What Happens To Tally In The Uglies Books? A Summary Of Pretties And Specials

17 September 2024, 09:23

By Sam Prance

The ending of Scott Westerfield's book trilogy Uglies, Pretties and Specials explained.

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You've watched Uglies on Netflix and can't wait to find out what happens to Tally next? Well, thankfully it's based on a whole trilogy of books. We're here to give you a summary of how the rest of Tally's story unfolds including who she ends up with.

For anyone new to Uglies, the Netflix film is based on a best-selling series of Scott Westerfeld books that came out between 2005 and 2007. Set in a world were plastic surgery is mandatory when you turn 16, the series follows a teenager called Tally Youngblood who challenges the status quo. Bar a few changes, Uglies remains pretty loyal to the book that it's based on.

Pretties and Specials explore what happens to Tally and the dystopian universe she lives in after the dramatic Uglies ending. Scroll down to find out exactly what Tally does in each of the Scott Westerfeld books and how the series ends.

Read more: Will There Be An Uglies 2? Pretties Movie Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Book Plot And News

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Pretties book summary: What happens?

At the start of Pretties, Tally has become a Pretty but she's forgotten everything from the first book. Croy diguises himself as a Special (Pretties with special enhancements who enforce the law) to let Tally know that he's left her a secret message to save her but Tally ignores it. Tally joins a clique called the Crims where she falls in love with a member called Zane.

However, Zane later tells Tally that he was friends with Croy and wanted to run away to The Smoke before his operation. Not only that but he regrets not doing it. Together, Zane and Tally decide to find Croy's message and it turns out to be a letter Tally wrote to herself explaining what happened along with pills to reverse the Pretty procedure.

Tally and Zane take the pills. Soon after Zane starts getting headaches and Zane and Tally try to find their old friends to look for a solution. The Old Smoke is gone but they find David who takes them to the New Smoke where Maddy says the pills were meant to be taken together. Tally is cured but Zane's pill is destroying his brain tissue.

They then realise that Zane has a tracker in him and they're about to be caught. Tally chooses to stay with Zane and David tries to stay with them. Worried about David getting caught, Tally tells him to "get his ugly face out of here". David flees.

At the end, Tally and Zane are caught by the Specials including Shay who is now a Special. The book ends with Shay saying: "Face it Tally-wa, you're special."

Pretties book summary: What happens? Picture: Netflix

Specials book summary: What happens?

Specials opens with Tally now living life as a Special. She is part of a clique called The Cutters started by Shay. To put a stop to the numbing effects of being a Pretty, they resort to self-harm which allows them to think clearly but they still have to do tasks for Dr. Cable. Due to Zane's brain injuries he hasn't been made a Special and Tally starts to be repulsed by him.

Later, Tally finds a city called Diego where people have taken the Pretty cure and live free from Pretty rules or expectations. Here, she takes Zane to hospital to have treatment and discovers that she is repulsed by him because of side effects from her Special operation. The other Cutters have their enhancements removed at the hospital but Tally keeps hers.

Dr. Cable then launches an attack on Diego where Zane dies. Grief-stricken, Tally is imprisoned but the Pretty cure spreads and Diego exposes the truth behind Dr. Cable's surgeries. Finally, Tally is taken to have her Special surgery removed but decides to run away.

Worried that Diego are ruining nature, she finds David and they live together in the wild committed to protecting the environment from mankind.

Specials book summary: What happens? Picture: Netflix / Alamy

If you can't get enough Uglies content, there's also a companion book to the trilogy called Extras which focuses on a brand new character named Aya Fuse. Tally pops up in that one as a guest character but it's a completely different story.