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Uglies

(Uglies #1)

Scott Westerfeld (Goodreads Author)

3.86 · Rating details · 513,438 ratings · 22,597 reviews

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a who ...more

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Paperback, 425 pages

Published February 8th 2005 by Simon Pulse

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3.86 ·

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· 513,438 ratings · 22,597 reviews

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Mar 01, 2009 Meredith Holley rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Read Graceling instead!

Shelves: young-adult, utopia-dystopia, punching-tour, reviewed

I need to never run into Scott Westerfeld down a dark alley, or during a Civil War reenactment, or at Charlton Heston's house, or wherever. My deep desire not to be arrested for murder would have an epic battle with my need to reach for a weapon when I see his stupid face. In all fairness, as you see, I coughed up three stars for this book, so I will clarify that my empty threatening is really directed toward Pretties and Specials (books two and three in this series). I'm posting this review on I need to never run into Scott Westerfeld down a dark alley, or during a Civil War reenactment, or at Charlton Heston's house, or wherever. My deep desire not to be arrested for murder would have an epic battle with my need to reach for a weapon when I see his stupid face. In all fairness, as you see, I coughed up three stars for this book, so I will clarify that my empty threatening is really directed toward Pretties and Specials (books two and three in this series). I'm posting this review on the link for the first book in the hopes that it will inspire people to put this book on their list of books never to read. If you read this book there is the danger that you may want to continue with the series, but trust me, you really don't.

In listing what I don't like about this series, I'll start with EVERYTHING from the characters to the plot to the worldview that I imagine would inspire a story of this kind of depth and breadth of ambivalence. The premise of Uglies is that in the future when kids reach puberty, they all have mandatory plastic surgery to turn their bodies into a perfect standard of beauty based on human brain reactions to visual stimulus. Unfortunately (and this is a slight spoiler, so my apologies, but it really is an element that is pretty obvious from page one, though not clearly stated until later), when the kids are having the surgeries to make them pretty, the surgeons change their brains, too, to determine their decision-making abilities, capacity for independent thought, and even sense response. Basically, the pretty surgery makes most people stupid, unless the occupation that the government determines for them requires intelligence. So far so good - it's your basic government-takeover dystopia. Yes, kids, if you let the government give you free health care checkups, it's only a small step to the day they start chopping up your brain.

Luckily, said ugly teens (particularly our protagonist, Tally, through her bff, Shay) discover that if they flee to the wilderness, they will be able to live a life of freedom and romance. Oh, what's that? Did I say "romance"? Thanks again Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, et al. Sometimes when characters go out into the wilderness . . . I don't even know. Does the phrase "it's been done" even begin to cover my feelings on that topic? Thus begins the cat-fight between Tally and Shay that is the uniting thread of this entire series. You see, there is a wilderness boy (imagine my surprise), who is quite a catch even though he's "ugly", and there's some jealousy and betrayal and kick-ass hoverboarding. You get the idea.

Let me clarify the problems I have listed so far:

1. Suspicion of the city, using a retreat to the wild as the solution to social ills. It's a tired premise.
2. Cattiness of the female protagonist and portraying the central female character as mostly driven by her current crush and competition with other women. That is a huge pet peeve of mine.

Those, however, are small, forgivable wrongs compared to the basic disingenuousness of the moral arguments Westerfeld makes. While he on one level criticizes the idea of basing society on a hierarchy of physical looks, the characters repeatedly interact within that hierarchy, calling each other "pretty" and "ugly" at every turn and defining "pretty" people very specifically. Even the repetition of the words "ugly" and "pretty" undercuts any message Westerfeld might have against pigeonholing people. I found myself seeing people in the grocery store and evaluating whether they met the "evolutionary definition" of pretty as according to this series. It's creepy and annoying. Westerfeld can be as showy as he wants about how it is limiting to judge people based on their appearance, but I argue that he is actually encouraging that same shallow judgment if only by instruction and repetition. For example, it's like saying, "kids, don't shoplift, but here's how to shoplift if you ever want to do it. And here's a catchy shoplifting song to sing with your group of friends, who really should have a name. Hey, we could call you guys the 'shoplifting gang'! Don't shoplift, though." What's the real message there? Ultimately, the arguments of the government that requires the pretty surgeries, also, make a lot of sense in the stories. The surgeries solve anorexia, bring world peace, and save the environment. Plastic surgery sounds fun, too, and Westerfeld literally makes no compelling arguments against body alteration. At the same time, I'm left feeling that Westerfeld thinks it is a bad idea, though he is not convincing.

