Pretties by Scott Westerfield
Reviewed by BridgetRatings
Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content
LANGUAGE
VIOLENCE
SEXUAL CONTENT
ADULT THEMES
Ratings Explanation
Language: Tally has to “pee”. “Why does everything suck?” Tally swears at her hover board.
Violence: Shay and her clique of “Cutters” cut themselves with knives to overcome their bubbliness. (Graphic Description) “They all watched, and then, one by one, they cut themselves. And as each did so, their faces transformed to become more like Shay’s: ecstatic and insane.”
Sexual Content: “Peris had warned Tally about sex….maybe it was time. She had been here a month and Zane was special.” Tally and Zane kiss many times. Zane tells Tally, “It is a pleasure garden, I’ve spent my share of time in here.” “Worst was the absence of Zane’s body next to her. She’d stayed with him every night for the last month, and they’d spent most of every day together.” She places her hand on “his bare chest”. Zane and Tally huddle together for warmth. Tally lies on top of Zane while hover boarding.
Adult Themes: “You didn’t surge again, did you? You’re not supposed to more than once a week.” (Plastic Surgery Enhancements) “We could smoke tobacco.” Tally and Zane each take a one pill to cure them of being pretty. Tally and Zane limit their food consumption and live on coffee as a way to overcome the “bubbliness”, the lesions on their brains. They both become very thin.
Summary
Tally has been transformed into a pretty. She really wants to become a part of the “Crims” clique. Croy, a Smokie, finds her at a Pretty Party and leaves clues to her past life in The Smoke. Zane, the leader of the “Crims” clique, joins Tally in a search for her past. Zane and Tally split the cure and each take one pill to cure the pretty brain lesions. The pills cure them of their brain lesions, however, they are affected differently. Zane has crippling headaches, while Tally seems to be fine. The Specials are suspicious of Tally and Zane and fit them with tracking cuffs, to spy on them. As leaders of the “Crim” clique, they encourage the clique to consume caffeine and expose themselves to adrenalin rushes to combat the brain lesions. Tally’s friend, Shay remembers Tally’s betrayal in the Smoke and is no longer Tally’s friend. Shay leads a group of “Crims” and shows them how to cure their brain lesions, by cutting themselves with knives. They are “Cutters”.
Dr. Cable tries to recruit Tally to become a Special. (The Enforcing Unit in their society.) Zane, suffering from headaches, goes to the hospital for care. A tracking device is implanted in his tooth. Tally and Zane use the heat from the tools in a blown glass studio to remove the tracking cuffs from their wrists. The Crims steal a hot air balloon for their escape. Tally misses the jump off point and falls into a river. She now has to travel overland to find “The New Smoke”. She encounters a pre-rusty tribe living primitively in the woods. The tribe’s holy man, Andrew Simpson Smith, guides her to the “edge of the world.” Tally realizes the group is an anthropology project used to study violence. Tally steals a hovercraft belonging to an anthropologist.
Tally meets up with David in the Rusty Ruins. David brings Tally to “The New Smoke”, where she finds Zane struggling for his life. The pill he took is destroying his brain. Tally realizes that Zane’s tooth has a tracking signal that has been activated. There is no chance for removal. The New Smoke must flee. Tally chooses to stay with Zane, instead of David. The “Cutters” have been turned into new “Specials”. Shay arrives to capture Tally and inform her that she will become a “Special”.
I really enjoyed the FIRST book in this series. However, the strong moral values you receive in the first book are completely obliterated in the second book. This could have been a great story, without the overt sexual content and violence. I am also very concerned with the “cutting/self-mutilation”. I do not recommend this book for the age group it is marketed to (Grades 6-10). However, if you choose to read this book, proceed with caution.
©2010 The Literate Mother