Despite having loved Uglies, I spent much of the time feeling disappointed while reading Pretties.
The relationship between Zane and Tally never felt natural or convincing in the way her relationship with David was. The book retreads too much territory covered in the first book, merely changing the nature of tricks while tediously avoiding progress and revelation about the world and its social conflict. It only got interesting to me about 4/5ths of the way through... and even then, there were no surprises because the twists Westerfeld uses were all on display in Uglies, and this book follows formula rather than significantly expanding the mythos.
That said - I do like the series, and have high hopes for book 3. Its just a shame that you have to read book 2 to get there.
I rate it 3 of 5, based on the momentum of book one.

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Finally, a sequel that does not disappoint!

Tally finally has all she ever wanted: She's pretty, she's popular, she's in the coolest clique in New Pretty Town. What could possibly go wrong now?

Nothing does...until the night of the coolest costume party ever when a blast from the past shows up and leaves her a mystery to follow. All of a sudden Tally and her new friend Zane not only have a mystery to solve, but two tiny white pills to take...and no clue what they will do to them.

Once again Westerfeld has whisked us off to a sci-fi adventure world with more twists and turns that even a Hoverboard can handle. I can't wait to read the next book!

Five stars!!!

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Very good sequel to Uglies. Can't wait to read the next in the series, Specials.

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The story didn't seem to cover as much substance in this one as the first one, but worth reading. Goes quickly.

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2nd Book in Trilogy (Uglies is first and Specials is 3rd).

As good as, if not better than, the first one.

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I really enjoyed this book. I read this one before Uglies, and enjoyed it the most out of the series. I really liked the unexpected language used by the pretties. Recommended.

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Would it be worth it to have no war - worth it to be "pretty-minded" all the time (always fuzzy headed and never able to think clearly)? Obviously those people in charge of this world think so. And Tally herself starts wondering if perhaps they are right. It's a scary thought that in some ways it makes sense. But no, it would be too high a price to pay.

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The first book and the beginning of this book was great. It was captivating and different. But the end was annoying...***SPOILER ALERT****

The main character has escaped the city, then came back to rescue her friends. Next she escapes with her friends and decides to go back to the city only to escape again. And the annoying part was at the end of this book after she escapes the city she decides to go back again. The next book will be about her friends trying to rescue her or get her to escape again. Are you kidding me? I mean the author changes it up a bit, but it turned me off and I barely want to read the next book.

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First of all, this trilogy is nowhere near as good as "The Hunger Games," so lower your expectations. Still- I'm not sure why I have seen so many reviews hating on the second book in comparison to the first. To me, the first book was entertaining but very flawed. Same with the second.

\\SOME (mostly vague) SPOILERS IN THIS GRAPH:
Granted, perhaps because I didn't love the characters (Tally is no Katniss) I was less disappointed by Scott Westerfeld's decision to completely shift gear on the teenage romance subplot in "Pretties." (I do think that was a deliberate decision on Westerfeld's part, since he includes some fairly obvious commentary late in the book about how it's possible to fall in love with one person, and then as you keep growing up and changing, fall in love with another.)
//END SPOILER WARNING.

This book still includes some interesting ongoing commentary on society, human nature, and (although he's reaching a bit for this one) even gender stereotypes. Westerfeld's made-up jargon ("bubbly" and attaching "-making" to create an adjective, as in "pretty-making" or "panic-making," for example) is annoying and his plotting remains as shallow as it was in the first book (it just stands out more here, since he's relying on his past world-building).

I can't highly recommend this book or this series, but it's an interesting concept and fast read, so I wouldn't call reading these books a waste of time.

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thoroughly enjoyed.

If you enjoyed hunger games, you would like this series!

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