Review: Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing  
Publication Date: February 8th 200
Pages: 425
Book Type: Paperback
Book Received by: Bought
Genre: Dystopian
Sub-Genres: Romance, Adventure, Young Adult, Friendships


Goodreads Amazon Barnes and Noble




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.
 
This is an exciting, well written story with a very powerful hidden meaning that makes you think about popular culture as a whole. 

The story takes place in a future world were everyone gets a surgery to become pretty at the age of 16, leading them to a life of beauty and happiness. Tally can't wait until her birthday when she can finally join her best friends in New Pretty Town. When her new friend Shay shares that she is going to run away to a city were you don't have to turn pretty the government forces her to use her knowledge of where Shay is to find and locate the town so it can once and for all be destroyed. 

One of my favorite parts of this story is the growth of Tally and how she begins to learn the truth of the pretty way of life. I also love the description of the world outside of the Pretty and Ugly towns, such as the town that Tally sets out to find, the Smoke, and the old Rusty towns (The remains of how we live presently) and how the adventure the characters take is presented.