I purchased this book on Amazon. The concept sounded interesting and I had heard some good things so I decided to check it out.
Publication Date: February 8, 2005
GoodReads Summary:
Tally Youngblood is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait for the operation that turns everyone from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to party. But new friend Shay would rather hoverboard to "the Smoke" and be free. Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The "Special Circumstances" authority Dr Cable offers Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed reading this book. I think it brings up a lot of great questions about how we perceive ourselves and others, and I liked the environmental ethics angle as well. Westerfeld did a nice job with the world building here. The whole concept of creating "pretties" completely freaked me out, and I felt a distinct sense of horror every time the characters spoke so casually of the horrific procedure that leads to becoming pretty.
I did feel that some of the characters were a little flat throughout most of the book, especially Tally, but I did see growth there by the end of the book. For most of the book, I was more invested in the plot than the main character, which is unusual for me. Tally struck me as selfish, shallow and one dimensional, and I just couldn't make myself care what happened to her. It really bothered me that the most important thing in her world was getting this ridiculous surgery, so much so that she was willing to betray her only friend to get it. I was more invested in Shay, who seemed to have a lot more depth and frankly, a more appealing personality. By the end of the book, however, I noticed that I had started to identify with and care about Tally. She changed so much over the course of the book and I found myself hoping that she would be able to outrun the consequences of some of her bad choices.
At the end of the day I thought this series had an amazing premise, but to me this book was good, not great. It was fun to read, and it was definitely a page-turner, but I didn't feel like it was the kind of book that I would still be thinking about weeks after finishing it. It was really the dramatic ending of the book that compelled me to give Pretties, the next book in the series, a shot. As you'll see when I post that review, I am so, so glad that I stuck with this series!
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