Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

Uglies

Scott Westerfeld

2005

I had been waiting forever for this book from the library. At one point I was the first person on the waiting list and then the book got delivered to the library, but I was still at school so I couldn't pick it up. So I had to go back to waiting. But it's okay, because this book was fantastic. I had also heard a lot about this book from various people on the internet, but I can't think of which videos talked about this book.

Uglies takes place in the future, and like a lot of teen books set in the future, it's kind of post-apocalyptic and dystopian. Tally, the main character, lives in a society where at the age of 16 everyone undergoes an operation to make them pretty. They then live in a place called New Pretty Town where they get to party all the time. Before being turned pretty, they are called Uglies, and live in dorms with all of the other uglies. Sometimes for fun they do tricks, usually involving sneaking out at night and using hoverboards. During one of Tally's tricks she meets another ugly named Shay. Shay has questions about being turned pretty, and doesn't want to go through with it. She tries to get Tally to run away with her. And that's where my little synopsis ends.

The characters are well written, and there is some pretty good character development throughout the novel. You start to get attached to certain characters and hope that everything turns out okay for them. 

My absolute favourite part of the novel is the opening line, "The early summers sky was the colour of cat vomit." Actually, there are quite a few references to cats and cat vomit throughout the novel. 

Uglies is the first book in a trilogy that has four books. I'm very excited to read the next book, Pretties, because Uglies kind of ends with a cliffhanger. Okay, it definitely ends with a cliffhanger. Hopefully I will get it from the library soon!

This book is available for purchase from Amazon here: Uglies

I give this book 4.6 stars out of 5. It was a fantastic book with an interesting plot and really good characters. I definitely suggest this book to anyone who likes futuristic novels. 

Have you read Uglies? Did you enjoy it? Have you read the series? Do you know any books like Uglies?