Customer Reviews

Pretties

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(65)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I remember when I was first considering buying the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, I was disinclined to purchase it. I thought the title was stupid and the book would get preachy, with a warmed-over, tweaked, brave-new-world feel. I bought it because I couldn't find anything better that I hadn't read. I was pleasantly surprised. While I found his characters shallow at first, the book sucked me in until I couldn't put it down.

Then the long wait for Pretties began. I checked Amazon regularly and ran out to buy it as soon as it hit the shelves, and I read the whole thing the night I bought it. It's not quite as exciting as Uglies, because all the really big revelations have already been unveiled. I liked the characters a lot better this time around. Their dialogue felt a lot more believable. There are some pretty thrilling close-shaves and a few plans that don't go perfectly, which is refreshing and real.

Westerfeld uses this book to explore the other side of his characters' world a bit, not as much why they rebel, but a lot of why the powers that be made the world that way in the first place. I find the Pretties' lifestyle a lot more boring than the Smokies', but I now see that Westerfeld's characters in the first book were so shallow because they had to be. In the world they lived in, there was nothing to encourage depth. Westerfeld has turned out to be a much better writer than I originally thought.

I'm bursting to say more but I don't want to ruin it for people still reading. Just know that this book provided an incredible setup for the last book, Specials.

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a good sci-fi story, or a story where kids actually accomplish things.

Last time we left Tally, she was demanding the pretty operation so she could test the pills that theoretically remove the lesions from your brain. The Specials were only too happy to comply, and now Tally's a pretty, the world nothing but a drunken haze, a source of entertainment. Possibly worse is the fact that she has only the dimmest memories of David, Special Circumstances, or why she's a pretty at all. And if you ask anybody at New Pretty Town, Tally "rescued" Shay from The Smoke. Of course, none of this bothers Tally. She's having the time of her life being beautiful, perpetually happy, and one of the Crims, her new clique. Especially when Zane, Tally's new crush, is the leader of the Crims. After a few months of this, though, the fun stops. An old Smokie friend, Croy shows up at a party, giving Tally instructions to get to, "something important". Even though she has no clue what's going on, Tally follows Croy's directions, because, after all,"everything was always ultra safe in New Pretty Town. Otherwise pretties would be killing themselves left and right." Zane, who seems to have taken an interest in Tally, comes too. The important thing turns out to be a letter Tally wrote to herself back in her ugly days, and two lesion-killing pills. Tally's afraid of the possible psychological effects the pills might have, so she and Zane split, each having one. And for a while(alas, in the life of Tally Youngblood, happiness can never last longer than a while)everything is great. Life is no longer a blur, and Zane's physical abilities are greatly enhanced. That is, until he starts having headaches, crippling migraines that put him out for hours, racking him with unbearable pain. Shay's memories of what really happened at the Smoke are resurfacing, and she's cutting herself so she can be as clear as Tally. The Smokies might be able to help them out,but Tally can't seem to contact them. With no options left, the Crims, minus Shay, will have to find them themselves. Pretties is fast-paced and exciting, making for a worthy sequel to Uglies. I would recommend it to everybody. Even more appealingly, the book tells you more about the Downfall of the Rusties. I guarantee you will love this book, especially the real reason for Zane's headaches(not for the faint of heart) and the wonderful, fantastic, thought-provoking cliffhanger ending.

Pretties is a pageturner. I stayed up late and woke up early to finish it, and immediately went to see if the third book in the trilogy, Specials, is available yet. (Sadly, no.)

Though it may not be quite as original as Uglies, this book does a better job of presenting moral ambiguities. Everything is not quite black-and-white good versus evil. The city that has become a prison, for example, was created for a pretty valid reason. The wardens are genuinely kind. Characters switch from ally to enemy and back again.

Start with the first book, Uglies, then read this one. The plot twists keep coming right until the very end, and the characters are dynamic. A swift, exciting read.

Pretties picks up where Uglies left off. Tally has been turned pretty and dull-witted. Tally loves the pretty life of partying, drinking, and doing whatever she wants. She has a lot of fun with it, until one day at a costume party, she sees someone in a specials costume, and she starts feeling like something's not right with her world. Together with Zane, another pretty, Tally must track down the clue to her past as an ugly. When she does though, the repercussions of her choices afterward will continue long into the book. As Tally remembers the truth, she tries to figure out a way to help the other pretties and to save herself and Zane as well.

