Tally has gone back to her city, and she is now pretty. Which she did for science, to try and cure the lesions the Operation places in a new pretty's brain. But of course, thanks to those pesky lesions, she has no memory of why she became a pretty, and little memory of the Smoke. So Tally parties hard every night, trying to join a group of Shay's old friends (pretties who remember being uglies, and who want to be tricky again). She even gets a new love interest (well, she doesn't remember David, after all!), and I must say, I'm a bit in love with Zane. Sigh. Anywho, here's the blurb:
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 underneath all the fun - the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom - something's wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugle paast 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.
See?! This whole series is just INTENSE. It sounds kinda vapid, the whole 'her boyfriend is totally hot' thing, but trust me, it fits perfectly with the world that Westerfield has created. (Another interesting book, when you read the whole series, is Bogus to Bubbly. He explains a bunch of stuff about writing the books, trivia and such, and even includes technical stuff about hoverboards and bungee jackets.) Pretties is more exciting than Uglies, as it's mostly set in the city (however, again, there's a long part where Tally is in the wilderness by herself). It's obvious how the characters have developed from the first book: Tally is far more grown up and well-rounded than she was in Uglies. Which is a great thing, because it means she becomes more interesting to read about. It's also interesting to realise how different she becomes every time she has a different operation (as an ugly, she was little more than a child who wanted to be pretty, as a pretty she essentially had a city-made brain which she fights). You want her to be triumphant, and you want her to kick the city's butt. And trust me, she tries.
This series really makes a person think. Obviously, Scott Westerfield wants people to question how we abuse the environment (he could not make it any more explicit, in fact, with a comment about humanity being a disease that plagues the planet on every page), but it does raise many valid points. And he asks the reader, are the cities going about it the best way? Or is the Smoke? The cities are abusing their power and using the Operation to control their citizens. But, after all, the Smoke burns trees. As readers, we feel the constant struggle in our minds about which community is 'right'. I mean, it's entirely possible that we ourselves are heading towards a future where something very similar to this could become a reality. Who knows?
So I think that's all I want to say about this book, except the end is almost as devastating as the next book's (Specials). Almost, but not quite. Have I hooked you in, yet? Well... That was the plan. This one gets *****!! Yeah, that's how much I love this series!
Oh! And of course, there is an incredibly gorgeous guy and girl on the front cover. The book IS about attractive people. Although I must say, I didn't think the girl on the cover of Uglies was too bad!
Title: Pretties (Uglies series, #2)
Author: Scott Westerfield
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 370
Source: Bought
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ReplyDeleteYüz Germe