Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
First Published: 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 348
Rating: 4*
This book is available on Amazon.co.uk at £6.99 in paperback and £4.99 in kindle edition. (Prices correct as of January 2016) Pretties on Amazon.co.uk
After Reading Uglies, I couldn't wait to get into the next book in the quartet and started immediately. The first book, Uglies ended with a bit of a cliff hanger leaving me wondering what the fate of the characters was to be. It was very easy to get attached to this book straight away, and the adventure started early on too.
I was equally impressed with the cover of this book as I was for Uglies. As I said in my previous blog post, I have the 2011 editions of this quartet which are white covers with an image and some metallic details. This cover continues with the same theme as the content of the first book and has 'nip and tuck' markings on a set of legs in metallic silver. I believe that these lines link from the silver scalpel that appeared on the first cover in the series. The legs look perfect enough, so before you start the book you're already wondering why surgery needs to take place when the body is attractive and healthy to start with.
This book focuses on several important themes including the commercialization and commodification of our everyday way of life. Westerfeld effectively comments on our world where we take things for advantage on page 97.
"Sipping her coffee, Tally told the hole in the wall to make their usual skating ensembles: heavy plastic jackets lined with fake rabbit fur; knee-padded pants for bad falls; black scarves; and, most important, thick gloves that reached halfway to their elbows."
Westerfeld compares the convenience of their situation to our ATMs, effectively showing us how our culture has evolved, and what it could evolve into in the future. Within the statement I have extracted from the book, Westerfeld uses every word to describe their eases and luxuriousness. Tally casually sips on her coffee while the futuristic invention prepares her magnificent 'usual' ensembles. Heavy jackets with fake fur. Thick gloves, padded pants. He describes the epitome of luxury and convenience. His description helps to create a large contrast between the characters locations. For example, in 'The Smoke' the characters have to kill animals to eat whereas in 'New Pretty Town' they wear fake fur.
To further comment on our ruthless, hungry culture, Westerfeld writes on page 128:-
"Left alone, human beings are a plague. They multiply relentlessly, consuming every resource, destroying everything they touch."
Although this novel is YA novel, you can't help but see the direct description of the problems we are facing in our world today. We are facing illnesses to a new scale such as Alzheimer's and Cancer. We are struggling with an aging population due to our advanced health care and disease prevention. We are facing a crisis with non-renewable energy as our race has practically used all the Earth has to give us, and we kill animals for food despite there being proficient alternatives.
Another message that I believe to be important is captured within the thoughts of the main character on page 153.
"Tally wondered if she'd had that much fun as an ugly. All she could recall from those days was dying to turn pretty, to get across the river and leave all this behind."
We can feel Tally's nostalgia and her regret at not enjoying her childhood. I think that most teens and young adult struggle with the thought that they didn't appreciate earlier times in their lives, especially when they are facing changes and growing up. I believe that Westerfeld is conveying mindfulness to his readers, telling them subtly to live in the moment and to be grateful for the memories we have.
*Warning - Rant*
Despite my obvious enthusiasm for this series, I think that Westerfeld has been irresponsible with some if the issues raised within the last half of the book. The writing suggests the glorification of self-harm on page 165.
" Shay took the knife with her left hand and placed its edge against her right forearm, the wet metal gleaming...Then she saw 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."
This statement is the first (and not the last) time self-harm or cutting is mentioned within the series. The idea of what they are doing would be acceptable if it wasn't for the fact that what they are doing has strong links with mental health and mental illnesses. These books are written for teenagers and teenagers are very impressionable and vulnerable, not to mention the mood swings and hormone levels they are dealing with. Westerfeld has created a clique in the book and they are admired. They believe that the action of cutting themselves makes them better and special in some way finding a cure for the brain modification they have undergone. I feel it is insensitive to use such a real and life threatening action within the book when mental illness is stigmatized and profoundly misunderstood. It is backwards and thoughtless for a contemporary writer to tear down any real information children have on self injury and replace it with a group ritual of initiation. I am very disappointed with Scott Westerfeld with this element of the book and although I understand what he is doing, I feel it is in the wrong book, for the wrong age group. There are plenty of other initiation rituals that he could have used alternately such as the cutting of a palm that the characters did in the first book to show friendship. I checked the front and the back of the book to see if any information was provided for those who may have been effected by issues within the book and there is nothing. There is no information, helplines or websites. I don't really know what else I can say on the matter apart from the fact the self-injury is falsely and irresponsibly represented in this book. If you have read the book or are affected by the issues I have raised, please take look at the links I will post at the end of the blog.
Despite this, I still like the book and gave it 4*. The events that unfold continue to be adventurous and the setting changes fairly regularly which stops various locations becoming boring. One thing that bothered me was the use of 'pretty-talk' which became tiresome. However it is clever how Westerfeld used language to distinguish different levels of consciousness. It is simple and effective, however it starts to be a bit annoying after a while - although I don't think it will effect younger readers as much as it did me. i think because I was aware of it, I noticed it all the more.
The characters continue to develop within the book to various stages in their worlds. When I had finished this book, I was excited to start the third in the series, 'Specials'.
Links
Specials review coming soon...
Love Charlie, Xx
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