“The only way to make the world a better place is to improve yourself.”
— Tally's internal reflection on her path to becoming a Special.
Archivist's Choice
Specials
Scott Westerfeld (2006)
Genre
Fantasy / Science Fiction / Young Adult / Romance
Reading Time
480 min
Key Themes
See below
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Tally, now a beautiful and deadly enforcer, must choose between her new power and a faint memory of rebellion that could shatter her world.
Synopsis
Tally Youngblood, now a 'Special'—a super-enhanced, beautiful, and deadly operative—fights an internal battle. Her upgrades make her powerful, but a small part of her remembers her past as a rebel and her mission to expose the system. When she hunts the New Smoke, a hidden community resisting brainwashing, Tally must decide whether to be a ruthless enforcer or betray her programming. Her journey takes her into the wilderness and back to the cities, forcing her to confront old friends, new enemies, and Dr. Cable, who created the Special program. Tally's choices lead to a confrontation that could solidify the Specials' control or spark a new revolution.
Reading time
480 min
Difficulty
Medium
Pacing
Fast
Mood
Action-packed, Suspenseful, Thought-provoking, Intense
✓ Read this if...
You enjoy dystopian YA with strong female protagonists, intense action, and a focus on self-discovery and rebellion against oppressive systems.
✗ Skip this if...
You prefer lighter reads or are looking for a story without morally grey characters and significant internal conflict.
Plot Summary
The Hunt for the New Smoke
Tally Youngblood, now a Special, is an elite enforcer for Special Circumstances. With other Specials like Fausto and Shay, she patrols city borders, keeping order and hunting threats. Their mission is to find and destroy the New Smoke, a hidden settlement of 'uglies' and runaways who refuse the Pretty operation. Tally is strong, fast, and has enhanced senses and intellect, making her a perfect weapon. She feels purpose and belonging among the Specials, largely suppressing memories of her past as a rebel. However, a faint doubt of her former self sometimes surfaces.
A Familiar Face and a Lingering Doubt
During a raid on a suspected rebel hideout, Tally meets Zane, her former boyfriend from when she was a Pretty. Zane, now an ugly again from the 'cure' they took, is part of the New Smoke. This reunion shocks Tally. Seeing Zane, and the emotion in his eyes, brings back more of her buried memories and feelings. The mental barriers Special Circumstances built in her begin to crack. She struggles to reconcile her current identity as a cold Special with the person she once was, who cared for Zane and fought the system she now upholds.
The Special's Code and Shay's Deception
Tally's unease grows as she watches Shay, who seems to act strangely and pushes Tally to remember their shared past. Shay reveals she has been using her enhanced Special abilities to subtly manipulate Tally, trying to break her conditioning and make her remember their time in the Smoke and their friendship. Shay explains that Specials' enhanced minds come with a strong urge to be 'perfect' and maintain order, which makes them effective enforcers. This manipulation, though meant to help, further complicates Tally's understanding of her own actions and their true origin.
Infiltrating the New Smoke
Special Circumstances, knowing Tally's past connection to the Smoke, assigns her and Shay to infiltrate the New Smoke as a two-person team. Their mission is to gain the rebels' trust, learn their defenses, and lead Special Circumstances to their hidden base for a final strike. This mission gives Tally a chance to explore her fractured memories. As she reconnects with Zane and other familiar faces, suppressed emotions and loyalties from her past become harder to ignore, creating an internal conflict that threatens her mission and her identity as a Special. Her Special programming slowly erodes.
The Truth About Dr. Cable
Inside the New Smoke, Tally learns more about Special Circumstances from its inhabitants. She discovers that Dr. Cable, the leader of Special Circumstances, was once a brilliant scientist who developed the Pretty operation. However, she grew unhappy with the mind-numbing effects of the Pretty brain lesions and sought to create a new, enhanced human: the Specials. Tally realizes that the Specials are not just enforcers, but Dr. Cable's personal experiment, designed for absolute loyalty and control, and that their 'perfection' costs them free will and independent thought. This discovery greatly shakes Tally's belief in the system that created her.
The Special's Weakness
Through her talks with the New Smoke's doctors and scientists, Tally learns that while the Special operation enhances physical and mental abilities, it also instills an intense need for self-preservation and an aversion to anything that threatens their 'perfection.' This flaw makes them vulnerable to certain psychological triggers and fears. Tally realizes this weakness could be used to counteract their conditioning. This discovery offers hope: a way to potentially free herself and other Specials from Dr. Cable's control, without fully reverting to their former, less capable selves. It presents a path to true autonomy.
