This bracing second entry follows straight from Tally’s stunning choice at the end of Uglies (Feb. 2005). Now mesmerizingly pretty from the high-tech surgery that everyone in this dystopian future receives at age 16, Tally and her friends have no obligations beyond partying. Being pretty includes being pretty-minded: “empty and lazy and vapid,” pleasure-focused, with everything seeming “vague and fuzzy.” A group of rebels outside the city may have a cure; Tally had volunteered (pre-surgery) to be the test case, but will her newly pretty brain agree with her old self? She and her boyfriend engineer a hot-air balloon escape, during which Tally gets separated from him and ends up in the woods, discovering ancient-type people kept alive in an alarming experiment. When she finally reaches the rebels, things go instantly wrong in a continuation of this series’ powerful theme of manipulation and betrayal. Exciting plot with intriguing technology—part three is eagerly awaited. (Science fiction. YA)
