Book Blog #53: Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Extras
Author: Scott Westerfeld
# of Pages: 399 (paperback reprint)
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: Extras, the final book in the Uglies series, is set a couple of years after the “mind-rain,” a few earth-shattering months in which the whole world woke up. The cure has spread from city to city, and the pretty regime that kept humanity in a state of bubbleheadedness has ended. Boundless human creativity, new technologies, and old dangers have been unleashed upon the world. Culture is splintering, the cities becoming radically different from each other as each makes its own way into this strange and unpredictable future . . . One of the features of the new world is that everyone has a "feed," which is basically their own blog/myspace/tv channel. The ratings of your feed (combined with how much the city interface overhears people talking about you) determines your social status--so everyone knows at all times how famous they are.

Review: What. The. Heck.

Why is there a frickin' giant eye on this cover? And why does it keep looking at me like that? It's almost like its daring me to give it a bad review. Well, guess what gigantic-eye-surrounded-by-five-tons-of-make-up? I'm giving your book a bad review anyway! [Insert evil laughter]

Prior to reading, I had been looking at a few people's ratings of the book when I came across Marissa Meyer's review. Here's the first line:

Maybe it's the frequent references to anime and Japanese culture.

WHAT?! WHAT?! Did you just say ANIME?!?!? I scroll through the rest of the review.

I would say this was the best book of the Uglies/Pretties/Specials non-trilogy.

Well, duh! Of course it's going to be fantastic if there's going to be ANIME in the book! Eagerly, I snatched my copy of Extras off the shelf and begin reading.

I think you know what happened next.

It's seems that I misinterpreted Marissa Meyer's review. Although there was plenty of references to Japanese culture (the whole book is in a setting based off of Japan. The food the characters eat are like sushi, the language they speak is Japanese, and there is an occasional -chan/-sama/-sensei added to the end of names), there were not that many references to anime/manga.

Every now and then, Westerfeld would mention that some of the characters would have "manga eyes" which are based off of, of course, manga. And that was it. Tada. What a disappointment. So don't start reading this expecting them to talk about Naruto, Fairy Tail, or Bleach like I did.

Since I was in such a rush to read about all the anime/manga references, I didn't realize that this story was just like the title: extra. This story is not about Tally, but about Aya, a whole new character. I think that Westerfeld should have stuck with Tally because Aya is defiantly NOT my favorite person.

She's just a little traitor. I'm so glad that the Sly Girls saw right through her because if they didn't, THEY WOULD BE STUPID! It was VERY obvious that Aya is still a kicker. I'm surprised that the Sly Girls let her kick the story. But all Aya was thinking about was herself. Never mind that her story negatively effected people who considered her a friend.

And, jeez, the constant switching back and forth between "It's a city killer!" and "It's perfectly harmless!" was terrible! It's kind of like Maximum Ride when (spoiler alert!) Patterson kept bringing that guy back to life. Enough is enough.

AND as an added bonus, the ending was BORING! It's not the killer, heart-racing ending I was hoping for. Seriously? No. Just no.

So, my hopes for Specials being build up for an epic ending in this book have been crushed. This book is just a bunch of unnecessary extras. You DO NOT have to read this book!