Specials

Specials is the third installment in Scott Westerfeld’s tetralogy of books, following Uglies and Pretties. All three books focus on the protagonist, Tally Youngblood, as she comes of age in a dystopian future society. Three hundred years ago, the Rusties (or current-day society) destroyed their civilization through the combination of an oil-eating bacteria, nuclear warfare, and general ecological collapse. The new city-states that dominate the landscape are confined to specific geological boundaries and social systems in an attempt to prevent repeating the mistakes of the Rusties. On the one hand, this creates an environment in which “the wild” remains undisturbed and sustainable. On the other hand, this promotes an atmosphere of authoritarian control, wherein conformity and obedience quash individual expression and independent thought.

The author builds a world in which cosmetic surgery and designer looks are fundamental to the social order. The Uglies are inferior, socially speaking, especially in Tally’s city: They are physically separated from the Pretties by a river that runs through the center of the city, and they are oceans apart, socially speaking. The Uglies are insecure and full of angst, their physical appearance the result of genetic fate rather than the perfectibility of surgical intervention. However, once the Uglies surrender to the authorities to become Pretties, they unwittingly subject themselves to mental modifications as well. The Pretties also undergo alterations to their brains that render them less intelligent and more obedient.

In Uglies, Tally runs away to the Smoke, a self-sustaining encampment of Uglies who escaped the surgery. She serves as a spy for Dr. Cable and betrays the Smoke—and her boyfriend, David—in exchange for the reliable comforts of her city. As a Pretty, however, Tally always feels that something is missing. She, along with some other disgruntled Pretties, form a group of troublemakers they christen the “Crims” (short for criminal). When engaging in dangerous or unlawful behavior, they are able to make their minds sharper. Zane, Tally’s next boyfriend, leads this gang.

Tally overcomes the alterations made to her brain by rewiring her thoughts, the central concern of Pretties. Conformity to the social norm is only temporary in the face of the strong desire for individual agency. David reminds Tally once she has become a Special—which includes not only physical enhancements but more mental alterations—that she has always resisted the authorities’ control: “The world is changing, Tally. You made it happen” (300). Her resistance to her brain’s surgical alterations upon becoming a Pretty made possible the new nano cure that is now circulating throughout her city and beyond. Now, freedoms unheard of for centuries, such as political debate and difference of opinion, are infiltrating the cities.

The series also delivers an underlying ecological message: In the end, preserving what the characters call “the wild” is more important than the expansion of the New System, with its freedoms and individual agency. While Tally realizes that this revolution is “unstoppable now,” she is also deeply concerned about the results of these changes, this rebellion for which David has unabashedly given her credit. She remains Special—though not in the ways that Dr. Cable believed to be significant—and decides that her place is in the wild. At the end of her role in the series (the final book, Extras, introduces a new protagonist), Tally Youngblood will appoint herself the defender of all that exists beyond the cities that once tried to contain her.