Extras by Scott Westerfeld

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Extras
by Scott Westerfeld
(Audio)

I loved Uglies. The others in the series weren't as awesome to me. But I actually REALLY loved Extras. It's set in Japan, in the same world, post mind-rain, but with a different culture. Here, your entire life revolves around your ranking. If you do your homework, your rank increases. If you kick a good story, your rank increases. If people say your name a bazillion times, over and over again, your rank increases. And if you have a good rank, you get status and a wonderful place to live and the knowledge that you are of the awesome.

This story is about Aya trying to improve her facerank, with the help of her hovercam, Moggle (who is adorable and a little AI-ish). She stumbles upon an especially kickable story about the Sly Girls, a group that's all about living outside the system and having fun. And she also starts a friendship with Frizz, who has had surgery not to lie (which turns out to be a big ol' problem by the end, as you might guess). Aya has to lie to everyone in order to get what she wants--which is a great story.

But then she finds out that someone is creating what could be used as a weapon. And when she kicks that story, everything starts going wrong. People who created the bomb start to go after her. Frizz isn't sure he can trust her. The Sly Girls are mad she took footage of them. And her brother & brother's friend can't bail her out of the trouble this time.

Who can? Tally! We meet Tally, David, and even Andew Simpson Smith again. And we finally find out what's really between David and Tally... and I'm happy with that!

I love the characters and the world. I love how different the culture is, but how it fits so well into the world from the first three books, with inhumans and cutters and all that. It kept me wondering, kept me guessing, and kept my interest the whole way through.