Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Nina

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, the first in the Uglies trilogy, is my absolute favorite book. The book takes place in the future, where an operation on your sixteenth birthday makes you beautiful. Tally, fifteen years old at the beginning of the book, is left alone in Uglyville after all her friends have already crossed the river to New Pretty Town, where they have joined the carefree life filled with parties, showing off their perfect new faces and reconstructed bodies. While awaiting her birthday, Tally befriends Shay, who happens to have the same birthday as her. However, Shay has a different perspective than most uglies, and doesnt see the operation as anything to look forward to. Instead, she believes that appearance isnt all that matters and that there is no reason to change the way everyone looks. So shortly before her birthday, Shay runs away and tries to convince Tally to join her. Unlike Shay, Tally wants to become a pretty like everyone else, and stays behind. But on the day of Tallys operation, Tally is surprised to find out that she wont be operated on unless she follows Shay and betrays the runaway settlement that Shay has joined. So using a set of instructions that Shay left behind for only Tally to understand, she follows with a tracker hidden in her necklace that she must activate once having arrived. However, once she has been at the settlement for a while, she isnt sure whether to activate the tracker or not. Because being pretty isnt as perfect as it appears, and the government has been hiding the horrible truth.
Not only does this book have a good dose of action, but it also has deep meaning and many topics that really make you think. For example, is a symmetrical face with perfect features really all that defines beauty?