Which Genre? (Review 3)

If we are talking broad terms, I would put The Pretties in the speculative fiction genre. Speculative fiction, as we learned, is all about the question of “what if?” In this novel, the overall theme is what if you were required to have a surgery to make you pretty when you turned sixteen. More specifically, I would say this novel would fit into the dystopian fiction category. Dystopian fiction is “often set in a future or alternate version of our current history—as though it could be our logical outcome based on what is happening in the world today” according to the Speculative Fiction worksheet passed out last class. Today we see a growing number of people receiving plastic surgery which in theory, is altering their image to be what they see as prettier. Humans tend to care a lot about their self-image and how others view them. A lot of people would go to extreme measures for their body image to be perfect. So based on our world today, having a surgery when you are sixteen to remove all of your flaws is a pretty realistic thinking of what our future could come down to. I think The Pretties could also fall a little bit under the science fiction category. There are a lot of advances in technology seen throughout the novel. For example, they have futuristic technology such as hover boards or wrist bands that locate you in a snap. Westerfield also comes up with this idea of a tracking chip placed on your tooth! That may or may not be invented now, but it’s definitely not common or something we hear a lot about.

The Pretties Cover (Review 2, 1-153)

I think the cover the publishers chose for this book fits it well. The novel is centered on a girl as the main character and the majority of her face is the front cover. Her face is flawless and there is a sparkle in her right eye which really brings out the whole “I have chosen to become a pretty and no one can take that away from me” attitude built up from the first book in the series. Tally, the main female character, continues to grow in her new pretty world which fits the cover perfectly. The publishers gave her a serious face because most of the time Tally has a serious, daring tone she takes on throughout the novel. But I think they should have changed her stern mouth into more of a smirk because she has cheated the system in so many ways. I wouldn’t say Tally is all that honest and the face she currently has on the cover gives off the vibe of I have nothing to hide. For example, Tally has begun taking these illegal pills for a friend to kill the lesions off of her brain the surgery has caused. By killing the lesions, she will still have the appearance of a ‘pretty’ but she will think like her normal self. That is one of the many examples of how she has cheated the system in the Pretties.  The way the publishers took a large poster image and wrapped it around to the back cover is very different which makes this cover very unique. I haven’t seen many books with that type of image on the front. The image is very realistic and that is something I like about books covers.