Wednesday, March 21, 2012

When Special Uglies Turn Extra Pretty

The other day I gave you a quick overview of book one of the Uglies series Uglies (I know a little confusing but the series is named after the first book).  In this post I will give a quick overview of the second book in the series Pretties.
This is my favorite book in the series, which is odd because most of the time I feel the second book is just filler so the author can make a trilogy (exception to The Two Towers which is still my favorite "second book" ever!!!!).  This is the book where I feel I really get a sense of this world that Scott Westerfeld is trying to create...plus now I really want to get jewels surgically implanted in my eyes!
     Pretties starts of with our heroine Tally Youngblood getting ready for a party in New Pretty Town.  She has undergone prettyfication and is trying to join the Crims a clique that is known for there daring stunts.  At the party she if followed by a mysterious figure, who turns out to be a guy she knew from Smoke.  She still has her memories of Smoke (the rebel settlement) but they have been mushified by the pacifying brain lesion that is part of the pretty operation.  Croy (her Smoke friend) tells her that he left something for her, but she has to go find it.  Her Crim friend Zane knew Croy before he left for Smoke and has regretted not going with him, he decides to help Tally find what Croy left her.  What they find is two pills accompanied by a letter Tally wrote to herself, reminding her about the lesion and her willingness to try out the cure that her Smoke boyfriend's mom had discovered before Tally gave herself up (If that sentence doesn't make sense that's ok, I don't really make a whole lot of sense either)  They each decide to take one of the pills and see what happens.  They find if they keep on a constant adrenaline high they can stay "bubbly"(this word gets so overused in this series!) and think  more clearly, even without the help of the pill.  Shay starts getting clearer memories back of Tally's betrayal in the last book and becomes suspicious of her permanent "bubblines". After she finds out that Tally took the pill with Zane, she is incredibly hurt that Tally did not choose to share the cure with her.  Shay eventually starts her own group called the Cutters, who cut them selves to get the adrenaline rush needed to stay clear.  Meanwhile Zane has been getting debilitating headaches, so a group of them decide to try and find New Smoke to try and see if they can help him.  On the way one of the boys decides he no longer wants to go, causing Tally to end up in a strange primitive (even for the Smoky's) area inhabited by very primitive people.  This turns out to be an experimental area for the higher ups to study various human behaviors and how to better control human nature.
Tally eventually reunites with David and his mother who tells her the two pills were meant to be taken together, one to eat the lesion and one to eat the nanobots.  Since Zane took the nanobot pill without the stopper his brain is being eaten.  Tally discovers that the pill she took did not do anything and it was her own willpower that overcame the lesion (Go Tally!)  They find out that the powers that be installed a tracker in Zanes tooth and are on their way.  Tally opts to stay with Zane, which hurts David and causes them to part on bad terms.   The group that comes to get Zane and Tally includes Shay who has been turned into a Special, which is essentially the super powered enforcers for the government.  The book ends with Shay knocking out Tally, promising that she to will be made into a Special.

Did you like the second book better then the first one?  What do you think of the psychological reasoning behind making Pretties look like innocent, helpless creatures?  Do think somebody should hurry up and create calorie chasers so we can all have a second cupcake?

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