Pretties (2015)
Pretties is a 2015 book written by Scott Westerfeld.
Tally Youngblood got what she wanted. She lives in New Pretty Town now, beautiful and adored, her days a blur of parties and bubbleheaded fun with the elite clique she always dreamed of joining. Something keeps snagging at the edges of that happiness, a restlessness the operation was supposed to erase. As Tally starts to piece together what the prettiness costs, the paradise she fought for begins to look like a cage with very good lighting. Scott Westerfeld continues his young adult dystopia with the same quick pulse and a sharper edge of dread.
Quick answers
What is Pretties about?
Tally Youngblood got what she wanted. She lives in New Pretty Town now, beautiful and adored, her days a blur of parties and bubbleheaded fun with the elite clique she always dreamed of joining. Something keeps snagging at the edges of that happiness, a restlessness the operation was supposed to erase. As Tally starts to piece together what the prettiness costs, the paradise she fought for begins to look like a cage with very good lighting. Scott Westerfeld continues his young adult dystopia with the same quick pulse and a sharper edge of dread.
When was Pretties published?
Pretties was published on 13 August 2015.
Who made Pretties?
Pretties was written by Scott Westerfeld.
A few thoughts on Pretties
Tally's gilded, hollow paradise echoes The Stepford Wives, where perfection turns out to be a form of control worn like a smile. The Black Mirror episode Nosedive lands in the same place, a bright world where fitting in becomes its own trap. Readers who like the momentum should try the Hunger Games films for another young woman waking up inside a system that flattered her first.
Dystopias where happiness is manufactured, not felt
Tally's restlessness in New Pretty Town comes from an operation meant to erase exactly that feeling, and these picks share that unease about contentment engineered rather than earned. A community medicated into flat, controlled emotion, a society that surgically removes the capacity for love, wives re-made into smiling compliance, and a satire about tech-driven conformity all ask what's left of a person once the friction is gone.
Rebels who see through the system after living inside its rewards
Tally got everything New Pretty Town promised and still can't shake the sense something's missing, and these picks share that arc of a privileged insider starting to notice the cracks. A tribute paraded through the Capitol's excess, a faction elite questioning her society's tests, a palace finalist inside a glittering competition, and a prodigy realizing her government's propaganda doesn't match what she's seen all turn insider access into doubt.