Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

        My summary:
In a world hundreds of years more advanced than our own, Tally Youngblood is finally about to be turned pretty--what happens to all sixteen year-olds on their birthday. An operation will turn her from a normal "ugly" into a perfect, beautiful, and stronger being and she will finally get to move over the river into New Pretty Town where it's nothing but carefree fun 24/7.


But a few weeks before her birthday, Tally meets Shay. Her new friend has decided she doesn't want the operation and therefore she runs away before she is made pretty. The "special" pretty authorities step in and send Tally on a mission to find her delinquent friend. Should Tally refuse to cooperate, she will remain an ugly forever.

Torn between betraying a friend or giving up her long-awaited operation, Tally's choice ultimately reveals secrets about the Pretties that will change Tally's way of thinking--and her life--forever.


I had heard such great things about this book but for whatever reason, I was always skeptical to read it. Now I can't believe I passed by it so many times and never picked it up. It immediately sucked me in--a mere 15pg. into the book and I was already hooked--intrigued by the mentioning of things like the "toothbrush pill," talking bridges that kept out intruders, voice-automated elevators and interface rings. This was my first science fiction/dystopia genre book and I loved thinking about what our world could be hundreds of years from now.

I will admit that in the beginning of the book I was clueless as to what was going on. Talk of interface rings and other ridiculously high-tech inventions had me baffled and feeling lost. Luckily everything ended up being explained pretty quickly or was easy enough to decipher even with little info given.


Tally's journey is filled with action and with the outcome of her choices comes plenty of suspense. Both the characters and the settings in Uglies were described quite vividly--I could see pretty much everything in my head while reading, which is important to me in any book. Westerfeld's writing is put together nicely and I can't find anything negative to say about it!


Overall I was very, very unexpectedly pleased with this novel. It ended up being the perfect book for me to start with in it's genre because it leaves me wanting to read more dystopic (is that even a word?)-type books. I will definitely read it's sequel, Pretties, as well as others in the science fiction area.


I definitely recommend Uglies, even if it isn't your type of read. I was skeptical at first and I loved it. You won't be disappointed!

9 comments:

Dahlia (TheBookShopaholic) said...

Wow. 5 Stars, I should consider reading this.

Andrea said...

Great review! I love the Uglies series as well, esp. this one.

Marce said...

Ok this has been on my TBR list, I even called the book store but they didn't have. I must just order it now I want to read it NOW.

Great review :-) I think this is a series you will enjoy for sure. Let me get started.

Natascha De Marco said...

This is the best one out of the entire series. ^^

Natascha De Marco said...

OH BTW Super Contest at my blog ^^

Tales of Whimsy said...

Great review. I've heard such great things about this novel.

YA Book Queen said...

Awesome review! I totally agree too, I was so late on reading this series, but loved it when I finally did. ;)

A Passion For Books said...

Great review! I have these sitting on my shelf but I haven't had a chance to read them. I may just have to bump them up on my tbr list.

KIKA said...

I remember reading this series in highschool, I really enjoyed the uglies! glad you did too :)