Caragh Reviews - Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Published - 24th May 2012
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - 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.

Pretties is the second book in Scott Westerfeld's series. It took me a little while to get into the book because it had been months since I read Uglies and had forgotten a little bit about how it left off and where Pretties was starting.
Tally is now Pretty and is having the time of her life running around with Shay and her new friends, pulling tricks and partying...but something doesn't feel right and with her new crush my her side, she once again tries to find out what's going on.

The world that Westerfeld has created is thrilling, intriguing and totally disturbing. It's a world where children are raised believing that they ugly and must be transformed and become pretty in order to be happy. It provides a disturbing social commentary that at times is hard to really get through. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series but I had a few problems with Pretties.

It felt like a rehash of the first book in a lot of ways and it worries me that each book will continue to follow the same pattern. Tally is like everyone else/Tally discovers something new/Tally goes off on a mission/Tally ends up in trouble/Tally starts a new life. Rinse and repeat. Of course I could be totally wrong about the next book but from what I can tell of the ending of Pretties, the next book seems as though it will do the same thing. At least to me, Pretties didn't really raise anything new or add anything extra to the world that was created and the story that was told in the first book. Pretties was a good read but it wasn't really anything special and I felt let down that nothing more happened. This is a pretty short review because I don't feel like I have much to say about it! It was a good, quick read but I didn't get much from it. Fingers crossed that changes in the next book as there is so much potential for this world and for Tally!