Monthly Archives: September 2009

Extras is the fourth book in the Uglies series after Uglies, Pretties, and Specials. Extras takes place after the end of the Prettytime, which is called the mind-rain. Cities all over the world are changing, especially Aya Fuse’s which now runs on a “reputation economy”. The more you are talked about, the higher your face-rank goes; the higher your face-rank, the “richer” you are. To gain face-rank, all citizens are given a dedicated channel called feeds and can use a hovercam to “kick” stories. Unfortunately, at 15, Aya is still an ugly, and with a depressingly low face-rank, she’s considered an “extra”. But when Aya Fuse meets a secret clique, she thinks that “kicking” their story will finally make her popular. She ends up stumbling upon possibly the biggest story since the mind-rain, even Tally Youngblood can’t stay away. Tally and her friends from the first three books in the series finally show up to help Aya and her friends save their city… and perhaps the post-Prettytime world. I felt like Extras lacked the direction and social/moral commentary that the first three books had. Oddly enough, the series felt concluded at the end of Specials. The first half of the book focused on the secret clique that Aya joins just to kick their story, which feels misleading after we discover what the book is really about. And the secret that brings Tally and her friends back into the book felt a little far-fetched. I don’t want to ruin anything, so [...]