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★★★☆☆ Having already read  Uglies , I found very little of this to be unique, that was not explained in some way in the original series (which did it all in a better, more succinct way). Shay's character felt more like Tally in the beginning and that was frankly very annoying. There were basically no differences in their personalities other than Shay being a lot more annoying than Tally was. Besides that, the art for the characters made every action and movement extremely overly dramatic, and that made them seem like caricatures. Over all, this was somewhat pointless. Buy the book here: Amazon Book Depository Barnes & Noble

★★★☆☆ Once you told yourself a story enough times, it was so easy to keep on believing it. Wow, this was kind of a big disappointment. Honestly, the first half before Tally showed up was way better. Speshul Tally was Extra Speshul Tally sometimes and it really dragged down the story with her angry sanctimoniousness. Aya, besides that, was quite annoying most of the time, and I feel like very few people actually learned any real lessons and changed in any real, deep way; other than being perhaps a bit less fame-seeking. [Except that they all were famous by the end! So none of it really mattered anyway! And the whole, ~ it was all just a big misunderstanding ~ was way too much like those crappy Scooby Doo episodes where the bad guy wasn't evil and no one goes to jail at the end (I hated those episodes so much). Also, um, I'm sorry but stealing metal internationally doesn't seem like something that everyone would just forget about and be like, "oh no wor...

★★★★☆ Me at every YA protagonist ever: "I thought if you could see the world clearly, you'd think about yourself a little less. It wouldn't just be you and your latest boyfriend; I thought you might let something else matter every once in a while." The Writing and Worldbuilding The world really expanded in this one, and even gave me a clearer geographic idea of where the previous books took place. I'm guessing Tally's city is in Oregon or Washington, and that makes me happy because yay! A local! I liked how the cliches of this series were actually questioned, like Tally's selfishness, and how she's constantly being caught and upgraded. "I'm not sure what I am anymore, Zane. Sometimes I think I'm nothing but what other people have done to me—a big collection of brainwashing, surgeries, and cures." Overall, I liked this book, but I wasn't really on the edge of my seat the whole time; I wasn...

★★★★☆ The Writing and Worldbuilding It bui lds on the world Uglies established, expanding and giving insight into the behind the scenes of the society.  I was annoyed with the whole ~ love cures all ~ thing, as well as aspects of the love triangle, as, at this point, they're very old tropes, but since this came out over ten years ago, before The Hunger Games even, I'll give it some free passes. The slight glorification of Zane's undernourishment and gaunt appearance wasn't okay, though. I understand why he was gaunt, but I don't understand why Tally thought it was attractive. [I was annoyed with the whole ~ love cures all ~ thing, as well as aspects of the love triangle, as, at this point, they're very old tropes, but since this came out over ten years ago, before The Hunger Games even, I'll give it some free passes. The slight glorification of Zane's undernourishment and gaunt appearance wasn't okay, though. I understand why he was g...

★★★★☆ An excellent dystopian tale of choice, trust, and weeds. The Writing and Worldbuilding While the writing style wasn't my absolute favorite, it was engaging and managed to make the slower parts of the book not so boring as they had the potential to be. The dialogue felt a bit 2005, but the book was published then, so I can't really hold that against it. I was particularly fond of the motifs and themes of the book, my favorite being the beautiful flowers that are invasive weeds literally choking out all other life, and ultimately even themselves. The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreatening, but they choked everything around them. The premise sounded somewhat far-fetched at first, but it is executed so well that by the end, I could really see this as a possible future, which was frightening. The technology was well explained and plausible (at least to me, but I'm no scientist). What you do, the way you think, makes you...