Uglies {Book Review}

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Series Order

1. Uglies
2. Pretties
3. Specials
4. Extras (companion novel told from different POV)

This book in 6 words:

would you want to blend in?

Why did I read this?

I had heard about Uglies from Pure Imagination who had given it 5 stars. After finishing Peeps, I knew I had to read more by Scott Westerfeld! The opening line didn’t hurt:

The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.

Brief Summary

Tally Youngblood is the youngest of her friends and must wait an agonizing 3 more months until she can transform from an Ugly to a Pretty. See in Tally’s world everyone must wait until their 16th birthday to receive the extreme surgery to transform them into biologically-determined, perfectly, stunningly beautiful young adults. Tally cannot imagine not wanting this future that has been planned for until she meets Shay and David, Uglies who don’t want to be Pretty. Now she must decide for herself what future she wants. Will she betray her new friends to become Pretty or will she choose to live in the wild as an Ugly forever?

Plot/Pacing/Setting

I’m convinced that Scott Westerfeld is a genius. He is my current author crush. The storyline is so believable that it is actually scary. Plastic surgery has become the norm. We no longer need to live with the large nose from our grandfathers. Will it really be that long before those who keep their big noses will be automatically considered ugly? Changing everyone into biologically perfect humans eliminates the need for discrimination based on appearance. But do we really all want to look alike?

The story is extremely action-packed. I was flipping the pages to fast that I often hit the Next button too quickly and had to go back lol. But don’t think that means that there isn’t a deeper story. The emotional turmoil in the story is so real. I actually felt anxious reading about Tally’s tough decisions.

His world is so well described that I could imagine visiting it.  I can see how our ruins contrast with their shiny new world. I never felt that it was too extreme or unbelievable while still finding it creative and innovative.

Characters

Tally is my favorite teen female lead. She is tough and smart, while still having normal teenage weaknesses. We get to watch her grow-up in the most difficult way possible. I will admit that it is hard to judge her solely based on Uglies having already read Pretties and Specials. Shay and David are great supporting characters that will grow in the next couple of books.

Favorite Quote : If only people were smarter, evolved enough to treat everyone the same even if they looked different. Looked ugly.

Recommendations

I am highly recommending this to anyone who likes YA or YA Fantasy. I will be telling some of the high school girls I tutor to pick it up.

Going Deeper (NO spoilers)

This book touches on so many important topics that I’m not sure how to talk about them all! Concept of beauty, stereotyping, government control, loyalty, relationships, conserving the environment, peer pressure…

I agree that a lot of what we consider “beautiful” is taught to us. The media tells us what is beautiful and we are more drawn to that. Would all of us looking the same really change that? I’m not sure. I’d think we would as humans find a new way to separate ourselves from others, always needing a way to be better than others.

I’m a large fan of individual rights and freedoms versus government control. The idea of not just my job or social standard, but MY FACE being picked by the government does not sit well with me.

I’m not even going to start with peer pressure or loyalty, other than to say that I believe the author did a fantastic job of accurately portraying this in a teenage world.