Uglies
One of the things I liked the most about this series, but this book in particular, was the character of Tally, who is one of the most convincing teenage heroines I've read in a YA fantasy book. There are three really interesting blogs on Bookish Blather about how Tally is actually much more of a 'feminist' heroine than The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen, despite generally kicking less ass. Anyway, the pacing was also really good - it kept you interested without throwing too much at you too fast, and I think the idea (see the TV Tropes or goodreads page for full details) is fascinating, particularly with the current societal attitude towards femininity in relation to beauty, and falsity. Sorry, that went a bit pretentious. I'm going to have one more moment of snobbery, then get a little perspective - just bear with me. I couldn't point to specific examples of why, but the friendship between Tally and Shay was just missing something. Also, what is it with YA fantasy protagonists and whining?
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Pretties - goodreads
I found the friendship element better in this book, and I also found the whole trading-in-for-a-new-love-interest thing a lot less irritating than it usually is (in fact, this series plays the love-triangle theme with less oh-for-Christ's-sakes than most of the other YA series which feel the need to chuck one in). I also thought the Cutters were a skilful navigation of a very touchy subject in a fantasy context - similarly to the theme of the series generally. What I did find slightly annoying was that it seemed to back up on the message of Uglies. I know that's kind of deliberate, I just didn't feel like we'd got very far. Also, the whole Andrew Simpson Smith caveman bit was kind of out-of-left-field (at the time I thought it might become relevant, and therefore less random, as the series went on, but...it didn't).
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Specials - goodreads
I preferred this to Pretties, I think, because it pulled back some of the excitement from the first book. Of course, apocalyptic storylines will do that. The romantic subplot in this is also much more underplayed, which showed how much better the stories work focusing just on Tally. She also whines less in this book, which was a welcome relief.
I thought the navigation of the Cutters was much less subtle than in Pretties, and the brainwashing thing was starting to get a bit repetitive by now. Again, that was sort of the point, but there was a lot more trekking through the wild, a lot more angst, a lot more internal dialogue that you're reading thinking 'Oh you stupid twerp' etc...
***
Extras - goodreads
This book wreaked of dammit-why-did-I-finish-that-really-successful-series-I-wrote regrets, but for all that was actually not bad - or at least, as good as the second and third books. I appreciated the fact that this wasn't set in Futuristic America, mainly because apparently it's now very weird to set a book of this nature somewhere other than Futuristic America. Again, I thought the idea was great - an interestingly bizarre way to analyse current popular obsessions and phases. I liked the more ensemble cast of characters, rather than the one-man-show of the first three books.
I did, however, find the character of Frizz - who was supposed to be the romantic interest - a massive sap. Eye-rollingly so, all the way through the book - he had no purpose whatsoever other than to make life more difficult for everybody else. I also thought the section of the plot with the Sly Girls was really interesting, and I wished it had been explored more, rather than diving straight back into the end-of-the-world thing.
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Don't I come off as up myself when I'm talking about books? Even when it's young adult dystopian mush, apparently.
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