Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Book 1

Genre: futuristic
Pages: 448
Age: YA
Published: 2005

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?


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.

(fantastic fiction...I so need to write my own blurb one of these days, but in a hurry as usual)

Finally a YA that made me think more than ok, this was a good book that had a depth to it. A scary new world after we have destroyed ours. It's a world where everyone gets pretty when they are 16 and then they live happily ever after. Now what is wrong with that? Well all the pretties seems to have no mind of their own, and they all have the same look in a way. It's supposed to stop people from hating each other, and that is good. But no one has a personality except from being pretty. It's not a world where I would like to live.

Tally is like all the other kids, she hates being ugly, and she cannot wait for her operation. I find myself liking her, I cannot help it. She is a good heroine that does what she thinks is right. And she grows as a person through out the book, and she learns the meaning of ugly, and pretty. The she meets Shay who doesn't want to have the operation. I am rather partial to Shay. Then there is the mysterious David, the one who frees the uglies. Him I like.

We learn how we destroyed the earth, oh that was creepy and made me fearful. One big accident. Because of this a new world was built, where pretty rule. I like his critique on society here. It gives the book depth and meaning. It's not just some futuristic YA book, I really understand why it became as big as it did. It's not like the other YA books I have read lately, and the subject fits the age group perfectly. I do not know if it would have worked as good with an adult theme.

I do recommend this book, it will make you think, and it's nicely written. Of course I read it in Swedish so I can't say where and how the translation played in. That is made is easier or things like that. Because if this was a good book, then is sure must be better in it's original language. Westerfeld is a good author and I really want to read book 2 now. Too bad I didn't pick it up the day it came to the library. If I had only known. This one restored my hope in YA again.

It has a good cast, a good story, and that depth behind it makes it a good book. And I do like a book that makes me think and feel. I am happy with my read.