Yich. Not pretty. I didn't like the complication of the language barrier when it wasn't very clear. I hated the main character for her stupidity, pride, and assumptions. Its plot wasn't very engaging, and once they figure out what the Extras are doing, it jumps to the party scene. Tally's character is a lot harsher than before, as well. It was less along the same baseline that made the others good. The others were their titles because Tally was one. Tally was not an Extra. Overall, not worth it for the author to have written it.

Despite that Extras was written for an audience of teenage girls I rather enjoyed it. It was a quick, easy read that kept me interested as it moved splendidly along...until we came nigh of its conclusion and then the floor sort of just dropped out of the story. *Here there be spoilers*The story revolves around Aya Fuse, who at the tender age of fifteen is desperate for attention--fame being the only way to become rich in the city of the future's "Reputation Economy." You heard that right.I know it sounds stupid, but the city built its economy around two ideas: merits(i.e. money...but don't call it money because that's for primitive morons like us) and fame. Merits are for schlubs who do the grunt work--ditch diggers, teachers, proctologists ((There aren't enough merits in the world for me to be a proctologist...but I digress)) In other words, the help: "Be a dear and clean up that vomit." They are hardly ever mentioned.Fame is the other fork in the road, and down this fork everyone adores you and everything that you ever wanted just magically pops out of the wall--I'm not kidding.Which way does Aya chose? That's a toughie, right? Hardly.Like anyone else with a touch of ambition and brains she opts for the fame, which begs the question: who would ever unclog her toilet? This is a legitimate question. If doing a crazy stunt--say mag-surfing on a bullet train--would make you rich why would you ever sink your arms up to your elbows in someone else's filth? You wouldn't. The world would be a "Look At Me" economy and nothing would ever get done. Yet for this book the philosophy is never questioned, and thus works beautifully.Aya proves my point by immediately doing something dreadfully dangerous in order to Kick a story. It turns out she is a teen journalist and she's hot on a lead--the Sly Girls.The Sly girls are rebels. They do super-duper crazy stunts, but do so in secret(I guess there are people who do like to work a plunger.) They make no sense. Adrenaline junkies are almost always exhibitions but the story flows along so nicely you don't even notice. You see, Aya and the Sly Girls discover a race of Aliens who have carved out a mountain near the city. Now is Aya's big chance to be famous because her kicking story is that the aliens are about to destroy the world!Except they aren't.*Sigh* Here's where the story falls apart for me. The "aliens" are actually surgically augmented humans who are trying to save the planet from...drum roll please...humans. Ugh!And they are saving the planet in the most ridiculous fashion. They are stealing metal from abandoned, "Rusty" cities and are then shooting the metal into orbit where they plan to build a space colony. Supposedly this will stop the evil humans from spreading out and overrunning the wild open spaces, despite the fact there aren't that many humans left after the devastating Diego war. So everyone turns out to be a good guy. There wasn't ever any real danger to our heroes. And we get a dose of enviro-preaching about the evils of mining and over population. That's what I call a sucky ending--though some of you with the high brows might call it anti-climatic. I was hoping for more. Three stars for an engaging writing style and a good beginning.

