Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Series: Uglies #2

Publication: November 1st 2005 by Simon Pulse

Source: Borrowed from Friend

Goodreads Summary: 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 beneath all the fun -- the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom -- is a nagging sense that something's wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugly past 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.
Goodreads Page

My Thoughts:
*This Review Contains Spoilers*

I thought maybe that I would like this book better than I liked Uglies. I sometimes like sequels better than the first book and am pleasantly surprised when that happens. This book wasn't one of those times. This book is pretty much a retelling of Uglies. The plot is redundantly similar to the first one: Tally plays ugly tricks. Tally leaves the city. Tally takes her sweet time getting to where she's supposed to be. Tally gets recaptured by the city. The end.

There were also a few plot points that made no sense to me. When Shay got upset with Tally about not giving her one of the pills, why didn't Tally bring up that she had refused to take them before? Tally talks about it but never points it out to Shay. Like, hello Shay, you had your chance and didn't want it so why are you mad now?? And I also didn't understand why Tally was suddenly "trapped" with the random "pre-Rusties." She literally walked right in there. Why couldn't she have just walked out right where she came from??? So, what, she sat there for a week because she was too "pretty-minded" to remember how to walk out??

Besides the plot being redundant and most of it not making any sense, the whole pretty language thing was super annoying. I understand the point of it but I literally wanted to take a Sharpie to the book and cross out every stupid "bubbly," "bogus," and "[insert stupid word such as pretty, happy, sad, etc.]-making" and pretend that Westerfeld hadn't completely overdone and destroyed his book in an attempt to fully immerse someone. And since Tally was "cured," why did she not STOP SAYING THESE WORDS. She didn't say them before she became pretty. And the idea of the cure is basically that you go back to the way you were before. WHY DOES SHE STILL SAY ALL OF THESE CATCHPHRASES??? In a way, it does make sense since she wasn't actually cured. But at the same time she's said to have cured herself. So why did she not go back to sounding mostly normal like in her ugly days? It wasn't like she was a pretty for years and is stuck with their terminology in a habit. Once again, something else that didn't make sense to me.

And the thing with Shay in her odd, forced attempt to "cure herself." It was just disturbing and I'm sure it's meant to be and some people will see it as a marvelous artistic parallel to their misshapen view of beauty or whatever. But Westerfeld doesn't handle the subject very well. Making Shay cut herself and start terming herself and her new group as "Cutters" is something that could definitely be triggering for someone and it's just not something you casually write about like he did. And then he has her cover herself in tattoos and basically go crazy at the end. The entire situation with Shay gives a very sour taste to the book.

Likes: Lol.

Dislikes: Same basic plotline as Uglies. Plot points didn't make sense. Subject matter not handled well (Shay). She picked the wrong guy. Just saying. Also, who is the guy supposed to be on the cover? I can't tell if it's supposed to be David or Zane. If it's supposed to be Zane, why does he not have the "wide, big, beautiful eyes" that "Tally" has? Pretty "bogus" and "fashion-missing" if you ask me.

Overall:
Recommend? No.
Reading the Next Book? I don't need to. I can tell you what's going to happen already because it's going to be just like the first two since Westerfeld apparently has a difficulty imagining different plotlines. Also I don't think I could handle reading about the "Specials" and their "cruel beauty" for one minute longer.