PRETTIES by Scott Westerfeld
Series: Uglies, #2
Publication Date: November 1st 2005 by Simon Pulse
Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous. Popular. Perfect. Perfectly wrong.
Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she’s completely popular. It’s everything she’s ever wanted.
But beneath all the fun — the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom — is a nagging sense that something’s wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally’s ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what’s wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold.
Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life — because the authorities don’t intend to let anyone with this information survive.
Review Overview:
- PRETTIES was a lot slower than the first book
- Interesting to see Tally as a pretty but the book was less provoking overall
- Cliffhanger left me wanting more; I’m definitely excited to finish up the series
PRETTIES was definitely a change of pace from the first book in the series. While it was still an enjoyable read, I didn’t quite find myself clinging onto every word as I had with the first book. Of course, the obvious reason why this book was so different was because Tally is now a Pretty.
Seeing Pretty Town from a different perspective was interesting because it showed us how the other half lives. If it weren’t for the fact that Pretties are kind of mindless for the most part, life as a Pretty does seem like a lot of fun. Life is just one big party and they never had to worry about anything. But when Tally associates with a clique called Crims – Pretties who want to stay in touch with their trouble-making past as Uglies – she starts to remember bits and pieces of life before the surgery.
Westerfeld also sets up a love triangle in this book, and for once, I found myself conflicted. First of all, it didn’t seem forced just for the sake of adding a love triangle. Furthermore, both David and Zane are good guys. The only problem is that David is an Ugly and Zane is a Pretty. It would be too superficial of me to pick Zane because he’s the good-looking guy, and that would probably beat the whole message of the book. I’m just glad that I’m not Tally; ultimately picking between David and Zane will be a tough choice in the conclusion. I don’t have a favorite at the moment, but we’ll see if that changes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find the series as thought-provoking as the first book. Now that the world has been built, there were a lot less surprises on how society had turned out this way. Since the world-building is out of the way, the main focus is the development of the characters and the plot.
The Pretties use a lot of cutesy slang, but it wasn’t too much to annoy me. I got used to the bubbliness of their language pretty quickly. PRETTIES does end in a cliffhanger, but I had a feeling it was coming. It definitely makes me want to pick up the next book soon! I enjoyed reading PRETTIES and I thought that it was a good sequel overall.
