Review: Uglies

by Scott Westerfeld
publisher: Simon Pulse
date published: February 8, 2005
format: hardcover
pages: 425
source: library
Amazon / Goodreads / B&N
challenges: Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge; 2011 YA Reading Challenge

From Goodreads:

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.

What I Thought

Uglies is a dystopian novel that takes a good look at the impact the idea of beauty and body image upon society. Tally Youngblood, an "Ugly," is on the cusp of turning 16 and receiving her first surgery, which will turn her into a "Pretty." Having been raised in a society where the ages between 12 and 16 are considered as a sort of limbo until the time to become beautiful arrives, Tally is a naive, shallow sort of girl already, as if she has been trained for the life of beauty, parties, and excess that awaits her. She, as well as the other residents of Uglyville, spends the majority of her time making disparaging comments about her own looks and the looks of others, playing pranks, and spying upon the residents of New Pretty Town. It isn't until she meets Shay, an Ugly who isn't content with the fate laid out for her, that Tally begins to learn about what really lies beneath the surface of this glittering world she so longs to join.

Watching Tally transform from a naive, misinformed girl into an independent young woman was a fantastic component of this story. She truly surprised me with the decision she made at the end of the story. I had fully expected her to go in an entirely different direction to arrive at the decision she made. However, it would seem that her relationship with her friend, Shay, and her feelings for David, the son of the founders of hte Smoke, seem to have changed Tally for the better. She was almot a completely different character by the time this book concluded. I liked her much more after watching her evolve.

Westerfeld has created a detailed, vibrant world that contains as much horror underneath the surface as it does frivolity. Even though it takes place in a post-disaster United States, the world is so changed that it seems almost alien. The accepted ideal of beauty is difficult to picture in the mind's eye and the make-up of the cities is so very futuristic that there is a sense of bleakness about the whole thing. Tally's journey to the Smoke and the life she begins to build there are bright spots that serve to provide a focus on just how wrong things have gone in the world. The propaganda fed to the citizens of the cities and the more sinister motives underneath it all are truly frightening and definitely left me with a sense of dread the further the story went.

I really enjoyed this book and wish I had picked it up sooner. Reading about Tally's adventures in Uglytown, the wilderness, the Smoke, and the Rusty Ruins provided hours of entertainment and the overall storyline provided a lot of food for thought. I will most definitely be picking up the next book, Pretties, from the library as soon as it is available. This is another series that has increased my interest in dystopian novels, which is definitely a good thing. I happily give Uglies 5 hoots.