Author: Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi
Page Count: 417
Publication Date: October 2nd, 2007
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source
*NO SPOILERS*
Extras by Scott Westerfeld is a companion novel to the Uglies trilogy, takes place three years after Tally Youngblood took down the Specials, and follows a fifteen-year-old named Aya Fuse. Aya lives in a city where everyone is given face ranks instead of being classified as an ugly, pretty, or special. Face ranks are your popularity status. You can build your face rank by kicking, our modern day blogging, an interesting story that the whole world can see. The more people that see your story, the higher your face rank gets. Aya is an extra, meaning her face rank is 451,396 out of a city with a population on 1,000,000 people, and wants desperately to be popular. She tries to kick cool stories but no one ever notices them. While sneaking into a popular party, Aya stumbles upon the Sly Girls, a clique that does crazy stunts but tries their best to stay unnoticed. Aya decides to follow them, along with her hovercam, Moggle, to get shots of them in action so she can kick a never-before-seen story. This story is full of twists and turns and kept me hooked the entire time. I enjoyed the world, the characters, the storyline, and the references to characters from the original trilogy.
First of all, I loved the world. I was fascinated by the idea of judging people based on how popular they were and how many times their name was mentioned. I think that this is somewhat relatable to our society today because we tend to judge people on their appearance and make assumptions about celebrities based on what we hear through gossip. This is shown in the story through kicks about famous people that aren't true but are popular because they're famous. Also, I, once again, really liked the technologies used in this world. I think that the hovercams were really cool and that they were able to follow you around anywhere you go and find you when it gets lost.
Secondly, I appreciated the relatable characters. Let's face it; all of us have wanted to be famous or popular at some point in our life and Aya is just like that. Plus, she isn't just sitting around complaining that she wants to be famous like the rest of us, she actually puts forth the effort to become famous and takes risks. I really admired that in her. However, there were some times when she was whining and complaining that she would never be famous which annoyed me. Also, Aya was very persistent to kick a popular story and did anything and everything she had to do to do so. Another character that stood out to me was Frizz. Frizz is the creator of a new clique entitled Radical Honesty. In this clique, everyone tells the truth all of the time and doesn't have the ability to lie. Frizz is very pleased with his invention but his also frustrated by it a lot. The downside of telling the truth all of the time is that you can't keep any secrets which creates difficulties later on in the story. I found this aspect of Frizz's character made him strong and showed his wanting to be a better person.
Thirdly, the storyline was thrilling and engaging. Throughout the story, Aya was constantly on the look out for something kickable. This led her to take a few risks to get to where she wanted to be. I loved reading about Aya's adventures and how the little things she did created a scenario much bigger than she ever would've imagined. The Sly Girls, a clique that Aya tries to get shots of to kick, do so many insane stunts that I was engaged in the story and couldn't stop reading. One example of these stunts is jumping onto a moving train. I was so worried for not only Aya, but the Sly Girls as well. This part reminded me a bit of the Dauntless from Divergent by Veronica Roth.
Lastly, I enjoyed seeing the characters from the previous trilogy weave their way into this story. Tally, Shay, and Fausto come back to deal with the Special Circumstance that Aya has created. I really liked seeing Tally again because it was interesting to hear about her through another person's perspective. The people from Aya's city learn about Tally and the other Cutters in their history class and it was weird to see how Aya worshipped them. Also, it was cool to see how far Tally has grown into a strong and confident person. Although Tally still has trouble overcoming the brain damage she received from being a Special, she was still able to function properly without having any random fits of anger.
All in all, Extras by Scott Westerfeld was a wonderful read and I would definitely recommend it to everyone who has read the Uglies trilogy. The world was fantastic, the characters were relatable, and the story was full of action.
P.S To make it easier to follow my blog, I created a Bloglovin' account. This is a fun way to follow blogs that you love. Plus, you don't have to have a blog to be a part of it.
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