Paige Gallagher

Paige Gallagher

Pretties

Scott Westerfeld

Fiction

Just Right

Just Finished

1)   I have just finished the book Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. The ending was very exciting. It left me hanging and I hope to continue the series!  When I left      off Tally had just arrived at the New Smoke. She met up again with Zane there. She learned Zane had been sick for the past week. This is because he needed extra medicine to cure him of his pretty mindness. A tracker had been set off sending a message to the Smoke saying the Specials were coming. The Specials are people who want to destroy anyone who doesn’t want to become pretty. All the people at the Smoke fled but Zane needed to stay behind because he was too weak to run. Tally stayed behind with him to be a good friend. Then the Specials arrived taking the two away. To their surprise, Tally’s best friend Shay was there waiting for her.  Even worse, Shay had already become a special. Dr. Cable was also there telling Tally she now had to become a one too.

2    2) I really like this book and the series because it is very suspenseful. There is always a twist. You think you know the outcome and what might happen but then the exact opposite happens and you got tricked into believing the wrong thing. I love how When Tally returns to the Smoke she has feelings for David again. I like how it has a personal issue in the book to it makes the characters much more real and relatable. I like how the plot grows quickly and never slows until the very end. The author is pulling me in my leaving me hanging after every chapter making me want to keep reading and find out what happens next.

      3) A theme I have noticed in this book so far is Perseverance. In everything Tally does she keeps pushing through for herself and others. She faces so many challenges, but yet still keeps an open mind. This theme appears in Tally and in David. He keeps forgiving her and trying to understand what she’s going through. David is such a kind person that he perseveres and stands up for what he believes in. All of his friends admire him for that.

     4)  My favorite character is Shay. This is because she is always changing and its something you wouldn’t expect. She is always doing something new and is one step ahead of everyone.  I also like her because she is very relatable. She fights with Tally just like any girl would fight with her friend. She struggles with friendship issues and I think that makes her much more real and something you can connect with. Shay is also very stubborn which I can relate to because I can be very stubborn sometimes.

      5) My least favorite character is Maddy, David’s mother. I dislike her because she is very harsh on Tally. She also blames Tally for the death of her husband, even though Tally had nothing to do with it. She reprimands Tally for making a split second decision that cost her friend some pain. Maddy also tries to keep David away from Tally even though they both have feelings for each other. Overall I dislike Maddy because she is a hostile person. I think she’s this way because she’s felt a lot of pain and she’s taking it out on others. This isn’t the way to deal with pain but I can understand where Maddy is coming from.

      6) The resolution of the book is the fact that Tally gets an operation to become a special. I had expected this but not in the way it played out. Earlier in the book Dr. Cable offered Tally a spot on the specials team and Tally turned it down. I thought by the end of the book something would cause her to go back and take that spot. Instead she got caught in the New Smoke and was forced to become a special. I also had not expected that Tally’s best friend would be waiting there, already have become a special. The author did not give many clues to the ending until Dr. Cable offered Tally a spot. After that chapter I had expected the outcome to be this way.