A Desperate Gambit
With knowledge of the Specials' weakness, Tally forms a daring plan. She intends to use the New Smoke's resources and her understanding of Special Circumstances to expose Dr. Cable's manipulations to the wider Pretty population. Her goal is not just to save the New Smoke, but to offer all Specials a choice—a chance to overcome their conditioning and reclaim their free will. This plan requires immense bravery and risks her life, as she knows Dr. Cable will stop at nothing to maintain control. Tally must decide whether to fully embrace her past as a rebel or give in to her Special programming.
The Confrontation at the City
Tally, now fully committed to the rebel cause, leads the New Smoke in a direct assault on the city, targeting a public event where Dr. Cable is expected. The goal is to publicly expose the truth about Special Circumstances and the brain lesions given to the Pretties. This is a high-stakes confrontation, pitting enhanced Specials against the ingenuity and determination of the New Smoke. Tally uses her Special abilities not for control, but for liberation, navigating city dangers and trying to reach the masses with her message, hoping to start a revolution of thought and freedom.
The Cure and the Choice
During the chaotic confrontation, Tally and the rebels distribute the 'Special cure'—a modified version of the mind-altering pills they once took—through a public broadcast system. This cure counteracts the worst aspects of Special conditioning, specifically the extreme self-preservation and loyalty to Dr. Cable. The cure does not revert them to uglies, but offers them a chance to regain independent thought and a moral compass. The Specials face a difficult choice: remain under Dr. Cable's complete control, or take the cure and risk the unknown, potentially losing their enhanced abilities but gaining true freedom. The city becomes a moral and physical battleground.
The Fall of Dr. Cable and the Rise of a New Order
The Special cure creates widespread confusion and rebellion within Special Circumstances. Many Specials, including Shay, take the cure, their minds slowly clearing from Dr. Cable's influence. Dr. Cable is defeated, her absolute control ended by Tally and the combined efforts of the New Smoke and the newly awakened Specials. While the future is uncertain, a new era begins, where people choose their own path. The old system of forced beauty and mind-numbing operations is dismantled, making way for a more diverse and truly free society, one that must now deal with the complexities of choice and responsibility.
Principal Figures
Tally Youngblood
The Protagonist
Tally transforms from a loyal, albeit conflicted, Special into a leader of the rebellion, ultimately choosing freedom and self-determination over enforced perfection.
Shay
The Supporting
Shay remains steadfast in her desire for freedom and plays a crucial role in Tally's awakening, ultimately reclaiming her own autonomy.
Zane
The Supporting
Zane remains a constant reminder of Tally's past and the value of genuine human connection, even in a damaged state.
Dr. Cable
The Antagonist
Dr. Cable's unwavering belief in her system leads to her eventual downfall as her creations rebel against her.
Fausto
The Supporting
Fausto remains largely unchanged throughout the story, serving as a representation of the un-cured Special.
Themes & Insights
The Nature of Freedom and Control
The novel explores the tension between absolute control and true freedom. Special Circumstances, led by Dr. Cable, believes that by genetically engineering and conditioning citizens, it creates a perfectly ordered society. However, Tally's journey shows that this 'perfection' costs free will, genuine emotion, and individuality. Scenes where Tally struggles with her suppressed memories and ingrained Special loyalty (e.g., her internal battle after seeing Zane) show that true freedom is not just the absence of physical restraint, but the autonomy of thought and choice, even if that choice leads to imperfection or chaos.
“What made a person a person was the ability to make choices. Not just good choices. Bad choices, too. The worse the choice, the more human you were.”
Identity and Self-Discovery
Tally's story is about identity. She moves from an ugly, to a pretty, to a Special, each stage giving her a new identity. The core of the theme is her struggle to reconcile these different selves and define who she truly is, independent of outside forces. Her repressed memories of being an ugly and a rebel (e.g., her reactions to Zane and Shay's provocations) constantly challenge her Special identity. The novel suggests that true identity is not assigned or engineered, but discovered and chosen through personal experience and moral conviction, even if it means rejecting a 'perfect' existence.
“Maybe being ugly was a choice. Maybe being pretty was a choice. And maybe being a Special was a choice too.”
The Price of Perfection
The Specials represent the ultimate pursuit of human perfection—physically superior, intellectually sharp, and emotionally controlled. However, the novel shows the devastating price of this perfection. Specials lack genuine empathy, are capable of ruthless violence, and lack independent moral judgment, all to maintain an artificial order. Dr. Cable's creation of the Specials (e.g., the explanation of their enhanced but flawed minds) shows how attempts to eliminate all flaws often remove essential parts of humanity. The story argues that imperfection, with its challenges and emotions, is part of the human experience and that a truly 'perfect' society might be a dystopian one.