I'm so proud of you, Scott. You seem to have finally caught on - after three whole books of trial and error, you've produced an engaging plot in a style that doesn't read like a piece of GCSE coursework! It looks like my investment in this series did eventually pay off. This is a decent add-on to a series which I didn't think was really going anywhere. Scott Westerfeld has generated another really interesting world - the concept is quite separate to Uglies/Pretties/Specials (a world which has been milked) and I think could totally be read as a standalone. The notion that drives Extras is fascinating, I think, and so relevant. In this particular reality, your entire quality of life is dictated by how much fame you can acquire rather than how pretty your face is. Both are unstable and highly questionable ethics, but so interesting. The associated plot as a whole was considerably stronger: it was intriguing- something I didn't think was within Westerfeld's capacity, to be completely honest. It's solid, different and the ending has no loopholes, hallelujah! Crucially the characters were distinctive, credible and the sibling dynamic was so convincing.But: some of those annoying characteristics of Scott's writing has persevered, like the infuriating ambiguity. It took me a good 250+ pages to actually have the revelation that the novel is set in Japan - and that was only after one of the characters explicitly said that she was speaking in Japanese. The writing style was, at times, still a bit crude, like it had been written by a 12 year old. The descriptive pieces comprised of some excruciatingly simple images and all of the similes were "{insert what teenage character is doing} like a littlie". And the uncreative names persist. Like the innovative 'Uglyville', the bad-ass clique of mysterious girls who perform dangerous tricks in secrecy were also christened badly - 'The Sly Girls'. Sly. Girls.Westerfeld certainly has a talent for thinking up new and interesting concepts and he constructs his worlds masterfully, introducing the vocabulary and practises of the times with ease. The writing could do with a bit of a makeover to keep things more interesting and less repetitive. So, if you felt underwhelmed by the original trilogy, I still recommend giving this a go because I think that Westerfeld has stepped up his game at long last.

Finishing a series always makes me feel like I'm losing a friend. I've spent a good week or so reading these four books, absorbed in the pages and the characters and their lives, and now I just feel lonely. Extras is set a few years after the huge finale of Specials, or the "mind-rain" as they now call it. It's also a bunch of new characters (although Tally, Shay, David and Fausto make a reappearance which I'm extremely happy about!), a new city, and a spanking new economy known as the "reputation economy". Japan is all about face rank now, a little like a city-sized YouTube, with everyone sporting a hovercam and a feed to broadcast whatever they think will boost their rank. The higher your rank, the more you're able to live in luxury. Fifteen-year-old Aya is ranked around 400,000, making her a total extra, however she uncovers a secret clique, the Sly Girls, which she is certain will bump her to the top. Of course, nothing is ever as simple as that...Needless to say, although I enjoyed it immensely, Extras isn't as wonderful as its predecessors. Perhaps because we've grown so accustomed to Tally and her friends, that a new narrator instantly puts me a little on edge. Aya irritates me more than Tally ever did because all she ever cares about is being famous. I adore Frizz (Aya's love interest) though. Some of the funniest, literally laugh-out-loud moments contained him and Tally when they find out about his brain surge, Radical Honesty, which compells him to tell the truth. He almost surpassed my love for Zane, and is probably the reason this book received four stars. (Speaking of Zane, though... I WISH they'd have said his name. They always trailed off; it was so depressing. I think that was Westerfeld's aim though, so kudos. But still... sigh, Zane <3)A great ending, but like I first said... now I just feel empty D:

Extras is not a Tally Youngblood story, but she appears in it. It takes place in Japan, where the economy is based on popularity. Aya Fuse wants to become famous by "kicking" a story that will attract everyone's attention, just like her brother, Hiro. So she goes undercover, and she stumbles on a very "kickable" story that will make her famous but also set her in danger. To be honest, I liked Aya better than Tally. Tally was a great heroine and one of my favs in Uglies, but in Extras she is hardly relatable. She is, in fact, kind of unlikable. Aya is sweet and I think and many people can relate with her, as she wants to be famous and be noticed for once. In a society that your status is uploaded on social media, Aya is closer to us than Tally; the first is a teen who struggles to find her own identity through others, the second an older teenager who had her momentum and now is saving the world. The story itself is okay, though the meanings that it gets through, like celebrity status and growing up are better than the actual story. The action isn't that great, and, to be honest, I've got a little bored by it towards the end. Speaking of which, the ending wasn't that good either, though Aya did develop as a character. Lastly the romance. Okay, I have to admit that, although I love Westerfeld's writing and consider him a great author, he just can't write romance. It always feels awkward in the end. I think the best he did was with Tally and Zayn, but Tally and David and Aya and Frizz seemed to luck chemistry, and the romance was underdeveloped.Other than those two facts, that cost the book two stars, Extras was a great book. I like that the author gives us food for thought through his teen adventure stories and characters that one can easily fall in love with and relate to. So, three out of five