Review Detail

When Scott Westerfeld introduced readers to the world of Tally Youngblood in Uglies, it seemed at first a veritable Utopia. You turned 16, you got an operation that made you absolutely beautiful, and you got to live in a city where everything was done for you while you partied as much as you liked. What could possibly be wrong with that?

But there was a hidden, sinister force lurking beneath the world of the Uglies and the Pretties -- the world of the Specials, genetically enhanced people who were faster, stronger, and crueler in their beauty and outlook on the world. The Pretties live their lives largely unaware of this breed -- because the operation that made them pretty also caused lesions in their brains that leaves them forevery "pretty minded." They don't have the concentration, nor the concern, that to discover what's truly happening in their lives.

At the end of Uglies, Tally has turned 16, has discovered a free people who live out in the wilds (or the Smoke), and sacrifices herself to the Specials to become a Pretty anyway -- all to test whether or not a cure for the lesions will work.

And so begins the frenetically-paced adventure of Pretties. Tally, her memories erased, finds a letter addressed to herself, from herself, accompanied by two pills. But she's torn between wanting to be pretty forever, and her love for her new friend, Zane. Zane is a different kind of pretty -- one who likes to take crazy risks for the adrenaline rush, and it's his idea to split the two pills. Zane has had suspicions that something has been wrong with him since the operation to become pretty, and has discovered that only by staying bubbly -- an emotional state caused by an adrenal charge -- can he think through the constant haze of being pretty-minded.

The cure isn't without dangers, however, and while Tally begins thinking more clearly, Zane's level-headedness comes at the expense of ever increasing migraines. Their only hope is to escape New Pretty Town, find their way back to the New Smoke (since the Specials invaded and destroyed the old one) and hopefully find a cure for the cure.

'T is strange the mind, that very fiery particle,

Should let itself be snuff'd out by an article.

-- Lord Byron (1788-1824) "Don Juan"

While I was waiting for the book Pritties I found this review and it made me more excited to read the book!!!!!!