Specials
Special Circumstances: The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious Ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumour – frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary Pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. And now Tally's been turned into one of them: a super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the Uglies down and the Pretties stupid. The strength, the speed, the clarity and focus feel better than anything she can remember. Although, some small part of Tally remembers something more. Still, that's easy to tune out – until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint voice or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.
About the Uglies Series
Reading age: 12+ years
This series should be read in order.
Playing on every teen's desire to look as good as everybody else, 'Uglies' projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The new "Pretties" are then free to play and party, while the younger "Uglies" look on enviously. Tally Youngblood has always yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumoured rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities at the Department of Special Circumstances have given her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay's cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy. But when Tally finally reaches The Smoke she will discover the sinister secret behind becoming pretty.