Book Review: Uglies
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Uglies is a dystopian YA science ficiton novel set several hundred years in the future. The Rusties (us) have destroyed themselves. Now society is divided into the Uglies and the Pretties. Everyone is an Ugly and lives in Uglyville until they turn 16 years old. Then they have a plastic surgery that makes them pretty and move to New Pretty Town.
Tally Youngblood is about to turn 16 and can't wait to be pretty. She becomes friends with Shay who is also about to turn 16 and is involved with a rebel group of people who live outside of civilization in the Smoke and don't want to become pretty. When Shay runs away to live in the Smoke, Tally learns more about the pretty world than she ever wanted to know.
This novel raises familiar concepts about appearance versus substance in unique and interesting ways. Personally, I think the middle school and high school audience that this book was written for need to hear this message over and over again. Scott Westerfeld has built a fun, futuristic world in this book, which is the first of a trilogy. I'm looking forward to reading the second book, Pretties.
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