Uglies (Uglies #1)

Reader reviewed by Rachel Connell

Tally Youngblood is about to turn sixteen and she can't wait to be pretty. Her world is divided Uglies or frumpy no fun younger than sixteen kids on one side of the river and Pretties the fun and surgically beautiful older people on the other side. Then Tally meets Shay who doesn't know if she wants to be pretty. Shay runs away and Tally learns that their is an ugly side to being Pretty. The authorities offer her two choices: find Shay and turn her in or never turn pretty.

This is a lovely book. Its highly addictive and continues with three other books in the series. If you love action-romance and reading about selfish decisions or giving things up for others you'll love this series.

Reader reviewed by Annemarie

I found Uglies while walking through borders and looking for a series of a story I could keep up with. I found the cover very interesting and picked it up. I had never heard about this book before and didn't know if it was in the genre of the books I like to read. After reading the first 50 pages i became interested in wanting to read more. I still wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But then i kept reading and then couldn't put the book down. to think about the future in that view point kept me very intersted. Its worth the read.  

Reader reviewed by Maria

I first heard of this book from a friend who had to read it for a class she was taking. once i started it, i was hooked. Scott Westerfeld has written an entirely unique future for our planet, one that is enticing to think about, exciting, while also scary. it really makes you think about how we see ourselves and others around us. for a very quick summary that hopefully wont give too much away; Tally is a 15 year old girl, which means she is still an Ugly. she lives apart from the older Pretties, in a dorm across the river. in her world, when you turn 16, you get an operation that completly changes you. not only your outside, but also the way you think and act. while she waits impatiently for her operation, she meets shay, who is unusual in that she doesn't want the operation. in fact, she is desperate to get out of it. so when shay goes missing one night, Tally is given the task of finding her, or else she will never be Pretty. 

Reader reviewed by lulabell0513

I loved, loved, loved this book! Ithought that it was so cool how the author used his imagination to predict what could happen in the future, I think that it might be pretty acurate. I think that Tally is a really strong character, she holds fast to her beleifs that becoming a Pretty isn't necessary, she's fine the way she is. But she is the the one who volunteers to change when the other Uglies are in need of a Pretty on the inside to help them. I can't wait to read more!

Reader reviewed by perlycc14

The book Uglies is a great start to a great series! I love this author becasue he puts so much work, detail, and time into his work. He is a great author! This book is a book about trying to survive in the wild. Without much civilization. But the twist to this book that makes it interesting is that Shay used to want to be a pretty really badly, but ever sense people told her the news about that it chages you drastically, she runs from the operation. She is basically living with all the other kids who are also running from the operation. This book deserves an A+!

Reader reviewed by HoopsGirl27

Scott Westerfeld's novel, Uglies, is a dystopic vision of the future along the lines of Shirley Jackson and Pearl S. Buck. In Tally's world, everyone gets the operation that makes them pretty when they're sixteen, when they leave the dorms at Uglyville and move to New Pretty Town with the other new pretties. They get wider eyes, healthier skin, fuller lips. It's all according to the formula of asthetic attraction written in our genes by biology, all the things we instinctively look for in another.

What could possibly be wrong with that?

But not everybody wants to have the operation. Sometimes, they run away, out into the ruins of the Rusties--the civilization that existed before, the one that chopped trees and burned oil and laid down steel and concrete, and tinkered with the natural order of things until finally it outsmarted itself and became the civilization that exists now: Uglies and Pretties.

Tally's new friend Shay is an ugly who doesn't want to have the operation. She sneaks Tally out at night and shows her the ruins of an old amusement park, and tells her of a friend she has met out there that takes runaway uglies to a hidden place, a place away from being pretty--a place known only as "The Smoke." Back in Uglyville dorms, Tally can't even get Shay to experiment with the computer screens that give potential glimpses into what her new pretty form would look like

- Petrarch, De Remedies

After I read this book review for the Uglies it really got me interested in reading the series. I recommend this book to all of my friends!

Reader reviewed by OY

What if the entire world depended on beauty?
  Scott Westerfeld's book Uglies is about a girl named Tally, whose only goal in life is to become a Pretty. Created through extreme plastic surgery to be "beautiful," every one in the post- worldwide disaster city looks more or less the same.
    I  enjoyed this book because it makes me appreciate the world we live in today.
  Definitely recommended to everyone.

Reader reviewed by Samantha

Uglies is a deliciously captivating book about a teenage about to turn sixteen years old named Tally Youngblood. When you turn sixteen years old, you get an amazing surgery that turns you beautiful, actaully. One day, Tally meets another girl the same age named Shay. They instantly become best friends with "no secrets". The day before their surgery, Shay runsaway to a mysterious place called The Smoke. Tally is then given two life changing choices for her future. She must find her friend Shay and betray her, or she could turn her back on Shay and become beautiful. Her choice changes her world forever and nothing is ever the same anymore.
I read this book a while ago and fell deeply in love with it. It it a captivating book that kept me hooked until I was finished with it. I found Scott Westerfeld's descriptive words even better with each passing page. Scott Westerfeld has other series of books too and I have read one other of his books, and it is still as awesome as Uglies.
Some people have not even heard of Scott Westerfeld, but they should. He is an amazing author with great, indescribable words that capture the reader's heart and mind and which forces the reader to finish reading the book, even if they do not want to.
I love this book and Scott Westerfeld. Without having read the book Uglies, I probably would not of found another author like Westerfeld. He is so amazing that it is difficult to put to words. :)

 

Reader reviewed by Dancerdork

This is one of the best books ive read, maby bc i like books about the futre or the kids in the story are very interesting. In this world you are ugly untill you turn 16 and you can have the sugery to make you one of the pretties. The pretties are the pamperd bunches of kids who allways get to party. the main character cant wait to be a pretty untill she meets a mysterious girl who talks about running away to land where only uglys live and no one else. after she leaves an elite group called the specials send Tally the main character to find this land. once there Tally falls in love and can no longer rat out her friends but to bad her and the everyone who lives there. i wont go further because im giving to much away peace

Reader reviewed by kim

This series is one of the best I have ever encountered. There are so many levels to the different issues, morals and politics that Scott Westerfeld delves into in this highly imaginative perception of the future. Tally Youngblood on her hoverboard is an unorthodox heroine and I loved her sense of adventure. I loved how nothing was simple in this book--the good guys weren't so pure and the bad guys weren't all bad. While one could argue that the Rusties were justified in wanting to live life on their own terms, with their own free will, it could also be asserted that their methods of going about doing so weren't perfect. They chop down trees and deplete natural resources, while in New Pretty Town, the community is eco-conscious society that recycled everything and did not harm forests. My favorite book was "Pretties" when Tally was faced with the challenge of being "Pretty" but trying to stay "bubbly". The action in these books makes you feel like you are right there along with Tally. From the first book "Uglies", Dr. Cable asserts herself as a formidable presence as well. This is a multilayerd young adult series, with so many discussion topics rising from the various issues presented in the books.