ALA Booklist (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2006)

After stints as a back-to-nature rebel (Uglies, 2004), and as a bubbleheaded specimen of physical perfection (Pretties, 2005), 16-year-old Tally undergoes another dramatic reversal in this conclusion to Westerfeld's blockbuster trilogy. She now belongs to a turbocharged commando unit designed to quash resistance to the government's mass surgical (and neurosurgical) campaigns. Though at first a model Special, enamored of her almost above human status, several brushes with her past force her to question the price of her transformation as the stakes escalate. Some plot elements, especially Tally's gradual groping toward independent thought, may strike readers as rather similar to devices used in the preceding books, and the setup feels overcomplicated. But series fans will still relish this final visit to Westerfeld's dystopian world, in which details of the cultlike Specials, especially their imagination-grabbing gadgetry, inventively combine with the premise's winning themes: free will, self-image, and teen-powered subversion of authority.

Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Tally Youngblood is a "special," one of an elite force with a gorgeous but lethal physique and superhuman athletic ability. In a gripping plot, she and her friend, Shay, accidentally destroy a weapons armory, which leads to war with a neighboring city. Westerfeld's writing isn't subtle, but he brings the trilogy (Uglies, Pretties) to a humane conclusion with a surprising twist.

Kirkus Reviews

Tally's third incarnation is thrillingly unsettling. When readers left her, she was about to be surgically altered from a "Pretty" to a carefully engineered military "Special." Now her body is weaponized, her teeth, fingernails and reflexes razor-sharp. Westerfeld deftly conveys Tally's new perspective: Edges look extra sharp, the world is maniacally beautiful and Dr. Cable's pursuit of the New Smoke rebels is inherently justified, especially because the New Smoke's irresponsible medical experimentation damaged Tally's boyfriend Zane and made him repulsive. Tally and Shay are Cutters, elite Specials who slice their skin to stay hyper-focused. As they track runaways to find the New Smoke, the previously two-sided fight expands into a war with multiple stances and complications, on a far broader scale than Tally could have guessed. Tally's in constant motion, the action nonstop, all the way until—paralleling the stunning end of Uglies —Tally makes an unromantic, pragmatic and desperate final decision. A splendid, provocative conclusion to a terrific series. (Science fiction. YA)

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-This final installment in the series is a warning of the dangers of overconsumption and conformity. Set some time in the future, after a human-made bacteria destroyed the modern world, the trilogy tells of new cities established and tightly controlled through brainwashing and a series of operations leading to a compliant society. Tally Youngblood, the 16-year-old protagonist, learns in the first two books that free will and truth are more important than a false sense of security. In Specials, she has become an elite fighting machine, fully enhanced with nanotechnology and super-fast reflexes, and made to work as a Special Circumstances agent for the nameless city that she fled. As in the first two books, much of the story takes place with characters whizzing through the air on hoverboards, but Tally and her friends are in for some harsh realities here. Readers who enjoyed Uglies and Pretties (both S & S, 2005) will not want to miss Specials, but those who have not read those books will not understand much of what is happening. Westerfeld's themes include vanity, environmental conservation, Utopian idealism, fascism, violence, and love. In this trilogy, the author calls for a revolution in our hearts and minds-think The Matrix.-Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Voice of Youth Advocates

In this final installment in the Uglies trilogy, sixteen-year-old Tally is now a Cutter, an enhanced Special, whose reconstructed body is faster and stronger and whose mind is more "icy" than typical Specials. Paramilitary Specials monitor the young "bubbly-heads" in New Pretty Town, those who have undergone compulsory pretty surgery, including insertion of brain lesions to make them compliant. A strong resistance movement distributes lesion cures and encourages migration to secret New Smoke, where unaltered minds are valued. Shay, Tally's friend/enemy and now her boss, contrives a plan for Tally's pretty boyfriend, Zane, to escape New Pretty Town and travel to New Smoke. Tally participates, hoping Zane's cunning will enable him to become a Cutter. Shay's goal is to capture New Smoke, eliminating the rebellion. The plan goes awry in the beginning, however, when Tally and Shay accidentally destroy their town's armory. Dr. Cable, head of the Specials, falsely blames New Smoke, using this as an excuse to attack that city. Disaster is imminent. Hoverboards, surgically enhanced bodies, "skintennas," and peace through mind control and misinformation all converge in this exciting, well-written, thought-provoking, and engrossing futurist trilogy. Although the armory incident is less believable, it does not detract from the book's overall enjoyment and satisfying conclusion. Readers of both genders will be eager to follow Tally, Shay, and Zane's journey to New Smoke. The action never stops. Does uniformity of mind and body win out over individualism? To fully appreciate the conclusion, readers should read the entire trilogy, becoming hooked from page one.-Ed Goldberg.