after Tally Youngblood brought about the end of the Prettytime. Half a world away from Tally's city, Aya's city is full of people bent on fame. Everyone's fame is constantly measured, and everyone is always acutely aware of their relative fame. Aya is 15, a nobody with a low face rank, who is intent on being at least as famous as her older brother. To achieve fame, she is what amounts to a citizen journalist: reporting on interesting things that she sees in her life, hoping that others will read and link to it.
Aya observes an elusive and secretive clique of girls called the Sly Girls. They pull hair-raising tricks which no-one else does. Aya wants to report their story, and so convinces them to let her join. In the process of one of their tricks, they discover a huge secret. In the process, Aya's true goal is uncovered. The Sly Girls agree that the secret they have discovered is too important to keep hidden, so allow Aya to report it while they go underground. Aya reports it, and is instantly famous. Her reporting draws the attention of the now-undercover Tally. Aya and Tally join up, and learn the true secret behind what Aya has observed.
With Tally as a secondary character, she becomes a lot less sympathetic -- seen from the outside, she's rude, harsh, and needlessly violent. Aya can see some of Tally's struggles, but obviously most of that occurs only within Tally's own head. The novel is an interesting discussion of the perils of fame and those who seek it. I didn't find this book quite as engrossing as the previous books set in this universe, but I still devoured it.
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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