I've gotta admit, I was worried this book was going to come across as hackish and derivative based on the very first line: "The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit." Sounded like the author was trying to copy the famous first line from "Neuromancer" but with a "look how weird, edgy and gross I'm being" slant.

But once I got past that initial eyebrow raise, the book was thoroughly awesome. This post-apocalyptic world has been rebuilt to be even more perfect than its pre-apocalypse reality. At the age of 16 everyone undergoes an operation that will make them "Pretty". But not just pretty. You become the absolute pinnacle of visual perfection and spend your days having one giant party and hanging out with people who are just as gorgeous as you are. As a pre-sixteen "Ugly" Tally yearns for the day when she can become pretty and rejoin her former friends in Pretty Town.

But then her friend Shay tries to convince her to run off to a phantom place called "The Smoke". Shay doesn't WANT to be pretty. She doesn't want somebody else deciding who she will be. She doesn't want to be like everyone else. What ends up following is a story of coerced betrayal, espionage, and many multiple questions of right, wrong, good and bad. What could have easily turned into a morality play about how it's ALWAYS better to do what's natural (i.e. stay "ugly" and live amongst nature), the author actually lets the characters grapple with what the right decisions actually are. And, mercifully, he refrains from giving us an answer.

Good philosophy. Good character development. Plenty of kick ass action scenes involving HOVERBOARDS. Great first book of the series. I'm eager to check out the sequel, "Pretties"