If Westerfeld's discussion of body image wasn't enough of a travesty, the point in this series where this backwards arguing makes me want to wipe him off the face of the planet is when he introduces cutting. By "cutting" I'm not talking about skipping school. If you are not familiar with cutting, it is a form of self-mutilation that has been growing in popularity with teenagers over the past few years (I'm going to go ahead and say it's been growing in popularity since 2006, when the book Specials was published). In Specials, our catty female protagonist and her buddies discover that by slicing up their arms, they experience a particularly satisfying high, and all of their senses are strengthened. Ultimately, they randomly decide that this is a bad idea, but Westerfeld only implies their reasoning for that decision, and again I'm left with the feeling that probably everyone should be a cutter because in the context of the story it's pretty badass. I think that was the point where I started yelling and throwing things around my house.

Unfortunately, some parts of these stories are actually engaging (not seriously engaging, but passably), and for a while I wanted to find out what happened to everyone, even while I wanted to burn the author's house down. The truly unforgivable wrongs are his wolf-in-sheep's-clothing discussions of teen body image and self-mutilation issues. His characters never develop deep self-respect or intelligent motivation for their actions, and even when their decisions seem healthy, Westerfeld makes a better argument for the unhealthy decisions. Now I realize that I didn't even talk about the uber-annoying slang language he develops for the Pretties and Specials. I'll just say that these books are not "bubbly" and leave it at that. ...more

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Jan 26, 2009 Stephen rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction, audiobook, 2000-2005, world-in-the-shitter, ya

So my wife and I occasionally swap books which may seem a little kooky. However, you have to keep things spicy when you’ve been married as long as we have and since nipple showers with hot candle wax make me break out into shouts of “FUCKARELLA THAT HURTS” we needed some alternative sizzle. So she hooks me up with this little philly of a novel while I matched her with The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Well…my wife loved the book I set her up with….as I knew she would because it is all over awesome. Of c So my wife and I occasionally swap books which may seem a little kooky. However, you have to keep things spicy when you’ve been married as long as we have and since nipple showers with hot candle wax make me break out into shouts of “FUCKARELLA THAT HURTS” we needed some alternative sizzle. So she hooks me up with this little philly of a novel while I matched her with The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Well…my wife loved the book I set her up with….as I knew she would because it is all over awesome. Of course, I will admit I was a tick jealous when I would look over and she her lying on the bed heart throbbing on Locke Lamora with a wistful smile on her face. That used to be me...I miss you Locke.

As for me, I didn’t find a love connection with this book. Don’t get me wrong, I think the story has some wonderful qualities that I can respect it but there wasn’t going to be a “let’s do this again sometime” in our future. However, even though I didn’t go all Lamar and Chloe on this book, I do still owe my wife a HUGE debt of gratitude. Why you ask? Because if she wanted to be a nasty ms she could have chosen for me to read Twilight which would have caused me all kinds of trauma. Honey….you are just too good to me.

Anyway, there have been so many other excellent reviews of this book that detail the plot that I will just give a brief synop before telling you what I think. The story involves a future dystopia in which everyone, at age 16, is radically transformed using extreme plastic surgery to become “pretty”…..kinda like The OC. The theory is that by removing all distinctions based on physical appearance, you will also remove the jealousy and bias from society and make everyone sunny and sexy. I thought for the most part that it was an excellent way to exploring themes of youthful angst about fitting in and larger issues social conformity.

While not as good as other YAs I’ve read, I thought that the world envisioned by the story was fresh and promising and fit within the framework of the novel. In other words…I thought it worked. I also thought that as the story unfolded and we learned more about the TRUTH behind the society and the real purpose for the transformative surgery, the story became a lot more interesting.

That said, there are two main reasons why I couldn’t rate this higher than I did. First, the pace was much too turtle-like for me and events seemed to take way too long to wrap up. It just made it impossible for me to slip into the story. However, the biggest chunky in the punch bowl for me was the main character, Tally, who I found annoying. She drove me completely cranky for most of the book and it is tough to find win if the main biddy is giving you a case of the grumps.

However, to her credit, Tally did begin to redeem her image towards the tail of the book and there are preliminary indications that she may upgrade into a more compelling protag in the subsequent novels. However, in this one, she was lugging around a minus sign more often than not.

So, overall, excellent back-story and interesting world building give me some reason to think that the sequels might be worth a gander at some point. I just pray to George Burns that Tally can grow out of her “bugging me phase” and that the pace could hit the accelerator in subsequent installments.

On final comment that probably affected my feelings about this book. I recently read an incredibly powerful short story called Ponies: A Tor.Com Original that covered many of the themes in this book. That story was only TWO PAGES long and yet conveyed a MUCH MORE POWERFUL message. Just my opine.