“Perfection was a lie. Freedom was messy.”
Memory and Truth
Memory is important in the story, acting as both a weapon and a tool for liberation. Special Circumstances suppresses the memories of their Specials to ensure loyalty and control. Tally's journey is a gradual process of recovering these lost memories, often painful and confusing, which helps her understand the truth about her past and the system she serves. Shay's efforts to trigger Tally's memories (e.g., through specific conversations and shared experiences) are key. The theme highlights that truth, even if uncomfortable, is essential for self-awareness and making informed choices, and that a society built on forgotten truths is unstable.
“Memories were like jagged glass, sharp and painful, but they were real.”
Plot Devices & Literary Techniques
The Special Operation
A surgical and genetic procedure that transforms individuals into highly enhanced, conditioned enforcers.
The Special operation is the central plot device, defining Tally's current state and the overarching conflict. It involves extensive genetic manipulation, brain surgery, and psychological conditioning, creating humans with vastly superior strength, speed, senses, and intellect. Crucially, it also instills an intense loyalty to Special Circumstances and suppresses past memories. This device creates the initial internal conflict within Tally and establishes the formidable power of the antagonist's forces. The 'cure' for this operation, developed by the rebels, becomes a key element in the climax, offering a path to free will for the Specials.
Suppressed Memories
The deliberate erasure or dampening of past experiences in Specials to ensure loyalty.
The suppression of Tally's memories, particularly those related to her time as an ugly and a rebel, is a major plot device. It creates internal conflict and drives much of Tally's character arc as she struggles to recall her past. These 'ghost' memories resurface, often triggered by familiar people like Zane and Shay, or by sensory input, acting as a constant undercurrent of doubt against her Special conditioning. The gradual return of these memories is essential for Tally to understand her true identity and to ultimately choose to fight against Special Circumstances, transforming her from a tool of control into an agent of liberation.
The New Smoke
A hidden settlement of 'uglies' and rebels who reject the city's operations.
The New Smoke serves as a crucial plot device, representing a sanctuary for freedom and a direct challenge to the authority of the cities. It is the target of Tally's initial mission as a Special, but also becomes the place where she reconnects with her past and learns the truth about Special Circumstances. The New Smoke provides the scientific knowledge and the moral support necessary for Tally to develop a 'cure' for the Specials' conditioning. It acts as a symbol of hope and resistance, demonstrating that an alternative, un-manipulated way of life is possible, even in the face of overwhelming power.
Critical analysis
Notable Quotes
“Being pretty isn't enough anymore. Now you have to be dangerous.”
— Tally discussing the new aesthetic and power dynamic for Specials.
“You can't fight the system from inside the system. That's what the system wants you to think.”
— Tally's realization about the limitations of working within the existing power structures.
“The world isn't just a place to live in. It's a place to change.”
— Tally's evolving perspective on her role in the world.
“Sometimes the only way to save someone is to let them go.”
— Tally's difficult decision regarding Zane's deteriorating condition.
“Fear is a tool. It can be used to control, or it can be used to motivate.”
— Tally reflecting on the nature of fear and its manipulation.
“True freedom isn't about having choices. It's about having the power to make them.”
— Tally's understanding of the deeper meaning of freedom beyond superficial options.
“The only way to know if you've gone too far is to keep going.”
— Tally pushing her limits and testing boundaries as a Special.
“Love isn't about being perfect. It's about being perfect for each other.”
— Tally's thoughts on her complex relationships.
“The greatest weapon isn't strength, but adaptability.”
— Tally realizing the importance of being flexible in a constantly changing world.
“You can't always choose your battles, but you can choose how you fight them.”
— Tally facing difficult circumstances and deciding her approach.
“Every secret has a price. And the biggest secrets demand the biggest payments.”
— Tally grappling with the consequences of her actions and the information she holds.
“Sometimes, the only way to find yourself is to get lost.”
— Tally's journey of self-discovery through challenging and unfamiliar experiences.
“The future isn't something you wait for. It's something you make.”
— Tally's determination to actively shape her world.
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Key Questions (FAQ)
Tally has been transformed into a Special, an enhanced human designed to maintain order in the cities. Her primary conflict is battling the lingering memories of her past as a 'Smokey' rebel and her programmed loyalty to the Specials' mission, specifically the desire to suppress the New Smoke.
About the author
Biography coming soon.
