Subtitled: An Insider’s Guide to the World of Uglies.

Originally, I didn’t plan to review this book. I mean, it’s a guide book to a fictional series – not really all that interesting to those who haven’t read the series, and there isn’t exactly a plot/characters/depth/themes/etc. However, after the first part of the book, which mostly just recapped things I knew from reading the books, this became interesting enough for its own post. I’m sure this will only be interesting to Westerfeld and/or Uglies fans, so feel free to skip this review. I’m just going to list out my favorite highlights from the book.

*Hearing where the original idea came from (“officially,” at least) – it has to do with dentistry!

*Reading about the various studies of beauty that went into the creation of this world.

*Learning the science, real or fictional, that went into all the little gadgets. My particular favorites were:

—the “Little Men” from Pretties, which were stick figure men that hung from trees at the boundaries of the pre-Rusty reservation, to keep the “savages” from escaping into the world. They had neural scramblers in them, and the tribes on the reservation thought this was the end of the earth. When I read about them the first time, I immediately thought of The Blair Witch Project. Nice to know that’s what Westerfeld had in mind, too.

—Sneak Suit technology, where Westerfeld, in his description, sends us to YouTube to look up octopus camouflage. Quote: (That person sitting next to you? Secretly an octopus.) – I read that out loud to Laurence and he giggled over it for fifteen minutes.

*Reading the original beginning of Extras, told from Hiro’s point of view instead of Aya’s.

*Reading the first two chapters of Westerfeld’s new book, Leviathan, which is due out later this year.

So this is worth picking up if you’re already an Uglies fan.