2.0 to 2.5 stars.
...more

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Jun 06, 2007 Emma (Miss Print) rated it it was amazing

I’ve only seen one episode of The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a woman undergoes a battery of surgeries to look normal. At the end of the episode, viewers learn that this latest surgery has failed: the woman is still hideous. Except that to the audience she is beautiful. Online research led me to another episode where teenagers are surgically altered to live longer and conform to a unified standard of beauty (based on a limited number of acceptable “models”). “Uglies,” Scott Westerfeld’s dyst I’ve only seen one episode of The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a woman undergoes a battery of surgeries to look normal. At the end of the episode, viewers learn that this latest surgery has failed: the woman is still hideous. Except that to the audience she is beautiful. Online research led me to another episode where teenagers are surgically altered to live longer and conform to a unified standard of beauty (based on a limited number of acceptable “models”). “Uglies,” Scott Westerfeld’s dystopic novel, plays similar games of perception.

The novel starts with Tally Youngblood a fifteen-year-old girl desperately waiting for her sixteenth birthday when she will be reunited with her best friend and, more importantly, when she will finally be pretty.

“Uglies” is set in the distant future after a mysterious global catastrophe precipitated changes to the foundations of what readers would call modern society. Fearful of war and violence cities now operate as independent states (think Renaissance Italy as opposed to contemporary Italy). Isolated and self-sufficient, the cities have agreed to certain standards for the greater good.

New technology ensures that citizens never want for food or luxury items, weapons of any kind are largely illegal, and at the age of sixteen everyone undergoes a series of extreme surgeries to better conform to societal standards of beauty. The logic being that, since humans are preconditioned to respond to certain visual cues in each other already (big eyes are non-threatening, a clear complexion and good teeth indicate that a person is healthy), applying these beauty standards will reduce conflict and create a more harmonious society.

But in a world where everyone is movie-star-gorgeous (oldies like Rudolph Valentino and Greta Garbo are considered “natural pretties”), normal people are so not pretty. In short, they’re ugly.

Things change for Tally when she meets Shay, another Ugly girl, who wants to run away before the operation to a place called The Smoke where people can live like “Rusties” (that would be us basically) in the wilderness without any surgery. As the novel progresses, and Special Circumstances (a government agency) coerces Tally into finding The Smoke for them, Tally is forced to choose what means more: friendship or beauty?

As the plot might suggest, this is a science fiction novel. Just to be clear, the real difference between sci-fi and fantasy is that the technology in science fiction novels could conceivably work if someone ever built it (dragons, most likely, are never going to be genetically engineered so they’re a good indicator of a fantasy novel). At times this leads to more explanation of, say, hoverboard mechanics in the novel than is strictly necessary to the plot but the rest of the book makes up for this small shortcoming.

What makes "Uglies" great, besides how it looks at cultural values, is Westerfeld’s use of language. The novel is not pretentious or brash. Instead, Westerfeld creates a narrative voice that is really unique—especially for a sweeping sci-fi saga like the Uglies trilogy. The novel opens with Tally observing that “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.” That is not, it is fair to say, a typical opening for any novel. Yet Westerfeld moves from that observation seamlessly into the story.

This book is the first in the Uglies trilogy (followed by “Pretties” and “Specials”) which focuses on Tally and her city. The scope of each book can largely stand alone, but to get the full story it’s best to read the entire trilogy. Additionally, Westerfeld released a companion book to the trilogy last year called “Extras” which is set a few years after the trilogy with different main characters.

“Uglies” is simultaneously funny and frightening, showing how overvalued beauty can be while illustrating how Tally’s world has been conditioned to believe there’s no other way to live. The sections where Westerfeld describes the Rusty Ruins and the end of that era are particularly haunting (and eerily reminiscent of the History Channel’s recent documentary “Life After People”).

Sci-fi book discussions often bring up a writer’s “world building” in reference to how well a writer creates their alternate universe. Westerfeld’s world is built really well. The cities have their own culture, the characters their own slang, but Westerfeld manages to bring in enough references to our own contemporary culture that it’s easy for readers to believe Tally’s world is built on the ruins of our own.

You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print ...more

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Oct 20, 2010 Kurukka rated it did not like it

Shelves: dystopia, never-finished, ya-novels

Nope, couldn’t finish it. Sigh. I thought I was going to like this one. It started off fine and all. And then everything fell apart. Yes, that dramatic.

Am I the only one who was deeply offended by this piece of crap ? This book is wrong, wrong, wrong.

