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    Pretties
    Pretties
    Pretties
    Audiobook9 hours

    Pretties

    Written by Scott Westerfeld

    Narrated by Emily Tremaine

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The second installment of Scott Westerfeld’s New York Times bestselling and award-winning Uglies series—a global phenomenon that started the dystopian trend.

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9781442393950
    Author

    Scott Westerfeld

    Scott Westerfeld is the author of ten books for young adults, including Peeps, The Last Days, and the Midnighters trilogy. He was born in Texas in 1963, is married to the Hugo-nominated writer Justine Larbalestier, and splits his time between New York and Sydney. His latest book is Extras, the fourth in the bestselling Uglies series.

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    Reviews for Pretties

    4/5

    3,205 ratings168 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Even better than the first! It’s packed full of adventure and suspense.
    • 4/5
      Cute sequel to a story with a decent plot. I’m curious about what will happen to Tally next.
    • 4/5
      This book is pretty good, I really enjoy Scott Westerfeld's writing style. He's so descriptive that in an audiobook, I really feel emerged in the world. As far as character development though, I much preferred the first book "Uglies". All around, I'm excited to see what happens next!
    • 5/5
      It only gets better! Recommended for young readers above 12
    • 5/5
      Definitely continues on after Uglies and delves deeper into the ideas of freedom, beauty, etc.
    • 4/5
      This was book was a little more well written than the first, Uglies. I think it's that the characters were a little more developed. I enjoyed watching Tally and Zane work together. There is less power here though than in the first book. All the big points have been made already. This story is mostly just about Tally trying to get out of Pretty Town with Zane. It was fast paced, and a quick read. I enjoyed the story and am already looking for the next book.
    • 4/5
      A well told adventure set in a future where the populace is contained in idyllic enclaves devoted to a luxuriant yet regimented lifestyle. This becomes a somewhat typical story of how the heroine learns more about the secrets behind those cities and how they work to subvert them. However, the story never lags and the use of cosmetic surgery to produce perfect faces and bodies (based on human evolution) adds a unique touch. Recommended if you enjoyed the Hunger Games (though it was written prior to that series).
    • 1/5
      Terrible English, I can’t listen to any more “it’s totally bogus” sentences.
    • 3/5
      Not as good as Uglies. I'm not sure why it seems like every female character can't get along with Tally and why David, despite being the former love interest of Tally, still seems to not really be all there.

      I did find it to be a bit more preachy than Uglies, which kind of dragged the story down for me. But I did like seeing more of the world, Andrew and his crew have me interested, and Zane does make for a better love interest.

      I think my major gripe is how Peris was shafted in this novel. In Uglies, Tally couldn't wait to be with her best friend forever, but now that she's with him we still don't see him. I think he gets as much screen time as he did in Uglies.

      So when Tally was disappointed with his choice and realized that things couldn't be the same with them anymore, I didn't really care. Despite this, I kind of like his non-bubblyness. I hope we get to see more from him in Specials. Not as a love interest, I hope to God that doesn't happen, but just something.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This book seriously didn't age the greatest. It was good at parts but I was pushing to finish. I also don't remember any of the stuff that took place within Pretties actually happening when I read over a decade ago.
    • 3/5
      2nd book as good as the first. I'm going to read one more!
    • 3/5
      Once again an interesting mix of scifi and social commentary.

      Warning for self harm in the appropriately titled chapter Cutters mid book.
    • 4/5
      This was good, though I may have liked Uglies better. I wasn't happy with the ending, though I figured that something like it had to happen. (Sometimes knowing the title of the sequel is not such a good thing.)
    • 4/5
      Having everything is can sometimes make it seem like you have nothing. Addressing the superficial world, as we follow her into this next world. Slower than Uglies.
    • 2/5
      So, unlike the first book in the trilogy, this did not live up to my fond memories of it.

      I think the main problem is the plot. Second instalments of trilogies often seem a bit difficult, and this isn't the first time I've read one where there's a giant disconnect between the first half and the second, such that it seems really jarring. That's exactly what happens here. The first half is about Tally's new life as a pretty, and struggling against it – and then the second half is practically the first book redux. Only, this time around she meets a "primitive tribe" which seems to serve purely as a vehicle for Westerfeld to ruminate on the violence and self-destructiveness he sees as inherent to human nature.

