Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication Date: February 2005
Publisher: Scholastic
Page Count: 425 pages
Genre: Young Adult / Science Fiction
From Goodreads.com
Playing on every teen's passionate desire to look as good as everybody else, Scott Westerfeld (Midnighters) projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The "New Pretties" are then free to play and party, while the younger "Uglies" look on enviously and spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay's cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy. But after finally reaching The Smoke she has a change of heart when her new lover David reveals to her the sinister secret behind becoming pretty. The fast-moving story is enlivened by many action sequences in the style of videogames, using intriguing inventions like hoverboards that use the rider's skateboard skills to skim through the air, and bungee jackets that make wild downward plunges survivable -- and fun. Behind all the commotion is the disturbing vision of our own society -- the Rusties -- visible only in rusting ruins after a virus destroyed all petroleum. Teens will be entranced, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them gasping for the sequel.
My Review:
I read this book with an open mind. I had a vague idea what it was about. I would never have purchased this book on my own. I got it as a Christmas gift from my sister. She said, "this seems like the kind of book you like to read." She was right in some cases, and wrong in others. This book was similar to what I enjoy to read by way of the characters, but it was also radically different by way of the subject matter. I am not a science fiction reader by any means. I have read a few in my day, Ender's Game being the one that I liked the most. (I recommend this to anyone, science fiction reader or not) The science fiction of Uglies was not difficult to understand and I was able to follow what was happening without getting caught up in what certain terms mean (which can happen very easily in science fiction).
My overall impression of this book was good. I enjoyed the characters and found myself rooting for them in the end. I liked the main character, Tally, even though I thought I wouldn't at first. In the beginning she seemed vain and desperate. I changed my mind about her when I started to see her growing up and coming into her own outside of the confines of Uglyville (yes, where they live when they are Uglies.)
A couple of times, while I was reading the book, people would ask me what it was about. In explaining to them, I felt very silly. Talking about a land of 'Littlies,' 'Uglies,' 'Pretties,' 'Specials,' 'Middle-Pretties,' 'Rusties,' and 'Crumblies,' made me sound like a crazy person. But when reading the book, I knew the culture, so it didn't seem as silly to me since I was reading about them. (Note: I fully realized how silly I sounded, when people looked at me funny mid-explanation).
I don't think it is a coincidence that Westerfeld chose to create a world where you were classified as an Ugly when you were ages 12-16. This is a time when most everyone in our world feels this way at some time or another.
I also found it interesting that this world was evolved from the world we live in now. To this new world we are the 'Rusties,' we use too much metal, we rely too heavily on oil. We fight; we dissent. In the land of the Pretties, these issues don't seem to arise. They have found new ways to produce and to build, there is no war, no dissent, everyone is compliant.
Becoming "Pretty" was made into a rite of passage. When you turned 16, your birthday was spent under anesthesiology, making you a Pretty. Without giving away too much, when Tally discovers a secret about becoming a Pretty, there is definitely more reasons that the 'government' wants them to do this. I think that the 'Pretty' piece was/is all just a reason to get people to submit to the procedure. Food for thought.
If any of this review has intrigued you, I would suggest picking up the book. It is a quick read, not a major endeavor at all.
I look forward to reading the other books in this series as soon as I can get my hands on some copies.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Playing on every teen's passionate desire to look as good as everybody else, Scott Westerfeld (Midnighters) projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The "New Pretties" are then free to play and party, while the younger "Uglies" look on enviously and spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay's cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy. But after finally reaching The Smoke she has a change of heart when her new lover David reveals to her the sinister secret behind becoming pretty. The fast-moving story is enlivened by many action sequences in the style of videogames, using intriguing inventions like hoverboards that use the rider's skateboard skills to skim through the air, and bungee jackets that make wild downward plunges survivable -- and fun. Behind all the commotion is the disturbing vision of our own society -- the Rusties -- visible only in rusting ruins after a virus destroyed all petroleum. Teens will be entranced, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them gasping for the sequel.
My Review:
I read this book with an open mind. I had a vague idea what it was about. I would never have purchased this book on my own. I got it as a Christmas gift from my sister. She said, "this seems like the kind of book you like to read." She was right in some cases, and wrong in others. This book was similar to what I enjoy to read by way of the characters, but it was also radically different by way of the subject matter. I am not a science fiction reader by any means. I have read a few in my day, Ender's Game being the one that I liked the most. (I recommend this to anyone, science fiction reader or not) The science fiction of Uglies was not difficult to understand and I was able to follow what was happening without getting caught up in what certain terms mean (which can happen very easily in science fiction).
My overall impression of this book was good. I enjoyed the characters and found myself rooting for them in the end. I liked the main character, Tally, even though I thought I wouldn't at first. In the beginning she seemed vain and desperate. I changed my mind about her when I started to see her growing up and coming into her own outside of the confines of Uglyville (yes, where they live when they are Uglies.)
A couple of times, while I was reading the book, people would ask me what it was about. In explaining to them, I felt very silly. Talking about a land of 'Littlies,' 'Uglies,' 'Pretties,' 'Specials,' 'Middle-Pretties,' 'Rusties,' and 'Crumblies,' made me sound like a crazy person. But when reading the book, I knew the culture, so it didn't seem as silly to me since I was reading about them. (Note: I fully realized how silly I sounded, when people looked at me funny mid-explanation).
I don't think it is a coincidence that Westerfeld chose to create a world where you were classified as an Ugly when you were ages 12-16. This is a time when most everyone in our world feels this way at some time or another.
I also found it interesting that this world was evolved from the world we live in now. To this new world we are the 'Rusties,' we use too much metal, we rely too heavily on oil. We fight; we dissent. In the land of the Pretties, these issues don't seem to arise. They have found new ways to produce and to build, there is no war, no dissent, everyone is compliant.
Becoming "Pretty" was made into a rite of passage. When you turned 16, your birthday was spent under anesthesiology, making you a Pretty. Without giving away too much, when Tally discovers a secret about becoming a Pretty, there is definitely more reasons that the 'government' wants them to do this. I think that the 'Pretty' piece was/is all just a reason to get people to submit to the procedure. Food for thought.
If any of this review has intrigued you, I would suggest picking up the book. It is a quick read, not a major endeavor at all.
I look forward to reading the other books in this series as soon as I can get my hands on some copies.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
There are a handful in the series out and more to be developed.
ReplyDelete