PRETTIES by Scott Westerfeld

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Westerfeld, Scott. 2005. PRETTIES. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN 0689865392

PLOT SUMMARY/CRITICAL ANALYSIS

PRETTIES tells the story of a futuristic world where at the young age of sixteen the teens undergo surgery to transform their looks.  In hopes of transforming from “uglies” to “pretties”.  Tally Youngblood is a girl caught in the middle of this she struggles with the decision to become perfect and beautiful or to leave the world she knows and not alter her looks.  After struggling with herself Tally opts to have the surgery as part of an experiment.  However after she is happy with her new self and has no desire to continue with the experiment and find a cure.  A person from Tally’s “ugly life” shows up and with a message from her “ugly life” except she does not want to listen. 

Westerfeld’s novel is dystopian fiction which focuses on social structures in life. Technology such as these high tech surgeries is very apparent throughout this futuristic novel.  The characters of this book are multidimensional with all of the changes they undergo both physically and mentally.  In a 2005 review, School Library Journal states: “His characters are multidimensional, especially Tally, who wrestles with what she has done in the past and what she will be forced to do in the future.”

Readers will be able to relate to the struggles of Tally and the other teens in this series.  Teens go through many of the same struggles as the characters of this book on one level or another.  Readers will be able to also relate to the characters wanting to be perfect and pretty in order to fit in with a particular group.  As well as the struggles of dealing with one of their friends leaving them and crossing over into a different group.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

*SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, December 2005

*BOOKLIST, September 2005

*HORN BOOK, April 2006

*KIRKUS REVIEW, October 2005

*SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “Westerfeld has built a masterfully complex and vivid civilization. His characters are multidimensional, especially Tally, who wrestles with what she has done in the past and what she will be forced to do in the future. Uglies and Pretties are both nearly impossible to put down.”

Exemplary or Favorite Lines

*“It’s just programming.”

“No.  It’s because I love him.”

*“There was a species of middle pretty who smiles at everything: happy smile, disappointed smile, you’re-in-trouble smile.

*“And over all those weeks, the dream always ended the same way, with the dragon coming for the princess saying the same words every time…Face it, Tally-wa, you’re Special.”