Uglies (Uglies #1)

Reader reviewed by snickers

ok... its hard for me to say this but this book is better than twilight (wow that was hard to get out) tally is real when i read it. i fly on a hover board with her and i also hide with her and david away from the specials, i hate tally along woth shane and love her along with david, this is the best book you will ever read so READ IT NOW

Reader reviewed by sara

Step into the future where all people at a certain age to in for an operation to make them beautiful and perfect.  After the operation everyone then lives in a "perfect world" where everyone is unconnected with anything outside of that world. In this world there is a renegade girl who doesnt want to do the surgery,  she wants to escape to the outside world and join a group of renegades who want to stop the surgeries.  This girls friend is named tally and she cant understand why her friend would risk everything and doesnt want to be pretty.   Once escaped from her town tally learns the hard truth about where she lived and she might even have found love.  follow tally in this fastpaced book

Reader reviewed by Taylor

Uglies is one of the few books that has ever captured me from the first page. After being an avid Twilight fan (like the majority of YA female readers) I had almost given up on finding anything to fill the void I felt. Then a friend convinced me to read Uglies and I haven't looked back since. Of course this book is nothing like Twilight, but I felt it was equally as addicting.

The book is the perfect combination of friendship, action, romance, and suspense making it impossible to put down. Being the first book by Scott Westerfeld I had ever read, I ordered five other books by him the day I finished Uglies.

The book is a futuristic sci-fi which usually isn't my favorite, but what drew me in was the possibility it has of being a very acurate non-fiction in the future. The futuristic prediction this book has is very believable and left me thinking for hours about humanity and the future. (It was a very deep internal conversation with myself I can promise you :-P)

I give it a 4/5.

Reader reviewed by cosmicdustbella

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license, but for turning pretty. In Tally's world, her 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. The youngest out of all her friends, Tally is the only one left to still have the operation, and she is just a few weeks away.

When lonelyness overcomes her, she decides to visit one of her old friends in New Pretty Town, an island specifically for Pretties, no Uglies allowed. After meeting her friend she must get off the island undetected, or else get caught and undergo severe consequences. Everything went fine, until she meets another ugly on her way back.

Tally and Shay become the best of friends, being the last of the uglies in their grade. But Shay is not sure that she wants to be pretty. She would rather risk life outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world, and it is not 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.

In Scott Westerfeld's thought provoking novel, he has combined social issues with friendship and betrayal. This book about the future will keep you reading for hours, and have you debating with yourself for even longer. Should she have done this? What if she had done that? This fantastic novel of a utopian society will have you on the edge of your seat and comes highly recomended.

Reader reviewed by rochelle

wow! scott westerfeild has the most amazing mind! the way he mocks the world in a totaly awsome way makes me wonder how he comes up with all these fresh ideas! in UGLIES, he makes human society sound all snoby and stuck up and it really makes you wonder and realize somethings. i definatly encourage you to read this book!

Reader reviewed by KitKat

FIVE STARS. Scott Westerfeld is BRILLIANT.

In the future, when you turn sixteen, you don't get a driver's license. You get beautiful. An operation turns you superpretty and you move "accross the river" to a city of nonstop parties, champagne, and every "pretty toy" so that you live out the rest of your days in utter bliss, a perfect face and a perfect life.

Except, what happens when perfection isn't good enough? Tally and Shay know a secret - the operation changes more than your face. The operation changes your /brain/...

LOVED the idea behind the plot, the plot, the "pretty toys," the characters... the list goes on and on. I totally identified with Tally, too. So, read this book! I'm going to get the rest of the series right now.

Reader reviewed by Cowgirl

What would you think if you could live in a world that almost everyone who was past the age of 16 was pretty? In Tally's world, that was what happened. Indulge yourself in this futuristic book where when you are 16 you get an operation that will change your life, for the better, or for the worse.


Tally is excited for the operation. However, her new good friend is not so excited. Her friend escapes to the Smoke and leaves disguised directions for Tally to get her their. When Tally is taken by the "Specials" and is told that she wont be able to turn pretty until she finds her friend and brings her back. If Tally follows through with the plan, she will be betraying not only her friend but the whole community. Will Tally do it, or will she learn what it really means to be pretty? Find out in "Uglies."

Reader reviewed by Megan

I really enjoyed this novel! Tally, the main character, is super excited for her surgery. Her "pretty surgery." You see, when people in Tally's world turn sixteen, they get to go and have a major operation that makes them pretty. Before that, they are called the Uglies, then after the operation, they are called the Pretties. Then, Tally meets a girl, Shay, and they become good friends. One day, Shay mentions to Tally that she doesn't want to become Pretty and before she turns 16, she runs off to a place called The Smoke, where others go to avoid getting the operation. And they don't just run away because they don't WANT the operation, they run off because of the EFFECTS of getting the operation. See, the doctors know something the people don't know and that fact will stun readers and will them to keep turning the pages! I know I did! This book was a real page turner and readers of all ages will enjoy it!

Reader reviewed by Samantha Watt

Who knew that people wanted to stay ugly, given the choice to not be ugly.

The Pretty society deals with equality, but I am afraid to tell you, that hasn't and will never happen. You always have people who don't follow that rule (aka SPECIALS).

I love the hoverboarding, the Smoke...isn't a place where I want to live, BUT I want to live with those people. David...I don't know how she fell in love with him, but she did.

You see more fully at the end the effect of the legions in the Pretty brains when Shay comes back saying everything was ok. Like a girl is okay with another girl--espically a friend--coming in and stealing her boyfriend.

Though in my opinion david should have never let that happen, if he didn't come on to and like Tally that would have never happened.

Good book though, I have read Pretties--the sequel--and on my way to the final and last book in the series Specials.

Reader reviewed by Dede

This is a story that will leave you asking questions about what ugly really means and thinking about how much stock is put into being pretty to be accepted. Tally is ready to turn pretty for her 16th birthday. Then she meets Shay and they become fast friends. Shay and Tally hoverboard around and have different opinions on becoming pretty, Tally can't wait and Shay is against it. Shay tells Tally about a mysterious boy named David and Shay runs away before her sixteenth birthday to join David outside of the city. Tally stays behind, becoming pretty is what she has been looking forward to. However, a special tells Tally that they will not allow her to become pretty unless she helps them find Shay. What follows tests Tally's sense of loyalty and secrets are revealed to her. There were a couple of surprises in this book, things I wasn't expecting that made me wonder about the perspective of pretty vs. ugly. It is a very good book that left me urgently wanting to read Pretties.