Synopsis: Tally has finally become 'pretty'. Her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are cool, her boyfriend's gorgeous, and she's completely popular. It's everything she's ever wanted. But beneath all the fun - the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom - is a nagging feeling that something's wrong.

Review:The second part of Westerfield's trilogy about Tally Youngblood, set in a totalitarian dystopic future where social order is maintained through rigid stratification into 'Uglies' or 'Pretties'. Like all compliant 16 year-olds, Tally was surgically modified to perfect beauty, perfect health and great longevity, when she become one of the Pretties, dedicated to pleasure-seeking, the ultimate emotion being 'bubbly'. Whereas the different Pretty subgroups are acceptable to society, all Uglies are outsiders. She and her friends have no obligations beyond partying. But Tally is different - before her surgery she had volunteered to be a test case for a cure which a group of rebels outside the city have created. When this is smuggled to her, she and her Pretty boyfriend share it, then escape. However, as in Uglies, manipulation and betrayal are rife in this apparently perfect society, and at the novel's end Tally seems not only to have lost her oldest friends, but to be on the point of entry into one of the most feared sectors of society. Through this disturbing sci-fi world Westerfield considers eternal questions, especially those relating to adolescents trying to establish their identity in a conformist world. Key Stage 3 and older readers will relate to many of the issues raised. Alcohol abuse is a constant and expected part of Pretty behaviour, while Shay, one of Tally's friends from Uglies, becomes a Cutter, a sub-group dedicated to enhancing their experience of life by ritual self harm. Disturbing stuff...

2006-10-05