However by not stating anywhere until practically the end of the book that it was set in Japan just made the whole thing feel like New Pretty Town which is set in North America, had discovered their first ancient manga and decided to dive head first into making themselves Japanese/manga-styled. The characters make big-eyed modifications “ Manga-eyes” to themselves to look like manga characters “ mangaheads “and they’re reviving Japanese cultural things, which makes sense for futuristic Japan. Until you find out that it’s set in Japan it feels like a very cringy pass at trying to get the attention of 2007 Anime/manga fans. It’s the same world of course, but it’s set in Japan. The major problem with this book that made it so jarring is that no where does it state until towards the end of the book that the book isn’t set in the same place. She’s got a hovercam that her brother’s best friend Ren whose smart with tech and math made adjustments to, which has been named Moogle. He’s got a nice place, a nice set up and his little sister wants to be on his level. He follows people around with cameras, studies, interviews them on film and then when he’s done with the story he creates the video and sends it out into the world. Not a sports person or someone who fights, but essentially a journalist. And it was pretty hard to ignore someone who made your blood boil.”Īya’s older brother found a new way of becoming famous, and that’s by being a “kicker”. In the reputation economy, the only real way to hurt anyone was to ignore them completely. “Even mocking people helped their face stats. For everyone else it’s a fight to be popular. Most kids get merits for going to school, helping and doing chores, but for adults those tend to be reserved for doctors and necessary people who keep society functioning.

They can either get things from working to make them more popular and more interesting, or they can work hard and get merits. Everyone in the city has a feed with their social media presence and face rank. Thankfully though, I read the back of the book which stated that it took place 3 years after the Diego war (aka the events of Specials) and followed instead the “cultural Renaissance” of what happened after the Pretty bubble burst and people were no longer ruled in by their unknown brain lesions.Īya, the 15 year old main character’s city went with a reward system based on popularity. The book Extras itself was really jarring because since it was marked as part of the series I assumed it would follow like the rest of the books and deal with Tally Youngblood.

I really felt like I was okay with leaving the world of Uglies behind in book three Specials, the original final book for the series. Going to break up the How To Train Your Dragon marathon at the halfway point for a palate cleanser of finishing up the Uglies series reviews.

The extras scott westerfeld