"Special Circumstances":
The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumor -- frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. But Tally's never been ordinary.

And now she's been turned into one of them: a superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.

The strength, the speed, and the clarity and focus of her thinking feel better than anything Tally can remember. Most of the time. One tiny corner of her heart still remembers something more.

Still, it's easy to tune that out -- until Tally's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

Read an excerpt

Specials and wardens are the city’s two kinds of
enforcers. Wardens deal with simple issues like
trespassing and truancy. But Specials are members of Special Circumstances, the secret branch of the city government that has
replaced the military and intelligence services.
They have their own kind of surgery, that
makes them cruel pretties, beautiful but scary.

Trivia: In his utopian Culture series,
Scottish novelist Iain Banks uses the
term “Special Circumstances” for the
government’s secret enforcers. So I
stole it.