2010 eBook Challenge

Pretties is the second in Scott Westerfeld’s dystopian series following Uglies (my review) which I loved! While I didn’t find Pretties as ‘on the edge of my seat’ exciting, I still loved it! The one thing I really liked is that I’m already a part of this world of Tally’s so I’m familiar with the people and what’s going on. It felt like getting together with old friends on their next adventure. Just as a note this review will contain spoilers from the first book so if you’re planning on reading the series, you may not want to go any further.

In Pretties, Tally is now a pretty. She’s beautiful and has everything she could want now except of course the ability to think on her own anymore. She’s heading to the parties and drinking all night, only to be hung over the whole next day and then start over. This is the life of a new pretty. Tally’s only concern right now is to make it into the Crim clique – even in the world of Pretties, there are still the ‘in’ groups in which to belong. All of her old friends – Shay and Peris- belong to the this group along with an intriguing boy named Zane, who is the leader. Of course Tally makes it into this desired group and not only that she seems to attract the attention of Zane.

However Tally keeps having these nagging thoughts about what she assumes is her past but they are a jumble. This is where she and Zane really connect. Zane explains things to Tally, how you can stay bubbly to keep your mind alert instead of in a fog. When bubbly, things appear a lot more clear to Tally. In the meantime, someone from her past shows up and leaves her the pills to make her normal again along with the letter she wrote herself back in Uglies. Tally is terrified to take the pills – there is two of them – Zane is with her when she finds them. Yes, you guessed it; they each take one. Now the question is, was this a really good idea to take these pills or not?

The second half of the book really picks up and kept me on the edge of my seat again while I was very busy rooting for Tally and Zane to become normal again. Together they make a great couple and I enjoyed them together much more than Tally and David. Zane just seems to be the other half of Tally for some reason. Again I loved Tally. She is still my favorite character in this series. However do things ever really go smoothly where Tally is concerned? It seems she can’t escape the pretty world no matter how hard she tries.

Once again I was left hanging at the end of the book wanting more! Thankfully I had Specials ready and waiting and have, of course, given it a teeny tiny start already. I just can’t seem to control myself once I start one of these books. This is a great series that I am thoroughly enjoying!

Share this post!

I’m sure I’m close to the last person in the blogging world to read the Uglies series but that’s ok. I am now and I’m loving them. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld was a great read for me. I enjoyed it so much that when I finished it I moved on to Pretties right away (already finished that one too-review on it’s way). What a great series! Anyhow, on to what I thought of Uglies.

Uglies is about a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is changed to a pretty when they turn sixteen. The purpose is if you make everyone pretty then nobody can be judged on their appearance alone – everyone is on equal ground. The rest of the world, our present world presumably, has been destroyed; they called the people of this world the Rusties. The Pretties are pretty much mindless people living life to the fullest or as full as you can when you really don’t do any thinking anymore and the worst thing is they don’t even realize this is what has happened to them.

The book centers on Tally Youngblood. She’s fifteen and living in the dorms for uglies while waiting to become a pretty on her sixteenth birthday. She can’t wait; she longingly watches out her dorm window towards where the pretties are always partying. As well her friend Peris turned pretty before her and she’s lost without him. They were best friends and she can’t wait until they are together again.

Then Tally meets another girl with the same birthday as her – Shay, and they become fast friends playing tricks together and causing the normal ‘ugly’ trouble. Shay is different from Tally’s other friends though. She questions becoming pretty and takes Tally to the Rusty Ruins and tells her about some mysterious place called the Smoke where uglies live like normal people. This makes no sense to Tally. Why would anybody not want to become pretty but it seems that Shay doesn’t.

On Tally’s sixteenth birthday she is ready to go and have her operation and be a pretty. Imagine her surprise when she’s told she can’t become a pretty until she finds Shay who ran away and leads the Specials to the Smoke. At first Tally resists but then realizes that there is no way she’ll have the life she wants if she doesn’t do this. So, she agrees to find Shay and the people of the Smoke.

What Tally doesn’t expect when she finds the Smoke is that these people aren’t so bad and neither is this life. Unexpectedly Tally finds that she cares about these people and doesn’t want to expose them but is it too late? Is it too late for all them, including Tally?

Uglies is a great look into what a society would be if people were manipulated into what those in higher power wanted for them. This book is action packed and keeps you turning the pages until the early morning hours to finish. Keep an eye out for my review of Pretties coming up soon as well.

My thanks…to me. I bought Uglies by Scott Westerfeld all by myself for my eReader.

Share this post!