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Pretties
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Uglies: Book 2

Pretties (2005) (edit title/settings)

by Scott Westerfeld (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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... read more

Summary edit see section history

Tally is enjoying life as a new pretty, hoping to be voted into Shay's "Crims" clique, when the party she is at gets crashed by Croy, a Smokie who brings back fading memories of her time in the wild. With the help of Zane, leader of the Crims, Tally follows Croy's instructions to climb a... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Tally is enjoying life as a new pretty, hoping to be voted into Shay's "Crims" clique, when the party she is at gets crashed by Croy, a Smokie who brings back fading memories of her time in the wild. With the help of Zane, leader of the Crims, Tally follows Croy's instructions to climb a building and retrieve something, and the adrenalin of the climb and of falling for Zane helps her to remember the Smoke in much more detail. At the top of the climb, Tally retrieves two pills - the cure for the pretty brain lesions - and panics about taking them. To avoid detection before the Specials arrive, Tally and Zane agree to split the cure, each taking one of the pills.

The pills quickly cure the pair of them, although they are affected differently, with Zane's cure apparently more effective, but having the side effect of crippling headaches. Suspicious of Tally's unusual behaviour, the Specials fit her and Zane with tracking cuffs, which spy on them constantly and thwart their plans to escape together to the New Smoke. However, they still encourage the other Crims to make themselves "bubbly" with adrenalin and caffeine, both of which help to combat the affect of the lesions. This culminates in a prank which results in all the Crims falling onto a football field during the pre-game fireworks, making the clique famous.

The prank also has some unintended consequences. With the adrenalin rush, Shay remembers Tally's betrayal of the Smoke and breaks off their friendship. The prank also attracts the attention of Dr Cable, who offers Tally a job as a Special, which Tally strongly refuses. Several days later, Tally and Zane decide to journey into Uglytown to try and contact the New Smoke, and meet up with Sussy and Dex, uglies who helped Tally break the Smokies out of Special Circumstances. Sussy and Dex inform Tally and Zane that the New Smoke has recently returned to the Rusty Ruins, and then take them to see Shay, who, with some other Crims, has formed a clique based around self-harm, which she calls the Cutters.

Suddenly, Zane collapses from one of his headaches, and Tally insists on taking him to the hospital, although they mask their real reason for going there. Zane realises that he desperately needs Maddy's help to cure himself, and threatens to use an industrial tool to remove the cuff, in spite of the risk it would destroy his entire arm. Just before he can go through with the plan, Tally realises that they could use heat to expand the cuffs and remove them. The Crims steal a hot air balloon and Tally and Zane use heat proof gloves to remove the cuffs safely before jumping from the balloon with hoverboards. Tally, the last to jump, is distracted by Peris who has changed his mind about escaping, and chooses to stay, is too late to jump over the city's metal grid.

Instead, she jumps over a river, and lands safely but breaks her hoverboard in the process. Walking through the forest, she is shocked to discover a pre-Rusty tribe living there, existing in a state of constant warfare with nearby tribes and viewing pretties as gods. She befriends the tribe's holy man, Andrew Simpson Smith, and realises that the group is an anthropology project used to study violence and test the effectiveness of the pretty lesions on a violent mind. Tally encourages Andrew Simpson Smith to escape from the boundaries set for him, and to ignore the false gods, and with his help she steals the hovercraft of a visiting pretty scientist and flies to the Rusty Ruins.

At the Rusty Ruins, Tally is met by David, an awkward reunion as she reacts instinctively to his unsurged face. As they travel to the New Smoke together, Tally becomes increasingly conflicted between her old feelings for David and her new feelings for Zane. When they arrive, she learns that Zane has suffered severe damage from the nanorobots in the cure, which Tally's pill was intended to stop from happening - Tally's pill in fact had no effect on the lesions whatsoever, and the cure she experienced was self-motivated. Fortunately, the damage is not permanent, and Tally resolves to help Zane recover.