      As I recall, the first book could be preachy too, but this one is even preachier. Tally is suddenly full of exposition and philosophical ramblings, and it's just... well, it doesn't appeal very much. The conclusion of this book is literally a re-run of the conclusion to the last book. I just don't think we, as the reader, made a lot of progress.

      I also didn't care much at all for the love triangle, and I thought it was absurd that kissing Zane, and falling in love with Zane should improve Tally's clarity of thought. That makes no sense. But really, nothing about the brain damage inflicted on pretties nor the cure makes any sense, and I preferred the last book which didn't spend so much time dwelling on this nonsensical cure.

      I'd also have liked to have seen more on the dynamic between Tally and Shay, and the sense of betrayal that Shay has every right to feel, honestly. Then the end of the book was far too rushed – considering that the romantic subplot about Tally and David was so central to the last book, in this one they reunite and break up again in what, thirty pages? and she's excessively nasty to him too? WHAT IS THIS. Maybe more time should have been spent on this, and less on camping in the woods.

      So while it saddens me to give this book such a low star rating, I can't really justify giving it any higher. It was a fast read, which made it a nice change, but it just didn't hold up for me.
    • 3/5
      The main character seems very much "wrong place wrong time", I don't think she's strong enough to warrant a lead role. Still fascinated with the changes in society the book shows.
    • 1/5
      I hope to never hear the words "bubbly" and "bogus" again.
    • 4/5
      The Writing and Worldbuilding

      It builds on the world Uglies established, expanding and giving insight into the behind the scenes of the society. I was annoyed with the whole ~love cures all~ thing, as well as aspects of the love triangle, as, at this point, they're very old tropes, but since this came out over ten years ago, before The Hunger Games even, I'll give it some free passes. The slight glorification of Zane's undernourishment and gaunt appearance wasn't okay, though. I understand why he was gaunt, but I don't understand why Tally thought it was attractive.

      The Characters

      Tally: My sister warned me that she is very annoying as a Pretty, but honestly, she wasn't really, and if she was, it wasn't for very long. She was just as proactive as she had been in book 1, and I still really liked her.

      Zane: I'm not a fan of love triangles, but he was a super nice and I loved him. He was distinct from David and lovable in his own way.

      Shay: I'm so sad my hyper, lovable Shay is gone forever :(

      Fausto: I loved him! He wasn't super important, but he was funny and even in his few appearances, I got a good feel for his character.

      Andrew Simpson Smith: My lovable caveman! ❤❤❤ I don't care that he's stereotypical and a sexist, I love him.

      Conclusion

      I read this in almost one sitting and in less than 24 hours, so I think they gives a general idea of how engrossed I was in this, and how much I generally really liked it, but I didn't totally love it or anything. To put it in pretty speech: It wasn't totally love-making (which sounds dirty, but I swear it isn't)
    • 4/5
      While I genuinely enjoyed this, there was a point — maybe 3/5 of the way through — where I said, "Wait, this book has the same plot flow of the first." Not a bad thing, especially for YA fiction, but...I hope this isn't the case for the third.
    • 4/5
      It's a good sequel, which continues directly off of the previous book. While I enjoy the storyline, I continue to have a bit of trouble actually getting pulled into the world. Nonetheless, I will continue to read the series, and am truly hoping for a strong continuing storyline.
    • 3/5
      I wasn't enthusiastic about the ending, which more or less results in the whole book being a noop.At the start of the book, Tally is newly pretty and her former ugly friends are on the run from the specials. There's a whole lot of plot about how she's going to escape and re-join them, which she does. But then the Specials show up to break up the Ugly party, and the Uglies are back on the run with Tally and her boyfriend in Pretty hands.I don't see a whole lot of growth from the protagonist either.It's a pretty interesting journey to get to that final point, but now I'm worried that the next book is mostly going to be a repeat of what's in this book.
    • 4/5
      Shay's final words to Tally will haunt me.

