Bogus to Bubbly

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse (2008)

This book is essentially about this world Scott Westerfeld created which includes a nifty Hoverboard manual, a glossary of terms, and in depth walk through his inspirations for names, slang, and anything else you can think of that you ever wanted to know about the Uglies. Additionally, there’s an alternate beginning for Extras in the male’s perspective (I read this before Extras) and lots of other fun things.

This review will be short because I loved reading about Westerfeld’s inner workings and as a writer, this illuminated aspects of his writing process and what could work for me.

A fulfilling read from beginning to end. Check it out!

Specials

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse (2006)

Tally Younglood is now a Special with her friend, Shay. Instead of running away from Dr. Cable, Tally, Shay, and a bunch of other Cutters work for her now. When Tally learns that Zane is back from the hospital, she tries everything in her power to be with him again.

Reading List for 2011

Inspired by a fellow reader (check out her blog Trac Changes) who created a reading challenge of fifty books this year, I decided to create my own list to follow through the year. Because I’m part of a book club, I’ll leave slots for at least ten books but my list will be for at least forty two.

Here goes nothing, not organized by genre:

Bogus to Bubbly – Scott Westerfeld

Specials – Scott Westerfeld

Extras – Scott Westerfeld

About a Boy – Nick Hornby

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood

Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner – Dean Karnazes

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora – Sheree R. Thomas

Insomnia – Stephen King

Christine – Stephen King

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

Emma – Jane Austen

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation – Deborah Tannen

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

The Subtle Knife – Phillip Pullman

The Liar’s Club – Mary Karr

Big Machine – Victor LaValle

Blind Date – Bruce Richards

Player Piano – Kurt Vonnegut

Fierce Attachments – Vivian Gornick

The Starlight Crystal – Christopher Pike

Animal Farm – George Orwell

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven – Sherman Alexie

Beauty’s Punishment – Anne Rice

Bee Season – Myla Goldberg

Elements of Style – Wendy Wasserstein

Full Dark, No Stars – Stephen King

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter – Mario Vargas Llosa

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? – Philip K. Dick

Haunted – Chuck Palahniuk

Misery – Stephen King

How to Read Air – Dinaw Mengestu

You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know – Heather Sellers

I Am Legend – Richard Matheson

Hell House – Richard Matheson

Die Softly – Christopher Pike

This is my list! Yay! I look forward to crossing some of these out, considering I own most of them.

*I have deleted three books due to disinterest upon reading the first chapter. Plus, I have so much more to read!!

Peeps

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Razorbill (2005)

I know, talk about a Scott Westerfeld obsession. What can I say? When I like an author, I support his/her work.

Cal Thompson is a peep (parasite-positive which is a nice way of saying vampire). He works for the Night Watch and is trying to track down his progenitor (and first!). Then he meets Lacey, who resides in the apartment building his maker used to inhabit. Cal, who became a peep through unprotected sex and is infected for life, of course falls in love with Lacey as he investigates the underground burrows of this building. When he finally comes face to face with his sire, he learns why he was infected and the parasite’s purpose.

The Pretties

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse (2005)

Tally Youngblood is now a Pretty. She meets Zane who makes her feel bubbly. She’s having a blast at a party in which she finds out if she’s a Crim or not and is faced with vague memories when she was an ugly when Croy, an ugly from The Smoke, delivers a package to her. She opens the package and her world turns bogus from bubbly. She and Zane connect and make each other bubbly as they plan to indefinitely leave New Pretty Town and reach The New Smoke. When the Specials track down Tally, her bubbly making days may be over.

As fast and as good a read as the first book in the series, the vernacular was much more in my face: bubbly making, pretty making, sad making, bogus. The first half of the story was annoying because Tally was this pretty head totally lost in herself and a total airhead. Then she becomes bubbly with Zane’s help and she is so much more tolerable. The things that happen to this girl are unbelievable – which only made this story more entertaining the whole way through. The ending was a complete cliffhanger so I can’t wait to start the next in the series, The Specials. Scott Westerfeld is Awesome!!

The Uglies

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Published by: Simon Pulse (2005)

Tally Youngblood wants to be pretty. But it’s because she’s about to turn sixteen and everyone in her world turns pretty at the same age. After performing a trick in New Pretty Town, she meets Shay, the girl who could care less about turning pretty. When Shay invites Tally to run away with her to The Smoke, the Special Circumstances are involved and Tally learns that turning pretty, changes you forever.

Never hearing that much buzz about this series until I met a YA lover (check out her blog here) who went on and on about Scott Westerfeld and Suzanne Collins (reading that trilogy next), I decided to pick this book up. Additionally, a fellow book club member recently read the trilogy and raved about the world. When I saw the premise, I immediately thought of The Giver by Lois Lowry because they all turn pretty at the same age just like everyone receives a bike at the same age and is also assigned their occupation at thirteen for the rest of their lives.

This story was an interesting look at the way this society functions solely based on beauty and how this is a reflection of our society today. Although not as extreme where pretty and “ugly” people living in separate towns but man, too close for comfort.

The writing works for a young adult novel and much better written than any Stephanie Meyer novel (but that’s just me).

A solid read from beginning to end; once you start, you cannot put the book down. With a first line like, “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit,” how can you not get into this story?

Looking forward to the next in the series, Pretties!