Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Westerfeld, Scott. Pretties.

Simon Pulse; 2005,

ISBN: 0689865392.

Reader’s Annotation

Tally has everything she always wanted—she’s pretty, her boyfriend’s gorgeous, and she goes to parties every night—but it feels like she’s forgetting something…  

Plot Summary

In the sequel to Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies, Pretties picks up where the plot left off.  Tally Youngblood is pretty now, and she goes to pretty parties and thinks pretty thoughts in New Pretty Town.  Tally’s dearest wish now is to join Shay’s clique called the Crims.  When Tally goes to a party, she encounters a party crasher—Croy, someone she’s forgotten that she knew back in the Smoke.  Seeing him brings back fuzzy memories of her life in the wild before turning pretty.  Tally and Zane, the leader of the Crims, learn from Croy that the “pretty-mindedness” is caused by the lesions.  Croy gives Tally the pills with instructions to take both, but when Tally get scared, she give Zane one.  The two feel the effects right away and start to feel “bubbly” or more sharply focused.  Zane however develops terrible headaches.  They also discover that other can feel bubbly by surges of adrenaline or caffeine, so they teach the Crim how.  Through a series of bubbly pranks, Shay remembers the Smoke too, and how Tally was responsible.  She remembers that Tally “stole” David from her too.  Shay forms her own clique, the Cutters, who stay bubbly by cutting themselves.  Dr. Cable and the Specials, grow suspicious of Tally and Zane, and monitor them constantly.  Dr. Cable even offers Tally a job—with the Specials—which Tally vehemently refuses.  When Zane and Tally finally escape, Tally discovers that the best-laid plans can go wrong.  They meet up with the New Smoke, and there Tally learns that Zane was hurt because the pill she took was supposed to counteract its effects.  When the Specials catch up with New Smoke, Tally refuses to leave Zane (who cannot be moved), behind.  She and Zane are captured by a new unit of the Specials—the Cutters.  And it’s Shay who informs Tally of her fate—she will be turned into a Special too.

Critical Evaluation

The setting and tone of Pretties stand in stark contrast to the more wilderness-oriented setting of Uglies.  Westerfeld weaves a picture of vacuous self-gratification and indulgence.  What to wear to the next party constitutes the greatest problem of any given day.  The concept of being “bubbly” and thinking clearly raises interesting questions for discussion.  One of the greatest subplots of the novel is Tally’s dilemma of loving Zane and David both.  When she was made pretty, she of course, forgot David.  During that time she fell in love with Zane.  As her memories of living in the Smoke return, so do her memories of her time with David.  Tally must choose.  Tally’s broken relationship with Shay shows some of the complexity that comes with any severed friendship.  At the end of Pretties, Westerfeld again leaves you desperate to know what happens next.

Information about the Author

Born in Texas in 1963, Scott Westerfeld is the award-winning science fiction author of Evolution's Darling, So Yesterday and the The Secret Hour.  Westerfeld now divides his time between New York and Sydney, Australia.  For more information about Scott Westerfeld, go to his blog at: Scott Westerfeld

Genre

Science Fiction

Romance

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk Ideas

1. David or Zane?
2. Discuss Tally’s decision to share the cure with Zane.
3. How do think the cutting of Shay’s clique really makes them feel better?  Do you think there are similarities to why people in our society cut?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (Age 16+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

None

Why I included this work

Sequel to Uglies, also, awards for Pretties include:

• CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council),
• NYPL "Books for the Teen Age",
• Pennsylvania School Librarian Association (PSLA) "Top Ten (Or So)" Young Adult Books

Great Quote from the Book:

"Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at least try to grow your own brain"