Extras, by Scott Westerfeld

Spin off book to the Uglies, Pretties, Specials trilogy.

In the first 3 books we follow the adventures of a girl named Tally Youngblood. Tally ended the "mind-rain" and a new world awakened. The cure spread across the globe ending the perpetual state of bubbleheadedness. Without the roles and rules of the prettytime the world becomes a popularity contest.

Extras is set in the future 3 years after the end of the "mind-rain". You really need to have read the trilogy to understand a lot of this book. I don't think it will work as well as a stand alone book.

So, it's a race to become famous. It works on face rank. The more famous you are, the lower your face rank is. A lower rank means more special treatment. You can choose where you live and get whatever you want. There are many ways to achieve a good face rank. Some are "Tech-heads" obsessed with gadgets. Then there are "Surge monkeys" they can't get enough plastic surgery. Last there are "Kickers" these use the feeds (kind of like blogging) to spread gossip and news stories.

15 year old Aya Fuse is a kicker. She's had her own feed for a year now, but she's still a nobody, an extra. Too young for plastic surgery and her face rank is a 451,369. She lives in a Japanese city and is desperate to become famous. She meets a click of girls. "the sly girls", who turn tricks but stay off the radar. Aya just knows if she can kick their story she can improve her face rank. She follows them into a cave and they catch her and destroy moggle, her flying camera. It's at the bottom of a lake inside the cave.

Determined not to give up she gets accepted into the group and they stumble across a strange being inside a train tunnel. The alien opens a porthole in the tunnel wall and more beings come out of the train and start unloading these metal things. She only hopes that moggle got a good shot. She rescued him from the bottom of the lake and had him tag along in the shadows to try and get a story. Aya just found the story that will make her famous. Tally youngblood makes an appearance at the end. All in all, a great read!

READ CHAPTERS 1, 2 and 3 of EXTRAS CLICK HERE!

Book 1 Uglies
Book 2 Pretties
Book 3 Specials