      I died. I had a feeling the book would end like this. I was blown away. The ending shook me. Dang Specials, always one step ahead.

      Once again, just like with the first novel, each part increased in stars. 3,4, and 5 stars respectively, ending with an average of four stars.

      The beginning of the novel was heavy with pretty speech. It was not bubbly making. Kind of brain numbing. My words will make sense once you read the novel.

      But I was totally into it. Tally never really embraces the whole pretty thing. But I embraced her. I really loved this character. After royally screwing things up in the first novel, she thinks she has a chance to make thinks right.

      I love that she never stops trying. I loved Zane. And Zane and Tally together.

      I knew Shay would be a wrench. I never liked her.

      This book would be awesome for ages ten and up.

      Best quote: "Now that she could think unpretty thoughts, she would no longer be beautiful every minute of the day. Anger, fear, and anxiety were not pretty making."

      I do think this novel teaches some powerful notions about the world.
    • 3/5
      ok. so on top of all the other stuff i have been reading lately, i became thoroughly engrossed in a series which has not let me down in the slightest. this is a bit long winded, but keep in mind it is in reference to reading three books.. and i am trying REALLY hard not to give away spoilers..

      it is hard to write about this book because in the context of the review, the keywords and mannerisms of the characters society seems like nothing but grammar and spelling errors. bear with it though, in the books, you are so washed over with the word use and logic that it actually makes sense in the proper frame.

      the Uglies trilogy (now a quadrilogy?) was very engrossing. Book one, Uglies, describes a world where there is no war. there is no famine, hatred, or turmoil. 200-300 years in the past over population, strip mining, clear cutting, genetic engineering of plants and animals laid waste on everything in the world. humans have rebuilt from the ashes after we destroyed ourselves. our generation is referred to as “the rusties” since everything left from our world is covered in rust and falling apart.

      Tally Youngblood is 15 years old, and only months away from becoming one of the “pretties”. in this world, to remove all of the dangerous human habits of destruction, you are born and raised by your parents, once you hit a certain age (8 or 9 from what i could tell) you are shipped off to school as an ugly. at the age of 16 you are taken from school where you will be put under the knife and remade as a better person. your bones are ground down and or elongated, you have new muscle tissue added to your body, and you have full facial re-constructive surgery. all “pretties” have a choice on how they look, with in the guidelines of the governments rules of morphology. they effectively remove all extremes in height, hair color, skin color, etc. everyone is similar and there is no need for hatred.

      Tally, in waiting for her 16th birthday meets a new friend, Shay, who has no desire to become one of the pretties. a week before their shared birthday/graduation from being uglies, Shay decides to run off to a rumored group of rebels who have shafted the system and stayed ugly, and foregone all efforts to work within the system. Tally however has no desire to join her friend and sticks around for her surge (surgery). her only desire is become pretty and join her friends in New Pretty town, where she can dance and play and enjoy the life she has been programmed to want since birth.

      Unfortunately, Tally is roped into a game of social change. she is scooped up by the fearsome and dangerous police force that acts as bogeymen for the government. Special Circumstances (the Specials) only comes forward when needed, generally letting the local police force take care of everything. This being a “Special circumstance” Tally is forced to follow her friend to the encampment of rebels (the Smoke) and betray her friend, and everyone who has escaped so far. if she does not, she will be denies surge and will forever be Ugly. and in this society, this is the worst thing that could ever happen to you.

      Book one was so good, that i had an itch to move on to book two immediately. i hate doing that. i love to stretch a series out if possible, and draw out the enjoyment from the story line. so when book one was finished, though i really wanted to move on to the second book, i ramped myself down and read the Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja book. Book two immediately followed and when finished i lost all self control and my fingers and eyes forced me to read book three next.. it took about two days with my schedule.. two lousy days.. why couldn’t it last longer… i wasted a great book by reading it too soon..

      well, not a waste. damn. it was so good, i had no choice really.. it was in my best interest to read the book. or so i keep telling myself. there is a fourth book. it was written after the trilogy was announced, so it is a bit of an anomaly, thus the trilogy quadrilogy notation above. unfortunately, the book Extras is still in hardback edition, so until it hits paperback, i will have to force myself to wait.. this sucks..

