That is fuuny, I liked each book in the series less because I felt they became more preachy. I thought this one lost all credibility about teaching being "true to yourself" and could only barely bring myself to read the last book.

That's funny that our opinions are so opposite! I think all of the books are preachy to some degree, but to me, they seem to get progressively less so, although Extras is almost (maybe more) preachy than Uglies.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think Specials "lost all credibility about teaching being 'true to yourself?' I didn't feel this way because I think that Tally is still confused about her identity, still trying to decide where she belongs - I believe she will figure it out by the end of the series. That's what I'm hoping at least!

I think maybe the preachiness must be what I liked :-)! Actually, I fit this series as well as the Twilight series into the category of, "This is such quick reading that I'm not taking time to pay attention to the weaknesses, I'm just having a fun ride!" But as far as being preachy, I guess I just thought they were messages that teens really need to hear in today's world. (That sounded preachy, didn't it?)
Great review, as usual! It is hard to review this without spoilers.

The preachiness that I felt crept into the series had more to do with environmental issues- that humanity is an inherent blight to the earth. As far as feeling the ending betrayed the central theme of the book,

*spoiler alert*

I thought it strange that when given the chance to regain her humanity, she instead chooses to keep the psychological damage forced upon her. I thought it was pretty clear she was not “fixing” herself like she had in the other books and that the anger and resentment was artificially induced, and not true to her natural personality. Was the point that her artificial, forced enhancements were better than her true self? To me the whole message of the series was that, with strength and perseverance, you can overcome the pressures around you and find your true self (and free civilization is in direct conflict of the earth's best interest). In this book she seems to accept that the lifestyle forcibly thrust upon her as better than finding out who she truly is. I didn’t see any indication that she was overcoming the brainwashing on her own or I would have felt better about the ending.

I guess that the last book shows some progress, but it still irritated me that she choose to keep her artifical identity instead of beginning a search for a truer one.

I haven't read these books, but they sound really interesting. I need some YA, my tbr pile is full of a biography and other serious stuff.

I just finished Specials and, though I'm a bit behind the blog, this was the best place to vent.

I liked the series overall, but I agree with Charlotte that they got very preachy about the environment. Especially right there at the end.

Spoiler warning!!

I hated (hated!) the lone-ranger-into-the-sunset ending. The stupid ping to her friends and allys declaring herself the guardian of the wilderness, so she's not going to be helping to build the cities into a sane pattern with sane environmental protection laws--she prefers to be lord high oompa of whether everyone else is doing a good enough job of it, stepping in to try to stop the spreading destructive madness of millions of people rather than just helping to shape their infant policies before the destructive thinking takes hold! If there was ever an indication that she hadn't rewired herself out of her superiority complex (etc), it's that Tally Youngblood, who loved being part of a clique through three incarnations, believes she'll be content alone in the wilderness with David. She pulled so many martyr moves during the series (going to the smoke, volunteering to be pretty, staying behind with Zane and becoming Special) I really wanted some resolution that allowed her to keep something! And the nasty cruel-pretty makeover doesn't count! Ugh!

I like David, don't get me wrong, and I'm glad they're together, but the ending sucked. I'm glad to hear that, in Extras, Tally has a group again and is once again part of society. I really, really hope that she has blended with the blessing of the world's governments and isn't still just a vigilante.