Uglies - Scott Westerfield

About the book

Uglies Series #1 - Scott Westerfield

Publishing Date: May 2006

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Young Adult

Format: Nook Book

Synopsis from BN.com

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

My Thoughts:

When I first read the synopsis for Uglies, I thought about how similar it is to what young kids today think about themselves because of society. It's amazing how our culture has led us to think looking a certain way is considered beauty and if you don't look that way then you are ugly. 

In Uglies, Scott Westerfield has written a story about a futuristic world where when teenagers turn 16 they go through an operation that basically rebuilds them to make them go from "ugly" to "pretty". From the years between the age of 12 and their 16th birthday, these kids constantly dream of becoming pretty and living in New Pretty Town where everyone is beautiful. Once they've had the surgery, they no longer look back at Uglyville and their friends. They think everything outside of New Pretty Town is just hideous.

Tally Youngblood has been dreaming about the day she turns 16 and becomes "pretty". She can't stand to be ugly. Now that her best friend Peris, who turns 16 before she does and becomes pretty is gone, she's not only ugly but also lonely; until the night she sneaks into New Pretty Town to see Peris and has to bungee float back to Uglyville in order not to get caught. This is when she meets Shay, her new best friend who will turn 16 on the same day Tally does. To Tally this means, she will not be lonely anymore and not only that, she will have someone to share the experience of planning her day of surgery with together and become pretty together. 

Shay, however has a different idea. Shay doesn't believe that you have to change yourself and doesn't want to go through the surgery. Right before her 16th birthday Shay decides to run away to the "Smokes" and leaves a cryptic message for Tally telling her how to get there if she decides to join her. This is where the story becomes fast paced. Tally has decisions to make, to stay ugly forever or to betray her friend and bring her back to Uglyville to have the surgery. What will Tally do? Whatever decision she makes will change her life forever.

I GIVE THIS BOOK

DISCLAIMER: I was in no way compensated to review this book. These are my opinions of a book in which I purchased on my own.