Pretties is a novel written by Scott Westerfeld. Released in 2005, it is the second book in Westerfeld's Uglies series and tells of Tally becoming pretty.
Characters[]
- Tally
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
Simon Pulse edition
The second installment of Scott Westerfeld's New York Times bestselling and award-winning Uglies series—a global phenomenon that started the dystopian trend.
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.
Summary[]
But beneath all the fun - the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, and being together with all her friends at last - is a nagging sense that's something's not quite right. 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. And things became different all over again.
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 behavior, 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 effect of the lesions. This culminates in a prank which results in all the Crims falling onto a soccer field during the pre-game fireworks, making the clique famous.
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.
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 Uglyville 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. They begin cutting their arms with a knife to feel liberated from the numbness of lesions.
While hoverboarding, 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 realizes 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 of it destroying his entire arm. Just before he can go through with the plan, Tally realizes 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, and the distraction makes Tally miss the city's metal grid.
Instead, she jumps over a river, and lands safely but loses 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 realizes 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 a 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 "ugly" 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 nanobots 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 realize a tracking signal has been activated, which is hidden inside Zane's tooth with no chance of removal because it is connected to bone. The New Smoke must move on, leaving Zane behind, and Tally insists on staying with him, realizing that she truly loves him and needs to help him recover. David feels hurt by this, and tries to make 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.