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Genre: Sci Fi Main characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay, David Time and place: Dystopian future First sentence: The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit. Summary: The novel is set somewhere in the future, when our current way of life has failed and a new civilisation was born out of its ruins. They try to do everything better than “the Rusties” (a.k.a. us), so they believe in recycling, renewable energy, fixed population and so on. Everyone is scheduled to undergo surgery once they turn sixteen, a surgery meant to make one immune to most diseases and at the same time very beautiful. A few weeks before her own surgery, Tally is looking forward to it and to the moment she will be able to mingle with her older friends again. But then she meets Shay, another girl on the verge of change but with a completely different outlook on life: she believes that all this turning people into looking the same is plain wrong, and, what’s more, it sort of depersonalizes everyone. She tells Tally about a city where people go when they don’t want to be “turned pretty”. But can Tally give up her dream? |
I did like all of the main characters. Tally, the one who has never known there was another world outside her own, but easily adapts when the need arises (perhaps a bit too easy? I cannot even begin to imagine how it must be to come from a life of having everything you might want at the tips of your fingers and end up living very much like people did centuries ago). Shay, the determined one, the fighter (and even the smarter one in my book given her ruminations on what does becoming beautiful entail; it can be argued, of course, that she’s had a lot more time than Tally did to get used to the idea). And David too, the legend, the exotic character that has never known what modern life, life inside a city, looks like.
I have found the author’s take on society quite interesting because of its let’s call it duality. On the outside, the pretties: beautiful people made so in the name of equality, in the name of mutual benefit. Parties, endless food, unlimited clothing, anyone has everything one might want. However, dig a bit deeper and dark secrets begin to appear: a Big Brother type of leadership, wanting to keep anyone under control. Making it all a lot more believable than it was while I was seeing only the outside layer :) (I may be cynical but I don’t quite believe in egalitarian societies simply because some people are always going to want to be “more equal” than the rest).
Were I to rate this book I have no idea how I would do it. I liked it and some of the ideas in it, of course, but I wasn’t smitten. Among other things it seemed to me a bit forced at times. For me Tally has adapted a bit too fast to the life “out there” — sure, she was a brave kid to begin with, but everything was very new to her (in an unpleasant way) and, given that she had a choice, I was surprised to see her choose the path she did (well, not exactly surprised since to be honest it all was quite predictable, but her motivations seemed to me to be a bit lacking). Not to mention the romance: as most heroines, Tally also finds love — but it too seemed a bit forced and a bit too fast coming for it to be truly believable (although I liked the fact that the author has taken the trouble to explain in detail the reasons why the guy fell for Tally). Nevertheless, were I to draw a line at the end, I would state, again, that I did like the book despite its shortcomings. It held me on the edge of my chair at some times and my heart filled with Tally’s distress at others — what more can anyone want from a book? :)
An (almost random) quote:
In the city, she’d owned lots of things — practically anything she wanted came out of the wall. But city things were disposable and replaceable, as interchangeable as the t-shirt, jacket, and skirt combination of dorm uniforms. Here, in the Smoke, objects grew old, carrying their histories with them in dings and scratches and tatters.
What I liked most: The whole idea of making everyone looking approximately the same so there’ll be no more discrimination on physical reasons. Extra points for taking into account all the “pre-programmed” stuff, such as having good skin makes people unconsciously think the owner is healthy, or having a certain set of eyes makes the owner seem vulnerable yet trustworthy and so on. Not to mention the whole idea of normal people seeing themselves as ugly because they kept comparing themselves with the beautiful ones and, of course, came up short (interesting because, among other things, it goes to show how relative the idea of beauty actually is; as stated in the book, in a world of only beautiful people no one is truly beautiful since everyone’s the same).
What I liked least: The ending!! I hate it when the authors do that — just stop whenever the action was getting even more interesting! I know the book was supposed to be a part of a trilogy but I would really have liked it a lot better if it made sense as a standalone book too (like Outlander for example, or Harry Potter) rather than this. It leaves me as a reader feeling very… unfulfilled.
Recommend it to? Anyone. It’s a fast read and quite interesting too.
See also
The Wikipedia article about a Twilight Zone episode that may have inspired the book
This book is followed by:
Pretties
Specials
Written by the same author:
The Secret Hour
Touching Darkness
Blue Noon
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Popularity: 12% [?]
Several friends of mine have read this book, but they didn’t reccommend it to me. I’ve been thinking about reading it anyway, even though it doesn’t sound like my type of book.