Westerfeld, Scott - Pretties

[oyceter]

Second in a trilogy that started with Uglies.

Now that Tally has willingly undergone the brain-damaging operation that turned her into a Pretty, she doesn't really remember or care about most of the things that happened in Uglies. I admittedly am a bit annoyed at the reset button, especially since it means that the whole betrayal revelation with Shay has to happen... yet again! On the other hand, it's really interesting watching Tally struggle to keep herself again.

I liked Tally a lot more in this book, despite the Pretty factor. As an Ugly, she was sort of boring, and the entire "learn to live in the wilderness" factor isn't exactly my button, especially since living in the wilderness is always morally superior to city living. This irritates me because I like cities. Also, new designated love interest! This one was much more interesting than David, who read more as a symbol for the moral uprightness of the Smoke than an actual person.

I especially enjoyed the secret rebellion factors in the book, the secret communication between Tally and Zane, and all that jazz. I seem to disagree with most of the Amazon reviewers in that I think this is actually a more interesting book than Uglies, because everything here gets more complicated.

The whole big brain damage revelation of Uglies wasn't so surprising to me, so I very much liked how Westerfeld went on to explain why this system came about. And I liked the additional peeks into the social strata, why Uglies could so easily get around and play tricks and etc. And I very much liked how the battle this time was not so much a morality play (to betray or not to betray?), but more of an internal struggle to keep a grasp of Tally's inner self.

Also, I am totally amused that all the Pretties have beautiful jewel-colored eyes. I think this completely explains the stupidity of so many characters in romance novels and other Mary Sues. Obviously, they are all secret Pretties and completely brain dead.

Now the only problem is that I desperately want to read Specials.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Rachel liked the new Designated Love Interest better, too, I think; whereas I found David slightly better because interestingly flawed, but both of them mostly bored me. Tally's relationship with Shay seemed worked out a lot better. If this were a TV show, there would totally be Tally/Shay slash. Especially from Specials, to judge by the preview.

I liked Pretties better, too.

[oyceter]

I think it was the whole "struggling to keep brain working" thing that go tme in the end.

Oh man. There so should be Tally/Shay slash.

Part of me was slightly irritated about how Tally and Shay a) fought over guys, b) were opposites and rivals despite first being friends and c)... er... I ran out. Want more girl characters! Oh well...

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Part of me was slightly irritated about how Tally and Shay a) fought over guys, b) were opposites and rivals despite first being friends and c)... er... I ran out.

Oh, me too, me too! I was reading this last night and getting more and more irritated with the book for precisely that reason. I was inclined to think "self, you are just being picky, shut up" at first, but I remembered your attention to the relationships between the female characters in your reviews of kdramas and so on, and felt better about being irritated.

I hate how disposable Tally and Shay's friendship was. From the amount of screen time it got, I sort of felt that the friendship was just there as a plot device -- something to get Tally to do things and to allow Tally to experience betrayal and pain. At least in Pretties, you never see them actually hanging out and having fun, except in the first part of the book where they were being brain-dead pretties, whereas you get to watch Zane and Tally's relationship unfold in detail. Bah!

[oyceter]

I was inclined to think "self, you are just being picky, shut up" at first, but I remembered your attention to the relationships between the female characters in your reviews of kdramas and so on, and felt better about being irritated.

Hee, yes. I, um, tend to get very hung up on female relationships, especially because I have a lot of close female friends and a sister and... it's really important to me.

And yes, I felt like Westerfeld was doing a disservice to both Tally and Shay by having their relationship be in the background so much, especially since that's one of the most influential relationships in the books. Like, it's the thing that motivates Tally in the first place, and even outside of the feminist angle, the betrayals and pain and motivation would have been much more believable and affecting if we had gotten more depth from the relationship.