The letter, written by Tally in the past, explains that the pretty surgery changes the human brain to make people more compliant. The two climb a communication tower to retrieve the key and inside the shed find a letter and two pills for Tally.

They climb onto the roof and find an old equipment shed with “Valentino 317” scratched on the side, but it is padlocked. Tally realizes that Valentino 317 used to be a room in Valentino Mansion but was replaced to make room for an elevator. They kiss and share information about Smoke before going to hunt down what Croy left for Tally. The next morning, Tally and Zane, leader of the Crims, have breakfast. She chases him down and he promises that he has left her something hidden in “Valentino 317.” There, Tally encounters an “ugly” from Smoke named Croy, who flees when the surveillance group Special Circumstances arrives to apprehend him. They are going to a costume party that members of the Crims social group attend. She and her friend Shay dress as Smokies, members of a rebel group living outside of the city that both Tally and Shay were associated with in Uglies.

Tally Youngblood, the protagonist of Uglies and a new pretty, wakes up after a night of partying. Set in a seemingly utopian future in which everyone over the age of 16 is beautiful and most illness has been eradicated, the novel Pretties begins in New Pretty Town, where young “pretties”-those who have undergone the beautifying surgery-lead lives of leisure. This study guide uses the Simon Pulse first edition paperback copy of the book.

Westerfeld pretties