I have just finished Extras by Scott Westerfeld. It is the fourth in the series also including Uglies, Pretties and Specials. They are Young Adult novels and are set in the future where bodymodification or 'surge' in the extreme is the norm. In fact, when you hit 16 you are transformed from an 'ugly' to a 'pretty'. This concept allows Westerfeld to deal with many topics pertinent to today's teenagers, and Extras continues this exploration. In fact, Extras is particularly pertinent to my life right now as I have just started blogging and Extras is really a novel that focuses on social media and its effect on us. In Aya's world, your 'face rank' is all that is important. The city is run on a reputation economy - if you are famous you get what you want. It doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to see what Westerfeld is saying about our own, real life, society.
I remember being completely hooked on the earlier novels when I read them a few years ago - they 'caught' me in a similar way to The Hunger Games trilogy. I just couldn't reignite that enthusiasm for Extras though. I'm not sure what it was - the writing style, the topic or perhaps that I am just not 'feeling' Young Adult fiction at the moment but I wasn't reaching for my book as frequently as I expected to. Of course, I did read to the end and I did enjoy it, but I just didn't really feel connected to the characters or even that involved in the storyline...
So, the series is worth a look if that's your sort of thing and you fancy a light read but maybe these ones are best left for the younger readers.
Perhaps something A might be interested in, I'll give them a look. Thanks for joining in x
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