The Uglies

The Uglies
By: Scott Westerfeld

This book is a great read that took me on a suspenseful journey through a future world with Tally Youngblood. Set hundreds of years in the future, in a society created after human kind became an endangered species due to their own wars, this book paints a picture of a world where everyone is "ugly" until they turn 16 when they get surgery to make them "pretty." It is a rite of passage in this world. When a new government is established it is decided that in order to keep human beings from destroying themselves, there needs to be a controlled population of people who all looked the same- beautiful. They reason that if everyone is beautiful there will be no reason for war.

The story begins when we meet up with Tally a few weeks before her surgery. Tally is the last of her friends to turn 16 and she is anxiously awaiting her surgery so that she can rejoin them. I was immediately taken in by Tally because she is somewhat of a rebel and a daredevil. She sneaks into “New Pretty Town” to talk her friend Peris who has already had the surgery. I got a little bit of an adrenaline rush when Tally jumps off a roof wearing a bungee jacket, must like a life-vest, that pulls her up from the earth at the last second. Tally likes to push the limits and I really like this about her.

Tally meets another ugly named Shay who is also awaiting her surgery that will take place in a few weeks. Shay changes Tally’s world when she tells her of a place called The Smoke, where people choose not to become pretty. Intrigued by this place, Tally finds herself on a journey of betrayal and discovery to the Smoke. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Tally arrives in the Smoke and sees magazines of people from our current world, like Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, and only considers them to be mediocre in the looks category. She also considers our “super models” to be much too thin. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

While in The Smoke, Tally makes discoveries about what it means to become pretty that will cause her to re-think her decision. I’m not going to spoil the ending of the book for you, but I will let you know that I couldn’t wait to start the next book in the trilogy. The action in this book makes it a fast-paced, interesting read and made me think about my own standards of what it means to be pretty.

Jessica
Greenbrier Library