Pretties is the sequel to Uglies (review) and can be found in Young Adult. I am recommending it for girls in High School. The Junior High girls will like it also, but there are a couple things to be aware of.
New Pretties drink and drink heavily. Any party is an intoxicated party. New Pretties regularly wake up with hangovers and quickly take the “cure” so they can begin drinking again. It might seem gratuitous at first, but there is actually a reason for the drinking. The New Pretties are not aware of the reason. Special Circumstances encourages the drinking because alcohol numbs the senses. Alcohol keeps the New Pretties under control.
Pleasure, like intoxication, keeps the New Pretties content and under control. New Pretty Town consists of co-ed dorms and pleasure gardens. There are no rules against co-habitation and everyone uses the pleasure gardens. Our heroine, Tally, actually lives with her New Pretty boyfriend, Zane, for a couple months, but there is no sex mentioned. The author goes no further than a few well-placed and important kisses. There is nothing as powerful as a New Pretty’s first love.
In Uglies the reader was allowed to experience the life of an Ugly and a Smoky through Tally Youngblood. Tally discovers that the mandatory surgery given to 16-year-olds goes deeper than making the teens physically pretty. The surgery also alters the brain – they receive a small lobotomy. Rebel doctors have found a cure, but it needs testing. At the end of Uglies, Tally offers herself as a guinea pig. She will turn herself in to Special Circumstances, become pretty, and then take the cure. There is major obstacle – Tally will not remember her previous convictions.
Reading a book about New Pretties can be annoying. It is kind of like listening to a Valley Girl in the 1980s OR watching the movie Clueless from the 90s. For example: This champagne is so dizzy-making. Your eyes earn 500 milli-Helens. I hate semi-formals; they are so bogus. I prefer black tie. You know what to wear. Jumping out of that Hot Air balloon was so bubbly-making. Let’s be best friends forever. Right? Get the point?
What I find interesting … while alcohol and pleasure numb the senses and satisfy the masses, there are some actions that actually focus the brain and heighten the senses. Tally and Zane discover moments of clarity when their lives are put at risk. They climb a tower without safety devices, approach death’s door, but come away remembering elements of their time as trick-playing Uglies.
Tally remembers her mission, but she still needs to find a way out of New Pretty Town without drawing attention to herself and she wants to save as many of her friends as possible. She escaped once. She can escape again.
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