Pretties is the second novel in the Uglies trilogy. Written by Scott Westerfeld, it continues the story of protagonist Tally Youngblood, who turns "pretty" to infiltrate New Pretty Town.
.jpg) 1st edition cover | |
| Author | Scott Westerfeld |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The Uglies Trilogy |
| Genre | Young adult |
| Publisher | Simon Pulse |
Publication date | May 5 2005 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 370 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-316-70129-7 {{isbn}}: Check isbn value: invalid character (help) |
| Followed by | Specials |
Throughout this book it explains Tally's journey as a Pretty and her new relationship with her boyfriend Zane who is also the leader of the Crims.
Plot
Template:Spoiler On the night of joining the Crims, a clique for bruahh Pretties who played lots of tricks in their Ugly days, Tally sees Croy, a Smokey, who said he had something to give her. He said that he hid the package at "Valentino 317", which isn't a real room at Valentino Mansion. The next day, she meets Zane for breakfast, they talk but don't each much, and then they kiss. Then she tells him her encounter with Croy and where her "package" was supposed to be. He decides to come along with her to get the package, so they leave their interface rings behind. At Valentino Mansion, they go up to the roof, and climb a large antennae to get a key to open the door to Valentino 317, which they found.
She discovers that it is a note she wrote to herself back when she was an Ugly. The note was meant for her to read when she was a Pretty and explained that she had given her consent to test a cure for the lesions built into an Ugly during their surgery to become a Pretty. The lesions were meant for Pretties to be dumb. It also made them forget a lot of things about their past. The letter came with a cure which was two pills to take. Because the note said that the cure was "untested" and "brain-dead is bad", she is afraid and the Specials are coming. Zane rushes her to take the pills because if she dosen't the Specials might get them out of her. He says if she won't than he will. Then they take them together hoping for the best.
Right after they take the pills, they kiss, and the Specials come. Unable to think of a good excuse for why they were on the roof of a building without their interface rings, the Specials give them interface cuffs, which can call from anywhere, even in buildings where the walls don't talk. These cuffs are also impossible to remove. Other people think that they are cool and wear fake ones.
The Crims also get flash tattoos on their faces, a trend started by Tally. The tattoos move with their heartbeat and if they are "Bubbly". Being "Bubbly" is how the Pretties describe an adrenaline rush, which briefly negates the lesions. Zane and Tally figure out how to become "Bubbly" by kissing each other, or not eating and taking a pill which Pretties use as a weight loss pill.
After an incident that occurred in which Tally and Zane create a break in a floating ice skating rink (which was done to get the Smokies' attention), the Crims have a party. At the party Zane gets a headache (because of the cure) and Tally sends him home. On her way back to the party Tally encounters Dr. Cable, the Special that ruined and manipulated both Zane and Tally's lives. She asks Tally to become a Special, but Tally refuses. When Tally returns to the party Shay tells Tally how much she thinks she's changed since Tally has been starting to hang out with Zane. Tally reveals to Shay about the pills that she and Zane took together and Shay gets upset. She starts remembering everything bad that Tally did to her when they were uglies, and becomes angry at Tally for not giving the cure to her. Shay yells at Tally, which draws the attention of other Crims, and they both leave. Days later while it's raining, Tally and Zane decide to go hoverboarding. They meet two Uglies from Tally's past, Sussy and Dex, and they tell them that they have seen Pretties outside of New Pretty Town, together, in a garden. Zane and Tally discover Shay and several other Crims and Pretties cutting themselves with knives. Tally realizes Shay has created another way to stay Bubbly and another way to cure herself.
So Zane, Tally, Fausto and many other Crims from New Pretty Town escape to go find the New Smoke and get the cure. They also go to find a cure for Zane's horribe headaches (which is later discovered that the pill he took started eating out his brain).Before leaving Tally figures out a way to get the interface bracelets off her and Zane while they are on the hot air balloons escaping form the city. As soon as she gets them off and as they reach the edge of the city, it is time to leave. Zane tells her he loves her and kisses her right before he jumps off the balloon with his hoverboard. She is touched by his words but had no time to think as time was drawing near. She says goodbye to Peris as he told her he didn't want to leave New Pretty Town. After jumping off the balloon waiting for her hoverboard (which is suppoesed to catch her) she gets lost in a jungle near the Rusty Ruins and breaks her hoverboard. She finds a village which has people that can't speak her language. She finds the village's "holy man" and he tells her that she is a god. They travel to 'the edge of the world' where she finds these dolls that won't let her go past without killing her.He tells her the only way she can get out is by hovercar. The Specials come to give supplies to the villiage. She steals a hovercar and gets to The New Smoke and meets David instead of Zane. They look at each other and say hi. It's rather weird because she vaguely remebers David, but not that he was so ugly. He can't believe how much she changed and if it is her.
Tally encounters David and it is very awkward between them. He realizes Tally's new relationship with Zane and that she doesn't feel the same about him anymore (she even remarks how ugly he seems). Maddy, David's mother, informs Tally on why there were two pills. One was to give you nanoprobes to clear the lesions, and one to stop the nanoprobes. Then they figure out she took the ones to stop them and that it did nothing to her brain, that Tally had cured herself. The story ends when shortly after their arrival to The New Smoke, Specials arrive and The New Smoke is destroyed. The Smokies leave and when David asks her to leave Zane and go before the Specials arrive she refuses and tells him to "get your ugly face out of here!" His mom says that it won't matter if she stays that she still has the leasion but is cured. Dr. Cable comes and says that she had stopped the nanoprobes in Zane's mind and how the tracker (how they found The New Smoke) gave him feelings (headaches) like he was cured. Then when Tally sees a hoverboard coming down with a Special she sees the Special is....Shay. She explains that the Cutters and her are a new branch of Specials that can look however they want but still a little bit of a cruel Pretty. Then she asked Tally to join the Cutters but she refuses. Then Shay says she can force her to become one and she does. The last words Tally hear as she slips into unconciousness are "Face it, Tally-wa, you're Special."