However, the Smokies suddenly realise a tracking signal has been activated, which is hidden inside Zane's tooth with no chance of removal. The New Smoke must move on, leaving Zane behind, and Tally insists on staying with him, realising that she truly loves him and needs to help him recover. David feels hurt by this, and tries to making her leave, accusing her of choosing Zane merely for his looks, so Tally insults him to make him leave her behind. The Specials arrive, with Shay and the Cutters having been turned into a new clique of Specials, and Shay informs Tally that, rather than return to her pretty life, Tally will become Special.

Characters edit see section history

  • Tally Youngblood: The protagonist of the story. She is a new pretty. She continuously feels that she doesn't belong to this world of parties and shallow excitement although she tries to fit in.
  • Zane: Tally's new love and fellow Pretty. Described as being tall, with golden eyes and black hair. He has much in common with Tally. Leader of the Crims. Even as a pretty, he seems different in some way...more alive.
  • Shay: Tally's best friend and fellow Crim. Shay instinctively rebels against authority and is a natural leader because of her easy confidence.
  • David: David, a Smokie, is still in love with Tally from when she was an ugly. He represents the influence of a world outside the government controlled city.
  • Peris: Tally's best friend. He is part of the Crims. They have been friends since they were littilies.
  • Maddy: David's mother. She invented the cure. Doesn't approve of Tally.
  • Dr. Cable: Head of Special Circumstances. It's her job to protect the people of the city from outside influences like David and the Smokies.
  • Croy: One of David's best friends.
  • Andrew Simpson Smith: The holy man in a pre-Rusty village outside of the city.
  • Fausto: Friend of Peris who is also part of the Crims
  • Ho: Add a description of this character.
  • Dr. Remmy Anders
  • Count Volger
  • Sussy
  • Az
  • Dex
  • Young Blood
  • Dr. Valen
  • Alek
Show all 19 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Get your ugly face out of here!”
    Tally
  • “Bubbly is bogus.”
    Zane
  • “A milli-Helen is enough beauty to launch exactly one ship.”
    Zane
  • “...her hangover, which was sprawled in her head like an overweight cat, sullen and squishy and disinclined to budge.”
    author
  • “well, this is bogus.”
    Zane
  • “its so bubbly!”
  • “For girls, though, the definition simply exploded, as definitions usually did here in New Pretty Town.”
    pg. 3, Narration
  • “...because Tally Youngblood was a natural crim.”
    Narrator
  • “You didn't need an operation to make you stuck up and full of yourself. You already were!”
    Shay
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at least try to grow your own brain. Otherwise, you might as well be living on a reservation, worshipping a bunch of bogus gods.
    Highlighted by 72 Kindle customers
  • Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless.
    Highlighted by 67 Kindle customers
  • nature didn’t need an operation to make it beautiful, it just was.
    Highlighted by 58 Kindle customers
  • Sometimes it felt like her life was a series of falls from ever-greater heights.
    Highlighted by 52 Kindle customers
  • The beauty of the world . . . has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.
    Highlighted by 50 Kindle customers
  • She started spending more time looking out the window than at her own reflection, as is often the case with troublesome girls.
    Highlighted by 48 Kindle customers
  • “Pretty? Think again.” She smiled. “I’m Tally Youngblood. My mind is very ugly. And I’m taking your car.”
    Highlighted by 44 Kindle customers
  • Maybe she’d always been bubbly, somewhere inside. It only took loving someone—or being in the wild, or maybe just a plunge into freezing water—to bring it out.
    Highlighted by 42 Kindle customers
  • “Tally, everyone in the city is manipulated. The purpose of everything we’re taught is to make us afraid of change.
    Highlighted by 38 Kindle customers
  • and kisses are a better fate than wisdom —e. e. cummings, “since feeling is first”
    Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers
Show all 19 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • New Pretty Town: Once you turn 16 and have the operation, you move to New Pretty Town, a high-tech, fun-filled town where they throw parties every night
  • Uglyville: The place where littlies go when they turn 12. They stay there until the age of 16, when they undergo the operation and move to New Pretty Town.
  • Rusty Ruins: This is based on what today's world looks like, but in ruins - skeletons of buildings everywhere, and cars from before the big disaster. Thought to possibly be Seattle, WA.
  • Valentino Mansion: Where some Pretties live. One of the best buildings to live in. It is old and the walls are made of stone.
  • Komachi Mansion: The place where both Tally and Shay live.

