This one didn’t grab me right away, but about 1/4 or 1/3 of the way through it became a page-turner. Not that it wasn’t interesting at the beginning, but it was easy to put down.
This book takes place in a dystopian society where children are called “littlies” and adolescents are “uglies.” When uglies turn 16, they get an operation to turn them into “pretties.”
I get the premise, but what wasn’t immediately apparent was the reasoning behind it.
“Right, and things were so great back when everyone was ugly. Or did you miss that day in school?”This philosophy becomes clearer and clearer as the book goes on, but I wish the author had just come out and said that in the beginning.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Shay recited. “Everyone judged everyone else based on their appearance. People who were taller got better jobs, and people even voted for some politicians just because they weren’t quite as ugly as everybody else. Blah, blah, blah.”
“Yeah, and people killed one another over stuff like having different skin color.” Tally shook her head No matter how many times they repeated it at school, she’d never really quite believed that one.
I know this is just a book, so I just have to accept the premise to enjoy the story, blah, blah, but I really didn’t think that an entire society undergoing plastic surgery seemed plausible. I mean, the sheer expense of it all seems outrageous. On top of that, mortality rates would skyrocket after full-body cosmetic surgery. I imagine plenty of people would die under the knife.
Again, what the author didn’t mention is that technology and medicine are far enough advanced that they can actually extend life with these operations.
Do you see a pattern here? I wish the author had better explained a lot of elements of the story as they came up.
Moving on, Tally (the main character) has dreamed of becoming a pretty her whole life. Her best friend, Peris, became a pretty 3 months before Tally was scheduled for the operation.
In a stunt to visit her new “pretty” friend, Tally meets Shay. Both of them have been left behind by friends who became pretty or ran away (more on that later). The date of the operation varies based on one’s birthday. It turns out that Tally and Shay have the same birthday, so they will become pretties together.
The two spend time together, pulling some of their best tricks (tricks are usually stunts or pranks that uglies pull). Shay isn’t looking forward to her pretty operation like Tally is, and before they both turn 16, Shay runs away to escape the society of pretties and uglies.
I’ll interject here that I didn’t really know why Shay didn’t want to become a pretty. Mostly because her friends ran away and she met David and kind of fell in love with him, I suppose. But it seems kind of juvenile. Or at least not nearly as compelling a reason as why David’s parents ran away—which begs the question: how did they convince people to run away in the first place?
Back to the story, on the day of her operation, Tally waits for hours. Eventually, she is taken to Special Circumstances—a scary department that most uglies and pretties alike think is just an urban legend. She is scared out of her wits and blackmailed into following Shay so the authorities can find her and the other runaways.
I’ll let you read the rest of the book to learn where the story goes from there.
As far as characters go, I felt like they could have been developed further. Tally’s character sometimes seemed shallow and naïve, but other times she demonstrates deep convictions. I wished I knew more about Peris, since he is Tally’s first best friend. Shay also seemed to lack depth. David was probably the best developed character, I think.
The story ends on an awful cliffhanger. If my copy didn’t have a few pages’ preview of the next book, I might have died.
I hope I like the rest of the series as much as I enjoyed Uglies (despite my critiques), because now I’m in it for the long haul. I can’t not read the other books.
If you're not busy reading Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (the next in the series), might I recommend my pick for November:
Black Heels to Tractor Wheels—A Love Story
by Ree Drummond
I wanted a change of pace, and I thought this was just the ticket. Instead of another novel, this is a real-life romance! (not much of a change after all...)
After trying The Pioneer Woman's recipe for Baked French Toast, I was hooked. I have been keeping up with the cooking section of her blog ever since. I love PW's wit, spunk, and recipes. It seemed an obvious choice to read her book.
From Amazon: "Wildly popular award-winning blogger, accidental ranch wife, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman) tells the true story of her storybook romance that led her from the Los Angeles glitter to a cattle ranch in rural Oklahoma, and into the arms of her real-life Marlboro Man."
This one gets an average rating of 3.78 stars on Goodreads, 4.4 stars on Amazon, and 4 stars at Barnes & Noble. I hope I enjoy it as much! (and you, too)
See me next month for my review!
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