Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

4.75 of 5 Stars!!!

GoodReads Description:

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 Review:
As one of the first Dystopian books, I owe a lot to Scott Westerfeld. His novel has opened a whole new door for this genre, and has evolved into such amazing works as The Hunger Games series as well as all the other Dystopias coming out. Scott really got the world thinking it seems, and this book was absolutely wonderful. 


Uglies is an interesting portrayal of what our world could become. Right now, our whole world (mainly in the USA, but also all over the whole world) There is an obsession with looking beautiful. There is very little acceptance of people as who they are. We always have to be skinnier, tanner, blonder, or something else. Uglies is kind of a fear of what will happen eventually if we keep this up. Now I'm not going to lie, I've been tempted to go under the knife. I have always been uncomfortable with the shape of a certain body part, and have longed to fit in better with it more shapely. However, the issue that is more important in the book is the blind following of the people due to brain control. I would NEVER give up control of my life and emotions in order to be pretty. 


I didn't really identify with Tally at first. I thought she was stupid and naive and weak. When she just gave into the Special's demands I thought that she was ridiculous. I believe that if given the choice I would have left with Shay immediately, but then I thought deeper on the matter. If you were raised your whole life, being psychologically damaged into believing that you were hideous, and that all your dreams would come true when you turned "Pretty", then all of that was ripped away, what would you do? All of your friends, all of your family are living their lives and you're stuck there with kids years younger than you and you'll never change. Ouch...that would be pretty depressing. So eventually I identified with Tally a little bit for her hardships. 


As much as I loved it, I did have a few small problems with it. The plot was VERY predictable. You knew basically everything that was going to happen about two chapters before it did. Only the very basic details were left unclear. It made the whole thing kind of boring, if it is possible to be bored while extremely interested in something at the same time lol. Also, the language in the book was a little childish. I have a huge pet peeve of authors dumbing down books for young adult or teen readers, and this book is kind of guilty of it. There wasn't anything obvious about the childishness, it was more of a gradual thing.All in all, a very enjoyable book. I bought this one, then bought the next two in the series to know what happened. Buy it, borrow it, steal it...well maybe not that....but if you haven't read it, you should. 


~Andra~