      these books, written by Scott Westerfeld, fall into the teen-fiction category. they are written for teens, but the story line and books themselves do not lend themselves only to teens. being thirty years old, i literally could not stop reading these books. if you need a good break from your normal reading schedule, i would throw these in the mix and read them. they all rank around 300 pages of single space small print, so they are not some little read you would use to sturdy the kitchen table. instead, they are full of vibrant ideas, technology, tattoos that i wish were a reality. there were no obvious plot twists that made me think “why am i reading this” or “how predictable” instead, i was often surprised and left feeling “bubbly” as they state in the book.

      imagine a world full of barbie dolls being slowly destroyed by barbie’s cyber-punk kid sister that has been kept in the closet for years.

      i was sad to come to the end of this series, but glad to know that i will have at least one more book to close it all up in the near future.

      anyone who is interested should note that all three of the first books can be bought in a boxed set for under 20 bucks.. this is how i got sucked into them.. a really good price for a nice story line idea turned into one of the best purchases i have made on books in a while. now, i just have to hope that hollywood has not gotten their hands on the thought of movies. these would be thoroughly ruined and not done justice.. read them before someone fucks them up for you… thats all i have to say on the matter.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed book #1 more than this one, but still worth reading.
    • 5/5
      First of all I must say, what a cliffhanger! So be warned, if you do not have book 3 waiting to start when you finish this book, you may be irritated and antsy! I finished this book last night and immediately started on book 3 until I fell asleep! Like any good dystopian book, this series keeps you on your toes. One minute you think things just might work out for Tally and then an unexpected twist happens that you did not see coming at all. This book was far from predictable, so if you like being thrown for a loop, this series is for you.
    • 4/5
      Just as enjoyable as the first book. Recommend it .
    • 3/5
      At the end of 'Uglies', the first book in this series, Tally Youngblood agrees to leave her new friends and go back to Prettytown, undergoing the operation that will make her happy and ditzy (as well as beautiful), so that her can be an experimental guinea pig for a cure. However, once she's back, she forgets all about her plans, falling into a routine of parties and fun - not to mention a new, gorgeous boyfriend. However, she's still one of the "bubbliest" (most daring and alert) Pretties, and her friends manage to sneak her the cure. Things don't go quite right though... and soon her boyfirend seems to be getting sick. They must try to escape Prettytown, avoid the scary Special Circumstances who are after tally, and get back to the rebels outside the city.
      This is a fun series, but it does suffer from big gaping holes in its logical believability.
    • 3/5
      Like Uglies this book was also very slow to get started. This one also ended on a cliff hanger. The ending was extremely fast paced and the story is interesting, although the characters seem weaker this time around. Maybe it's because pretties are supposed to be useless.
    • 5/5
      All of the excitement of a thriller but with the depth of a classic. It's not timeless literature, but I think it will last longer than a Christopher Pike novel. Timeless themes, certainly--gave me a lot to think about.
    • 4/5
      Tally has finally become pretty! And it's everything she's ever dreamed of: living in New Pretty Town, amazing parties every night, awesome clothes, a totally hot boyfriend and she's completely popular. Yet the feeling like she's forgetting something won't go away. Something important. After being stalked at a party by someone from her ugly past she receives a letter. Reading it Tally starts to remember what's wrong and realizes just how much danger she and her friends are in. Pretties is the second in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. The story picks up a few weeks after where book one left off. Westerfeld builds nicely on his world showing us the another facet of society. As a Pretty Tally is annoying and shallow, pretty much what you expect for a society that glorifies personal appearance. Once her memory starts to come back she starts to grow as a character again becoming more interesting. It's also interesting to read about her relationship with Shay, just how different it is from the first book.More characters are introduced. Zane is a fun addition as is the idea behind the Crims clique. Dr. Cable, shown to us briefly in book one, continues to be an excellent villain. This time around the Pretty slang started to grate on my nerves. Everything is always bubbly or bogus or crazy-making. I know it's part of the world building but it was almost hard to read. There are parts where they story tends to plod along while trying to explain things in Pretty terms. Still it's a good read and a good addition to the series.