Pretties

Reader reviewed by Trillian

Great sequel to Uglies. Really well written sci-fi yong adult fiction. This is a book that can be enjoyed just as a good story as well as having a more deeper level to it.

(some minor spoilers from the first book follow)

Tally is pretty - something that happens to all sixteen-year-olds. Being pretty isn't just superficial though, the operation has deeper consequences. At the start of the book, Tally doesn't remember that she's endured the operation so the cure can be tested on her. When we catch up with her it's a month after she returned to the city and Tally is making the most of young pretty life.

This all changes after a visit from a past friend bringing the cure for her to take. Tally becomes "bubbly" (able to think clearly) rather than being "pretty-minded" and we see how she deals with living amongst the pretties when she knows the truth. We also learn more about how the world got to be the way it is in Tally's present.

Some of the best parts of this book are the different technologies of the future which are described really well and while futuristic they are completely believable. Also the pretty-talk which use by the characters shows how they are moving further away from being pretty-minded.

Reader reviewed by Mickey

I think that "Pretties" is a wonderful book that portrays what would happen if the human race was exposed to a world completely without worry or care.  It clearly shows that even in the most perfect of worlds, rebellion is still coming on strong.  Even though the story takes place countless years into the future (I am pretty sure we are in the pre-rusty era) I feel it is easy to relate to some of these characters.  Like Tally, always feeling like she has some thing to prove and can put herself completely into anything she believes in.  And Zane, willing to do anything to be different and not pretty-minded.

Reader reviewed by megan S

I really loved this book! just as the uglies! i was hoping she would remember david and remember what she turned for..then when zane came into the picture i was very scared as to what was going to happen. i didnt know which one i wanted her with! hahaha but anyways i just loved it! and i thought it was a good twist with the pills and how u needed both of them and not just one! but was very scared when it was hurting zane. And when he almost smashed his hand in that thing to get the braclet off! omg that really scared me! but ofcoarse tally came through with a brighter idea! haha well i dont want to gice to much away! i just loved it!!

Reader reviewed by Sab H. (Crystal Reviews)

This was interesting. Plus, it has a bonus point already for being
sequel. I guess my best way to describe it is like a roller coaster...
Up & down. Sometimes I couldn't breathe, and sometimes I wanted to
stop reading. Nevertheless, Westerfeld is an amazing writer. I loved
the way he manages to let you know with a completely different writing,
when the world -Tally's mind- is bubbly and when its bogus.

That
was what I liked the most, along with the way he mocks reality. It's
hard to think he is so right. Everything he says -about the actual
world- is now playing with my mind. In this
book, he doesn't focus so much in pretty/ugly issues, more in the
self-destructing predator and war-lover that the world today has
become. It is really amazing his point of view. That fact alone, makes
it an incredible reading.

I have mixed emotions about this
book. I fell he complicated things too much. But I did like it. I guess
I'm just heartbroken for David. And it is rare, when the reader doesn't
have a preference in the love-conflict (Yeah, by "the reader" I mean me).
I love them both!!! I can't decide! So, that makes the story and the
characters amazing. I thought for a moment we'd have three -Andrew- to
choose from. I'm glad that didn't happen (it would be interesting
huh?). The cover though, did not impress me. Its hard to top that first
one. It's an amazing book for fiction lovers.

Reader reviewed by Rachel Connell

At the end of Scott Westerfeld's first book the Uglies Tally decides to go back and become a Pretty to try and find a cure. Only thing is her time is filled with partying and she doesn't remember a thing. Then an Uglie comes and gives her two pills and she has to remembe why she decided to be a Pretty in the first place. She gives one of the pills to her boyfriend Zane who has a horrible reaction and Tally has to find a way to get him to the only doctors who can help; the ones outside the city.

Another great book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. More action and romance that anyone would love to read.

Reader reviewed by HoopsGirl27

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!!!!!!

Reader reviewed by Samantha

Pretties is another book by Scott Westerfeld and is a sequel to Uglies. Tally Youngblood is now a pretty and she has to face challenges that only she can end. Everyone is her town is a bubble head and is completely ditsy. Only Tally in New Pretty Town knows the secret of being pretty. It destroys your whole mind. She will do everything in her power to end this disease and save everyone she loves from complete mindlessness.
This book is as captivating as the first book in this series. It is so moving and wonderful that nothing can make you put down this book. The words of this book is also amazing and gives off so many details that you can imagine yourself right in the pages with the characters! :)

Reader reviewed by ruber band

Pretties is a really good book. i personally dont like it as much as uglies but it still caught my attention and really wanted to know what happened at i end. This is a great story about how you can still change your self even though it may be hard it can still happed. Even though it is a fiction it still has a vast meaning behind it. Scott Westerfeld is an amaizing auther that makes a wonder book. Definatly a reader

Reader reviewed by vampreviews

In this sequel to Uglies, Tally has given herself up to the authorities to save Shay from losing her free will.  Maddy (davids mom) has found a cure to the lesions you get when you become pretty, but Shay refuses to be the guney pig to try the pills. So when Tally goes to get the pills hidden in garbo masion, Zane(the leader of the crims and tallys crush) comes along with her.  When Tally is afraid of taking the pills alone Zane said he'll take one with her, unfortunantly you need both pills otherwise the nanos in one of the pills eat away at you and you dont have the good nanos in the other pill to destroy those nanos(you follow me there? Basically ane took the pill that will eat at the lesions in his brain but when those are gone they'll eat at other things like his motor skills and Tally took the other pill wich is supposed to destroy the nanos that eat the lesions, so they did nothing for tally).  So now Tally, Zane, and the crims are off to the new smoke, by escaping by jumping out of the city limits with a hot air balloon. Tally lands off course onto a preserve where caveman live, and when she finnaly escapes and makes it to the new smoke only zanes there so ware are the other crims?

Reader reviewed by Kath

What a great book. After the first book, Uglies, you just cant stop...you have to read the second one.
Pretties is life back in the city for tally after beeing transformed (and brain washed) by her opération. Her frinds, the smokies, sneeks pills to cure her brain so that she can see clear...but some thing goes wrong for her boy friends that also took the pill. Now it's a question of breaking out of the city to cure him, but it's not that easy...
Will they make it with out beeing captured by the Special circumstances???
Once again this book was verry easy to read, verry captivating and the action never stops.
It's a great book, Read it!!!
Kath