Review: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless.
- John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, I

About the Book

Tally has finally become ‘pretty’. Her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are cool, her boyfriend’s gorgeous, 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 feeling that something’s wrong.

Something important.

And sure enough, when a message from Tally’s ‘ugly’ past arrives, the fun stops cold.

Now Tally has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life…

My Thoughts

You can read what I thought about book one in the series, Uglies, by clicking the link. Read on to see what I thought about this one!

Thankfully I started reading this one, just as soon as I had finished book one, so the worry for Tally with the cliff-hanger ending was soon abated, of course the calm didn’t last long, and it’s clear, things are not quite as simple as David’s mum and Tally had planned.

Tally is a great character, who despite life constantly being just tantalisingly out of her control really battles against all that is thrown at her, and indeed becomes one of the most important things about her, if you haven’t read the books I won’t spoil it for you, but the effects that strength have is one of the most satisfying things about the book.

Again the imagery and ‘toys’ are excellent, one of the highlights being the tattoos that spin according to your heart rate!

Minor niggles, are once again the “pretty-speak” which is lets face it, annoying, it’s meant to be shallow and everything of course, and works perfectly at what it is meant to do, so I can forgive the frustrations it gives me as a reader. Anyway, as the book moves on, the characters start to subvert the useage, which is a nice twist, and I can’t see it going away, so I’ll shut up about it!

And, despite the circumstances and reasons being different, Westerfeld pulls essentially the same trick with the ending, it is of course another cliff-hanger, and Tally is about to head back into New Pretty Town.

Didn’t mean, however. I didn’t immediately pick up book three though! And you can look forward to a review of Specials, before the weekend.

[rating:3.5/5]

Other Reviews to Consider

• Devourer of Books
• Teen Lit Review
• At Home With Books
• Book Nut
• Regular Rumination
• The Novel World
• Becky’s Book Reviews
• Melissa’s Bookshelf