Uglies by Scott Westerfield

 

About the Book:

Image from Google

Book One in the Uglies Series

 

Rating: Amazing

Pages: 425

Released: 2005

Published by: Simon and Schuster

 

-information from Goodreads

 

 

Synopsis:

Tally Youngblood can't wait to be pretty. Tally's counting down the days until she turns 16 so she can get the operation that will change her life for the better. But then she meet Shay, a girl with a different attitude - she plans to run away and wants Tally to come with her. But Tally's waited for so long to be pretty and doesn't want to go with Shay... When Shay does run away, Tally's visited by the authorities who present her with an ultimatum: lead them to Shay or never be Pretty.  

 

First Line:

"The early summer sky was the colour of cat vomit."

 

Review:

I dragged my heels in finally starting this series as it has so much hype surrounding it. But I've now learnt that the hype is well justified. I loved the originality of the plot and how you can really relate to it, you can easily envisage the world becoming like this in the future. The characters were strong throughout and developed a believable pace. I particularly like the protagonist: Tally, which is strange as normally the leading can be a little too unbelievable towards the climax of the novel. As for Scott Westerfield's writing, I give him a 100%. To me, in this book, his writing is flawless. My favourite aspect of the book was the underling moral message, something I think gets quite easily lost or overlooked in most books. I liked the fact that this book challenged the way we think of beauty as a society and quite clearly showed us where our ritualistic thinking of analysing peoples appearances (even complete strangers), self criticism of our own and the constant belief that there can always be an improvement in our looks can realistically lead. Fantastic book. 

 

Recommended Audience:

Everyone! Especially lovers of YA fiction.