Jean itibaren Chak 12/MR, Pakistan itibaren Chak 12/MR, Pakistan

** spoiler alert ** I enjoyed this more than the first novel in the trilogy. Although, there was a huge wave of déjà vu as I read through the book... Readers finally get a view into the life of a Pretty in New Pretty Town. The glamorous life of the beautiful obviously includes parties, booze, and fun, fun, fun! Everything as superficial as you can possibly think of, yet deliberately planned by the authorities on their part to be as so. The novel starts off with Tally Youngblood making her appearance along side Shay as a Pretty. They're getting ready to join a costume party with the other Pretties in town and to vote in Tally as a Crim - a super-cool clique that you can only get into if you were totally criminal and wild back in your Ugly days. Obviously, that screams out TALLY in every way. But unaware of what is to take place - her past once again reappears in the form of Croy's clues and tests leading her to her self-written letter. She brings a new character along for the ride; Zane, the thrill-seeking leader of the Crims, who ends up getting caught up in Tally's drama. They both wind up learning the truth about what it really means to become a Pretty and try to keep their clique as "bubbly" as possible, in hopes of deterring them from the Pretty-haze that the brain lesions cause. Though monitored at all times by the authorities with arm cuff interfaces, Tally and Zane manage to plot their rebellion under the radar. But when Zane's headaches get serious and Shay's cult of "Cutters" start to grow, Tally realizes that they need to leave the city once more. They needed to get word out to the New Smokies that the cure worked. Though their plan of removing their cuff interfaces was a success, the escape to the Ruins took an unexpected turn as Peris decided against leaving with them last minute, which left Tally's escape unplanned for. She jumped off the balloon into an uncalled-for area, only to discover a new group of people living in the wild, much more savage than the Smokies. They almost succeeded in killing her, but luckily, her Pretty face saved her life. And with the help of the holy one, she plans her detour back to the arranged meeting place at the Ruins. But during her stay at the reservation, she learns of the Special's experiment on these savages and how they (the Specials) came about developing the brain lesions. Tally finally meets at the rendezvous point, only to unexpectedly find David waiting for her. It was odd seeing each other after months of being apart. But much had changed during those months; how Tally became a Pretty and had developed feelings for Zane. Once at the New Smokie's camp, Tally learns of Zane's condition and what his headaches really meant. It was going to be okay, in hindsight, until a tracker gave away the location of the camp, and sent everyone scrambling to pack up and flee. But Zane couldn't leave, forcing Tally to make a choice; either run away with David and the others, or stay with Zane. Tally chose the latter out of love, and ended up meeting face-to-face with a old friend-turned Special... ~~~ About Tally and the David-Zane triangle, I seriously taught she was going to betray Zane and flee with David, given her past record of turning on people. I was expecting a familiar "Twilight-esque" decision of still having feelings for her first love. But to my surprise, she stayed with Zane, which I kind of like. And on to the topic of Shay...DAYUM. She is one crazy bitch. It was a wry sort of path she chose to go down, and I don't exactly blame her after receiving another blow of betrayal from her best friend Tally. The Cutters was an eerie take on an alternate form of the cure. And of course, it was fitting for Shay to be their leader. And then the ending of the second installment of the trilogy...wow. Let me say, that I did pretty much foreshadow this happening; that Shay would be a perfect candidate for enlisting into the Specials. But boy, how I really do like how it ended up screwing with Tally's almost-obtainable happy ending. Because up until this point, I thought the Specials were frustratingly stupid and naive to let Tally escape, TWICE, and cause copious amounts of trouble. I mean, for all the hype and reputation that they got from the world of the Uglies, they sure weren't living up to it, from my perspective. But yeah. For me, the series could have ended there and I would have been quite content, which sounds very cynical of me...but then I read the preview for the the third novel, and got disappointed. They obviously would turn Tally into a freakin' Special. Of course.

Dresden bashes his way through a horror-movie convention and rescues an enchantress from a faerie tower. Something is starting here that is part of a larger story.