Pretties

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is the second book in the Uglies trilogy (which somehow turns into 4 books instead of three o_0). In any case, I didn't like it as well as the first and ended up dropping my rating to three stars.

I had some issues with this one. I understand that by turning people into pretty-heads that you change their personality into shallow people. But how shallow can a person get? When do these people actually grow up? I know there are mentions of doctors and anthropologists and other types of workers but its never explained how these people go from partying all the time to being a doctor. The world building here is very lacking. There are mentions of other cities but that's all you ever get, just a mention. Nothing about where they are or how things are different or same there. What about school and education? It seems like a lot of destructive behavior is glamorized in this book.

But back to Tally-wa and the rest of her Crim crew. Other than Shay, who she comes to rescue, we are introduced to a whole new set of characters each as shallow as the rest except for Zane. Zane seems to have been the only one that has managed to keep his head throughout the book too bad it looks like he may lose it. Shay also seems to have some mental fight left in her, too bad past betrayal seems to have corrupted her.

Overall, I liked Pretties but not as well as Uglies. I hope that Specials is not as bad as some of the reviews that I've read. Even though it a YA read does not mean that world building isn't important. And this series could use a bit more of it.



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