Pretties

Title: Pretties

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publication date: 2005

Book's setting: The ~Future

Random facts: Second book in a series of four.

Plot summary: Pretties picks up only weeks after Uglies left off. Tally has undergone the surgery and in the process has forgotten almost everything about her life in The Smoke. But her new life as a Pretty isn't as simple as she thought it would be. In her first weeks with the Crims she meets Zane who seems to have a much clearer mind than his peers. When a boy from The Smoke shows up with the cure for the lesions Tally decides to share her secret with Zane. Now the two of them need to find a way to keep the Crims, and all the Pretties, bubbly long enough to escape to find David and his mother and the rest of the cure. Only Dr. Cable and oddly enough, Shay, stand in their way.

Favorite aspects: To be honest I think I liked this one better than Uglies. In the first book the whole idea of the Pretties wasn't very developed... and you just started thinking of them as idiots. A book where the vapid, beautiful ones are the heroes... now that's just a bit more original. Seeing Tally and Shay (who we already loved as Uglies) in their new Pretty bodies gave the entire society more depth and took away the hesitations I had about the Uglies. I also enjoyed the fact that Westerfeld didn't punish Tally and Shay for getting surge, even after they were essentially cured. That definitely helped break down the pretty-and-dumb stereotype the first book only very nearly escaped.

Least favorite aspects: The Pretties' lingo got tiring after a while. In a way it was a strong way of establishing a culture for them that would be immediately identifiable for the reader... but my brain got tired of reading "crim" and "bubbly" and "bogus" and "surg" and "pretty-making." The lingo that the Uglies and The Smoke has in the previous book were much less offensive to my brain. Also Zane and David were awesome foils, but turning them into an over-blown love triangle took away from their individual personalities and storyline.

Other works it reminded me of: The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

Sadie's merciless break-down: I've never read a dystopian novel I loved unconditionally. When you're playing with dystopias you're playing with sensitive and complicated subject matter and you're just doomed to either be too heavy handed or offensive somewhere in your plot. Even the Ember series had it's flaws. (DuPrau, I love you, but give religion a break. For like, two seconds. Please.) All this aside, Pretties handled it's subject matter with utmost care. Perhaps it would have been an even better book if Westerfeld let his guard down and got gritty, or perhaps it would have just been awkward.
Anyway, now I am going to point out something that annoyed me in Pretties that wasn't substantial enough to be filed under "least favorite aspects." One of my big pet peeves is when teen novel authors say their characters "cursed" or "swore" instead of using real words. Westerfeld did it a few too many times in Pretties. My entire body tenses up when I see it written. Dear authors of the world, you have options: Man up and throw a few fucks in OR substitute for less offensive words OR just make cursing a non-issue. (The only time I am okay with seeing the word "swore" in a book is when Riordan does it. Simply because it brings amusing images to mind of Percy screaming strings of profanity.)

Recommendation rate: You obviously shouldn't read it if you haven't read Uglies, it's a sequel dependent on the first one. If you like dystopian lit then pick up Uglies first. If you like that one then try this.