Pretties - Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld's bio- and bliography

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Genre : Science-Fiction - Young Adults

American publisher : Simon Pulse : 8,99$

English publisher : Simon & Schuster Childrens Books : 6,99£

Synopsis : After many misadventures and new developments, Tally has finally become a Pretty. No more worries for her, except trying to become a Crim, a click of Pretties who organize tricks to remain "bubbly". Because, unfortunately, Pretties have the regrettable tendency to forget what they used to do before the surgery. Tally meets Zane, the chief of all the Crims, and they fall in love with each other, and they will follow together a really dangerous path. All begins when Tally receives a letter written by herself back when she was an Ugly. With this letter, two pills, but The Special Circumstances are on their way. Zane and Tally take a pill each, and then begins a long journey to the New Smoke. But the way is ful of traps...

A passage I liked : The Cutters

" Shay took the knife with her left hand and placed its edge  against her right forearm, the wet etal gleaming. She raised both arms, turning slowly, fixing each of the others with her burning gaze. Then she looked up into the rain.

The movement was so slight that Tally hardly saw it from her hiding place, but she knew what had happened from the reactions of the others. Their bodies shuddered, eyes widening with horrified fascination - like Tally, they couldn't look away.

Then she saw the blood begin to trickle from the wound. It ran thinly in the rain, spreading down Shay's upraised arm and onto her shoulder, reaching her shirt, spreading a color that was more pink than red.

She turned around once to give them all a good look, her slow, deliberate movements as disturbing as the blood running down her arm. The others were shivering visibly now, shooting furtive glances at one another.

Shay finally lowered her arm, swaying a little on her feet, and held out the knife. Ho stepped forward to take it from her, and she took his place in the circle.

" What is this? " Zane whispered.

Tally shook her head and closed her eyes. The rain became suddenly deafening around her, but she heard her own words through the torrent. "This is Shay's new cure.""

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More stirring than Uglies. The story progresses a lot, but Tally is stuck with her conscience. She 's got the role of the scapegoat. Everyone turns against her, but she's not responsible for what happens, from the beginning.

But if you like happy-ends, you won't find that in this series. With this second volume, you can't help feeling there's something missing again. i only hope that the third one will have a more positive ending, otherwise it'll make me depressed;o)

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