Organizations edit see section history

  • Crims: New Pretties that had a criminal history back when they were Uglies. Many cause trouble when they are Pretties.
  • Special Circumstances: An organization that makes sure nothing harms the city from the outside. They are superhuman.

First Sentence edit see section history

"Getting dressed was always the hardest part of the afternoon."

Table of Contents edit see section history

I. Part One: Sleeping Beauty
1. Criminal
2. Bash
3. Lurker
4. Fall
5. Zane
6. Bubbly-Making
7. Valentino 317
8. The High Tower
9. Note to Self

II. Part Two: The Cure
1. Breakthrough
2. Bounce
3. Party Crash
4. The Dragon
5. Breakup
6. Rain
7. Cutters
8. Ritual
9. Hospital
10. Crusher
11. Hijacking
12. Burner
13. The City's Edge

III. Part Three: Outside
1. Descent
2. Alone
3. Hunt
4. Young Blood
5. Revenge
6. Food of the Gods
7. The Edge of the World
8. Holy Day
9. The Ruins
10. Faces
11. Damage Control
12. Cold Water
13. Tracker
14. Specials
15. Bogus Dreams

Glossary edit see section history

  • Uglies: The Uglies are those people who are under 16 who have not had the operation to make them "Pretty." Uglies look like what everyday people like, but because they are seen as so ugly to the Pretties, they must live in a separate town called Uglyville which is like an academy type thing.
  • Pretties: The Pretties are those who have had the operation to make them "pretty." The Pretties are exceedingly good looking and their main job is to party and have a good time.
  • Bubbly: Basically means a postitive feeling, like giddiness or happiness, staying clear and excited.
  • bogus: Total opposite of bubbly. Not good or cool.
  • Specials: Beautiful people who have been operated on to look cruel and authoritative. Most people do not even believe they exist.
  • Happy-Making: Pretty talk for being happy or is happy
  • Sad-Making: Pretty talk for being sad or is sad
  • Milli-Helen: What Zane measures beauty in. Is a reference to Helen of Troy, whose beauty caused a war that launched a thousand ships. According to Zane: "A milli-Helen is enough beauty to launch exactly one ship".
  • Pretty-minded or Pretty-headed: Being how the government wants you to be, and just having fun and not caring about other stuff.
  • Bubblehead: A term meaning you are a "pretty", that you are an airhead.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Be Yourself: Instead of changing yourself to become "bubbly", be yourself and let no one change who you are. You are beautiful in your own way already.
  • Fight The Government: The character's world is set where the government makes the rules and everyone goes along with it. If you don't follow those rules, there are consequences. Tally learns to speak for herself and fights that governement. Theme: It's good to follow rules and agree with the governement. But don't agree to much and become brain dead. Think, Analyze, Understand, and Come Up With Your Perspective .
  • Dystopian Government: Describe this theme.
  • Beauty

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 2 of 5 in Uglies. (standard series)

Preceded by Uglies, and followed by Specials.

This is book 194 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 191 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Scott Westerfeld (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 978-1-4169-1729-8
Page Count: 370

Classification edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Mild language, violence.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Uglies
  • Specials
  • Extras
  • The Giver
  • The Sky Inside
  • Feed
  • The House of the Scorpion
  • Z for Zachariah
  • Unwind
  • The Bar Code Tattoo
  • Revealing Eden
  • Delirium

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Uglies

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