Book Review: Uglies

So, first off, hi. I haven't blogged in a while, and I'm really sorry about that. (Yup, I'm sorry to all ONE of my readers. Yes, Stefanie, I'm looking at you.) But I came back to talk about this awesome book that I just read, called Uglies, by Scott Westerfield.

Uglies takes place in a world that revolves around looks. From ages 12-15, you are considered an Ugly. Everyone. People are repelled by your face. It sounds harsh, but it's true. However, on your sixteenth birthday, you undergo an operation in which you are entirely reformed. You are turned into a Pretty, and you are rebuilt, from the shape of your bones all the way down to the color of your eyes. You then get to move from Uglysville to New Pretty Town, where the only requirement is to have fun with a whole bunch of other beautiful people. Sounds like a dream come true, right?

It certainly does for Tally Youngblood. Her best friend, Peris, is now a Pretty, and she wants nothing more than to become just like him. She has to pass the time by playing a bunch of immature tricks, just staying occupied until her time comes. But then she meets Shay, an Ugly who's different. Shay doesn't want to become a Pretty. She would rather keep her face and run away to someplace secret, where everybody chose that path. Shay runs away, but that doesn't mean she's out of Tally's life- far from it.

On her sixteenth birthday, Tally is ready to be operated on, but Special Circumstances has other ideas. They offer Tally a very difficult choice- find her friend and turn her in, or never become a Pretty. Ever.

Tally decides to go follow Shay, and that's when she finds the Smoke, and a whole new way of living. It's also where she realizes that maybe real beauty lies under the skin... and that inner beauty might be the price to pay for outer beauty. Being a Pretty toys with your brain, Tally learns, and changes who you are as a person entirely. That's when she decides to safeguard herself, and anyone else possible, from this fate. How? She gives written consent that, as a Pretty, she will take a pill that might make her brain function normally.

And then the book ends.

I want to read Pretties, the sequel, ever so badly!!!!! It sounds wicked awesome, and that cliffhanger just leaves you on EDGE, man! Amazing book! It really gives insight on what being beautiful really means, where the human race is going with their obsession over looks, and asks the question: What makes us an Ugly, and what makes us a Pretty? The superficial undertones of the Pretty world offer a shocking metaphor about the obsession humans have with outer beauty, and, along with Tally, we see that world as a wonderful, desirable place to be. That's how we all start out, isn't it? But as Tally learns the truth about how meaningless, twisted, and plastic the Pretty world is, we share in that same distaste for it. We feel her sacrifice as she decides to become pretty, even though, at first glance, it doesn't seem like a bad thing. Still, it's a heavy price to pay, and once we can see that comparison of how we all consider ourselves "ugly" and want something more, yet once "pretty", it changes your entire personality..... once you see that comparison, everything is sparklingly clear, and the work becomes a truly genius piece.

-Patty ♥☼♪♫