Pretties was a little slow to start out, but turned out decent. It would have been good, had it not been for "bubbly." One word, repeated practically every page for the first two-thirds of the book, that drove me batty. You see, bubbly was slang for any number of meanings including, but not limited to: impressive, exhilarating, fashionable, cool, cute, interesting, smart, happy, buzzed, weird, daring, exciting, alert, rational, nervous, calm, thrilling, shocking, good, intelligent, trustworthy, rewarding, conscious, intense, riled up, cognizant, and aware. It was such a pain trying to figure out what bubbly meant in each situation, and it distracted from the story and grated on my nerves. Other than that, the story was good.

Tally's story continues from the previous book, UGLIES, in this second installment of Scott Westerfeld's futuristic trilogy. Tally is now a pretty who lives only for good times. While attending a party at which she is to be voted into the Crims clique, she is followed by someone appearing to be a member of the ominous Special Circumstances team.

Tally can only remember her previous adventures as an ugly outside New Pretty Town in brief disconnected snatches. She is shocked to discover that the person stalking her is Croy, an old friend from the Smoke. He has something for her, he tells her, but she must search for it later in a certain secret spot. She agrees, bemused by his repellant ugliness, including his big pores and tangled hair --- all the imperfections that the surgery to become a pretty transforms to beauty.

Tally returns to her pretty life, concentrating on the fun she has with her friends. Her peace is disrupted when gorgeous Zane, leader of the Crims, asks her about David, whom she loved when she lived in the Smoke. In fact, Zane once knew Croy and had been determined to escape to the Smoke before his surgery. He regrets that he didn't go into the wilderness then.

Zane is eager to accompany Tally in finding the mysterious object Croy has hidden for her. They must face strenuous, dangerous physical challenges in order to locate the gift, which is accompanied by a startling and eye-opening letter from Tally to herself, written before she underwent the pretty surgery and explaining to her future self her motive in becoming a pretty --- to save all the pretties. Zane and Tally also learn that the pretties' brains are altered during their surgery. When the two share what Croy left for Tally, everything in their lives changes, putting Zane's health at risk and infuriating Tally's friend Shay.

As with UGLIES, you cannot read this book without questioning values and mindsets prevalent not only in New Pretty Town in the future but also here and now. How much will people surrender in order to be pretty? What is the price of popularity and conformity? Can people who relinquish everything get a second chance? As in UGLIES, the plot pace is rapid and exciting, the characters are real, and the situations are truly frightening.

How good is this book? I read it in a day, unable to concentrate on anything else until I finished it. After the tantalizing ending, I'm filled with delicious anticipation for the third book in the series, SPECIALS. Bring it on!

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon [...]

"Halfway down, it occurred to Tally that the bungee jacket might not catch them both," states the narrator as the main character, Tally, and one of her friends, Perris, "fell" off an enormous building during a party. Tally has awesome clothes, she is completely popular, and everyday it's basically just nonstop parties. But, only after a month of being a pretty, Tally's life will change forever. While at a costume party, Tally realized that someone she didn't recognize was following her. After a while of worrying about who it might be, she decided to find out. She follows the stranger onto the emergency fire stairs. Tally was shocked. It was an Ugly. But, somehow, she knew who it was. It didn't make any sense to her at the time, but it would soon. Before he disappears, he tells her that he will leave something very important for her in Valentino 317, and that she cannot forget about it. Little did she know that what the ugly had left would send her on the adventure of her life.
Pretties is the second book in the trilogy. It is about a girl, Tally, and her boyfriend, Zane, finding a cure for what the doctors did to the Pretties during the operation that everyone got to become a pretty. This is a great book and I would defiantly recommend it to anyone who likes fiction and adventure. It takes place in the future, where everyone gets a new body when they become sixteen. They are the Pretties. If you choose not to change, you are an ugly. Uglies and Pretties are forced apart, living in two different places, pretties in new-pretty town, and Uglies in smoke, or somewhere else in the wild. I think this is a good book for boys and girls eleven and older. I've never read a book like this! It is funny and sad and there is more suspense in one chapter then there is in my life! This is a great book and I hope you like it as much as I did!

