I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Tally thought they were a rumor, but now she’s one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.

But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn’t better than anything she’s ever known. Tally still has memories of something else.

Still, it’s easy to tune that 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 heartbeat, or carry out the mission she’s programmed to complete. Either way, Tally’s world will never be the same.

Short and Sweet Review

Specials picks up with Tally now fully transformed into one of the Specials, enhanced soldiers designed to be faster, stronger, sharper, and completely loyal to the system. No longer just an Ugly or a Pretty, Tally has become something far more dangerous, trained to keep everyone else under control while crushing any resistance left in the world. But underneath all the programming and manufactured perfection, fragments of her old self still remain. When she’s sent on a mission to finally destroy the New Smoke rebels once and for all, Tally is forced to confront whether she’ll continue following the system that changed her or listen to the small part of herself still fighting to hold on to who she used to be.

I think this was probably my least favorite book in the original trilogy, which was disappointing because I really enjoyed the concept of the series overall. One thing I still appreciated was how creative the world remained. Seeing things from the perspective of a Special was genuinely interesting, especially the heightened abilities, the altered mindset, and the way the surgeries completely changed how Tally viewed herself and everyone around her. The action scenes and futuristic elements were still entertaining, and Scott Westerfeld always does a good job creating big ideas surrounding beauty standards, control, environmentalism, and identity.

But honestly, this book lost me a bit because I struggled so much with Tally as a character here. I know that’s partially the point she’s literally been altered into someone colder and more dangerous, but it made her really hard to connect with for most of the story. In the earlier books, even when she made frustrating choices, there was still something relatable about her. Here she often felt emotionally distant, and it became harder to stay invested in her journey because it almost felt like reading about a completely different person

I also wasn’t fully satisfied with where the story ended up. After everything the series built toward, I wanted a stronger emotional payoff and more closure for both the characters and the larger themes. Instead, the ending felt surprisingly flat to me. Some character arcs, especially involving David and Zane, felt underdeveloped, and I wished the relationships had carried more emotional weight by the end. There were also ideas introduced about freedom, control, and rebellion that could have been explored more deeply, but the book leaned very heavily into the environmental message in a way that sometimes felt a little too on-the-nose.

Overall, I still think Specials has interesting ideas and expands the world in some creative ways, but it didn’t hit as hard emotionally as the earlier books did for me. I liked parts of it, but I finished the trilogy feeling a little underwhelmed compared to how invested I was at the start. Still, if you already enjoyed Uglies and Pretties, it’s definitely worth reading to see where Tally’s story goes, even if the conclusion may not work for everyone.