Dear Friends,
I recently finished the book Pretties by Scott Westerfield. It was a good book even though I didn’t read the first book Uglies, I was still able to understand it because I could infer with some of the flashbacks or the characters remembering and I thought that was really good.
This book reminded me of The Giver. That is because they are both kind of have the same idea of a Utopia. In Pretties they make everyone beautiful and have the same ideas with no bad emotions. Compared to The Giver where they have no real emotions and just see in color. The Government/ the head people controls everyone and they have no way to fight back really because they don’t see what’s wrong with it.
The character development of David was big. At first he was just someone from her old Ugly life. Throughout the book though, he delivers her secret messages and helps her remember her past. He also helps her realize what she wants to do with her future. David also causes fights in the book. It is because of him that Tally and Shay become Friends- turned-enemies. He also makes her make a hard decision. Leave Zane, or rescue herself.
The genre of this book is scientific fiction. That is because nothing in this book could happen in real life… yet. They are able to transform everyone and put special pieces into their brains so they do not remember bad memories. They also are able to make everyone strong and fast. They have no bad emotion and do not get hurt very easily. They also all talk the same way and have the same ideas.
I would say the theme of the book is it doesn’t matter what you look like it matters who you are on the inside. That really comes out in this book because everyone is pretty so that is nothing special. What makes you special is your memories and if you have actually ever done anything fun in your life. If everyone is pretty, or when everyone was ugly looks had nothing to do with who you are. You had to do something out of the ordinary, sometimes risky to get noticed or to be the best.
In this book there are no resolutions to the main character Tally’s problems. For every solution, there is then another problem to go with it. Some examples are, when she turned pretty she lost her memories. When she got her memories and wanted to go back, she couldn’t. Once she got Zane, he got sick. Once she escaped, she got caught. There has not yet been a solution to her problems and I do not know if there will ever be including in the next book Specials.
The part that interested me was when Tally had a dream and it said, “So, there was this beautiful princess. She was locked in a high tower, one with stone walls and cold, empty rooms that couldn’t talk; there was no elevator or even fire stairs, so Tally wondered how the princess had gotten up there. But there she was, at the top. The tower was guarded by a dragon. Even dreaming, she recognized exactly what the dragon was, it was a cruel pretty, an agent of Special Circumstances, or maybe a bunch of them all rolled into one gray and silk-scaled serpent.
That struck me because it explains almost the whole book. That is because, she is a Pretty now and she is locked in that world with no real choices. Each day goes by and it is all surface level no one is very deep. Except, there are some special people. They can remember. In this town though, you aren’t supposed to or else you will get taken away by Special Circumstances.
I liked the way the author included details from the previous book Uglies. I think that was good because then you can read the books in different order and still get what is going on. I also like that because then I got to infer what I thought had happened and in my opinion made it more fun to read then since then I could relate to it better.
I think this book was really good. It was really good because it had action and made you really think about stuff on a deeper level. I would recommend it to girls.
Sincerely,
Sarah Fields