The second installment of Westerfeld's "Uglies" series, _Pretties_ is a continually darker fall into madness for his heroine, Tally. In her continuing quest to liberate herself from her personal feelings of guilt over the unintended betrayal of the city runaway's collectively known as the New Smoke, she has given herself up to the authorities of the city and accepted their required beautifying, and mentally damaging, surgery. Awakened from stupefied vanity by strong stress, she begins to wind her way to recovery, along with another young man impacting her life away from David, her interest in the first installment of the series. Wending through a fast paced story Tally is drawn ever deeper into a chaotic maelstrom of betrayal, fear, hope, despair, vengeance, and manipulation. Westerfeld's cliffhanger ending in _Pretties_ is also darker, and more hair-raising than that found in _Uglies_. I will not spoil the end of the book for you by describing this in detail.

As in _Uglies_, the most impressive aspect of this book and the series in full is the fact that the science fiction story evenly and beautifully coats a sharply pointed, tearing social commentary. Westerfeld is very direct in this commentary throughout the tale, offering, through an extremely engaging and wonderfully active plot line, his thoughts on the reasons for cutting, externally destructive actions, and aggressive social tendencies. His exploration of the seemingly converse relationship between the protective measures taken by social authorities and the increase in destructive behaviors among privileged young adults, culminating in the absolute destruction of a flying ice rink, is fascinating. The danger of police state tactics taking over from more humane, and more human, authority figures (as shown in the difference between the Specials and the Wardens) is dealt with in relation to this "imposed safety must be combated" mentality.

This is an excellently crafted science fiction series, in the best tradition of the genre. Westerfeld's world and characterization strikes close to home and thereby becomes believable. I highly recommend this series on the basis of the first two novels and look forward eagerly to reading the third book, _Specials_.

This book picks up where Uglies left off - Tally and Shay were caught and made into pretties. While going to all kinds of exciting parties and living an outlandishly fun lifestyle, there are still some memories and nagging doubts in Tally's and Shay's minds about their past experiences with The Smoke.

They hook up with a Pretty clique called The Crims, who are focused (as much as any pretty can be focused!) on becoming "bubbly", or clear-thinking, and do all kinds of stunts for the adrenaline rush that makes them able to think clearly for a few minutes or more at a time.

Tally becomes involved with Zane, the leader of the Crims and the one most obsessed with becoming clear-headed, and when the couple remaining Smokies bring Tally a note from her past Ugly self, and some pills, she and Zane each take one right before getting caught by the city's wardens...

This sequel to Uglies is a bit less action-packed than the first, but has more things to ponder, as we learn more about how their world and community works, the motivations behind the workings of the community, and the ways in which Tally, Zane, Shay, and the rest learn to take power back from the government and learn to think independently, even with the brain changes that are inflicted on pretties.

I was fascinated by the book and it was well worth reading. Definitely don't bother with this if you have not read Uglies yet. You really have to read these in order.

Did Tally make the right decision to become pretty? In this wonderful book, Pretties, written by Scott Westerfeld he explores what happens when a person has an operation to make them gorgeous, but changes their mind at the same time. During Pretties Tally is finally pretty after 16 years and joins the most popular clique in town, The Crims, with her best friends Peris and Shay. She gets to know the cliques leader, Zane, very well. He seams to already know something is wrong with the operation and tries to keep Tally bubbly so she can remember what it is. When she finds out what was trapped in the depths of her mind she is astounded! Along her wild chase for what she believes is right Zane and her form a close bond. This science fiction book was very intriguing and a definite page turner. It was a great second book in the captivating trilogy, which includes Uglies, Pretties, and Specials. I loved this book and would definitely recommend it to all teen girls.

This book is about Tally and her of so short life as a prettie. Even though they sorta make fun of the "Uglies",otherwise known as normal people, it was great. It goes above and beyond anything you could read. I did a book report on this and my teacher gave me a great grade. "Uglies", the first book is great, and "Specials" the 3rd book were just as good. This is a great book and a great story, you just have to read this. Its magnficent and keeps you reading until the end. Once you get there you have to pick up the next book and read that to. I wish there was more. From telling all my friends about it, I can deffinetly see the excitement gaining just from reading the back and the first page. Pretties may end in a cliff hanger but after you cant wait for more. My friends, teachers, and some relatives have loved the series and acutally went and bought more of Scott Westerfeilds books. I loved this book and I would sugest it to anyone (of 9 years of age and up)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!