Goodreads Synopsis:
"Gorgeous. Popular. Perfect.
Perfectly wrong.
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."
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST BOOK IN THIS
SERIES ‘UGLIES’
My review for ‘Uglies’ by Scott Westerfeld can be found HERE
Hello Elementareaders!
As I mentioned above, this review contains spoilers for
‘Uglies’, so if you haven’t read that then I wouldn't advise reading on.
In 'Uglies' Tally finds out that the operation to make
people Pretty creates brain lesions, abnormalities that make them pretty-minded
as well as pretty-looking. They are basically manipulating people's brains to
make them more docile and less likely to make the same mistakes as the Rusties, and end up destroying the world.
At the end of the previous book The Smoke has been destroyed
and all but Tally and David have been taken back to the city by Special
Circumstances. By the time Tally and David go to rescue them, Shay has already
had the operation and David's father Az has been killed in an experimental
operation to try and alter his memories. They manage to rescue Maddy (David's
mother), Croy, Astrix, Ryde and the newly-pretty Shay. Hiding out back at the
Rusty Ruins, Maddy thinks she has come up with a cure that will get rid of the
brain lesions and allow Pretties to think clearly again. Shay refuses to take
the cure and Maddy is unwilling to test it on someone without their consent, so
Tally decides to go back to the city and give herself up, in order to be turned
so that she can then be rescued and they can test the cure on her.
At the beginning of this book Tally is a Pretty and is living
in New Pretty Town. Tally is trying to come up with an outfit for a party she
is going to that evening when she gets a ping from Shay saying that the
dress code has been changed from semi-formal to costume. Tally is hoping to get
voted into the Crims, one of the most popular cliques in New Pretty Town and
wants to dress to impress. Tally and Shay decide to go as Smokies, the most
criminal costume they can think of.
During this book Tally and Zane, one of the Crims, take any
opportunity to try and make themselves feel 'bubbly'. Whilst they are feeling
bubbly they basically have a clearer head and start remembering things from
their ugly days, thus making the brain lesions have a lesser effect on them.
In one particularly bubbly moment Tally and Zane find two pills left for Tally
by Croy which are Maddy's cure to the lesions. Not knowing they are supposed to
be taken together, Tally and Zane take one each which leaves them both feeling
very bubbly indeed.
I like how in this book we get to see the city from an
entirely new perspective. 'Uglies' was very much set in the world of Uglyville
and The Smoke and we only got a glimpse of New Pretty Town, but this book is almost
entirely set there. Tally is very much trying to shake off the
pretty-mindedness and become herself again. It's almost like she’s back at
square one trying to remember what happened in The Smoke and what the Specials
have done to them.
I liked Tally's continuing character development in this
book. There are some great new characters as well, especially Zane and Fausto.
We also get to see a bit more of Peris in this book which was nice. There was a
very predictable love-triangle between Tally, Zane and David but I felt like it
wasn't just there for the sake of having a love-triangle in a YA novel. I think
it helped with Tally’s character development as it is touched upon that she
doesn't feel the same way about David because time has passed, not because Zane
is a pretty.
I think this was a great second instalment to this series
and I can’t wait to see where it goes in ‘Specials’.
I would give this book 4 stars :)
Let me know your thoughts about this series in the comments!
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