Extras

I’ve been planning to read 10 books in the month of January, as sort of a personal goal for myself. I do read a lot anyway, and almost always have a book in progress. Sometimes my progress is slower than it should be though. I go to the bookstore and I always have to buy books if they are on sale, it’s like a sickness! I do buy books faster than I can read them, though, and I think that fact is about to drive my husband to insanity!

At any rate, I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to read 10 books in one month. That’s definitely a lot more than I normally read. Depending on a book’s length, and my attention span at the time, I usually get through 1-2 books a month. Sometimes more if I just absolutely can’t put the book down (Harry Potter and The Hunger Games both come to mind).  Also, there are some other folks over at the Limebird forums trying this challenge. There is still time if you decide you want to be crazy and read 10 books in 1 month with me!

Today, after only starting it about 23 hours ago, I finished book 1 of my 10 – Extras by Scott Westerfeld. I wanted to find a synopsis of the book that didn’t give away the preceding three novels in the series (Uglies, Pretties, and Specials). This is what Goodreads says about the novel:

The world has become a different place since Tally Youngblood upset the Uglies, Pretties, Specials applecart. What it’s like? Well, visualize an all-day, everyday version of American Idol, where everybody’s a contestant and there are cameras everywhere. In this constant competition, teenager Aya Fuse ranks as a nobody; 451,369 to be exact. Of course, such obscurity has its small rewards, all of which have now become endangered by her friendship with the Sly Girls. Another futuristic thriller by Uglies trilogy author Scott Westerfeld.

This novel takes place three years after the Specials ended. The protagonist is Aya Fuse, a 15-year-old girl who wants nothing more in life than to rise from the ranks of a nobody to join the world of the famous.  To become famous, she needs to find the most amazing story ever and reveal it to her city. Without her knowledge, she uncovers a truth so big that it will change the world forever. Little does she know that revealing that truth to her city will get her into a lot of trouble with some really scary people that appear to want to hurt her.

Even though this book is different than the first three, in that Tally isn’t the main character, she does show up toward the last third of the story tying this story in with the previous three. While this novel is part of the same series, and same world, it is different than the others making it difficult to really compare this to the other three. It really is a story on its own, simply set in the same world as the other novels.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars. It was fun and exciting enough to keep me reading so much that I managed to finish it in 1 day. I definitely say if you have read the other three novels, to pick this one up as well. If you haven’t read the other three novels, I suggest you pick it up if you enjoy futuristic/dystopian/sorta sci-fi-ish/action adventure-ish type novels.

Now, I’m off to do more reading!