The writing itself isn’t particularly… well, isn’t anything really. But this is supposed to be a book about beauty with a big B and the writing doesn’t do justice to the theme. I’d even call it Ugly. The characters are stereotyped. Tally is a brainw Nope, couldn’t finish it. Sigh. I thought I was going to like this one. It started off fine and all. And then everything fell apart. Yes, that dramatic.

Am I the only one who was deeply offended by this piece of crap ? This book is wrong, wrong, wrong.

The writing itself isn’t particularly… well, isn’t anything really. But this is supposed to be a book about beauty with a big B and the writing doesn’t do justice to the theme. I’d even call it Ugly. The characters are stereotyped. Tally is a brainwashed moron. Okay, she was raised to believe the ideology of her country but she cannot think by herself. She wonders whether to betray the Smoke, the rebellious uglies, and you know what helps her make the right decision? A boy. Woohoo, thank God he was there, with his adorable crooked smile, his sweet kisses, and his handmade leather shoes, otherwise I really would have thought that she was an immoral bitch. This also means that the fate of an entire city depends of the hormonal state of our young hero. DUDE!

The boy himself is… phew, of course he thinks Tally is beautiful, special, strong, smart, unlike anyone else when she is, in fact, so flat that I could surf on her back. In fact, she’s “the only one who truly understands”. Pleaaaaaase. He was raised to be a very careful, and independent thinker, but he falls for the first pair of boobs he encounters and turns out to be a spy. Good job.

Shay was the best character until Westerfeld reduced her to some stupid, vapid girl. She, who expressed interesting and deep (as much deep as this book can be) thoughts became a giggling, naïve, brainless chick whose only interest is, of course, the boy with the handmade leather shoes.

Anyway, let’s move on to the real problem. The content has almost nothing to do with the premise. The book is full of ecologist propaganda. Westerfeld keeps telling us how bad, bad, BAD things we, humans, are. He calls our generation the Rusties. Isn’t that nice? He criticizes everything we do. Oh, wait, no, he praises the invention of the Roller Coaster! We’re bad because we use metal, we’re bad because we’re savages who eat animals and because we “killed every living thing”. Well apparently not, because there are a lot of forests and flowers despite our destructive frenzy.

I was going to quote some passages but the words are so offensive I just can’t. We’re freaks, we’re ugly, and we’re wrong. This must not be the message intended but it’s all I got from this book. It’s like Westerfeld wants us to go back to some primitive way of life. He doesn’t criticize our mistakes, he condemns progress. He’s not warning us, he’s trying to shove his dogma down our throats. He’s telling us “I’m right, you should believe me, because I detain the truth.” I deeply love nature and also fear for its future, but I want to believe that mankind has an equal capacity for creation and destruction, for beauty and ugliness, for right and wrong. It’s depressing to read about how hopeless we are. Westerfeld lacks delicacy, neutrality. He’s not objective.

“Nature, at least, didn’t need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.” How about us? Aren’t we part of nature? Aren’t we beautiful, then, the way we are? For Westerfeld, this is Nature versus Mankind. He takes us apart from it, he draws a line between the Earth and our species. I believe that everything that lives on Earth is connected, that we’re a part of a whole. If you really want to write about nature and man, you shouldn’t make them opposite. Instead, look for what makes us part of the earth, what connects us to the rest of the world, the plants, the animals. We are a part of this planet, we are nature and culture. I believe that it is where lies the true beauty of our condition. I want to believe that some of us can see that, that we will realize how important nature is, not because it just feeds us or that flowers are pretty, but because we are one with it.

The plot itself is weak. I don’t understand what the real issue of the book is. The government doesn’t look threatening. I didn’t feel the pressure I felt in The Hunger Games, for example. I I don’t understand what the Smokies are doing, what is their purpose, I have no empathy for them or any of the characters. Everything is very confusing. Westerfeld wants to talk about free thinking, nature, man, beauty, but he doesn’t do it well.

Also, I may not be an expert about economics but it seems to me that without a financial system, a country cannot work. In the Pretties society, no one pays for anything, and Tally is shocked when she learns that at the Smoke, people have to give to receive. So, yeah, it made me frown. ...more

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May 02, 2018 Miranda Reads rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, ya-series

“In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.”

In Tally Youngblood's society, everyone obtains absolute physical perfection - the perfect skin, hair, eyes, literally everything. At least, after you turn sixteen and undergo the right operations.

Tally, at age 15, is an Ugly right now but after her birthday, she will get to become Pretty. She can then move out of the Ugly Dorms and into New Pretty Town. It's all she wants.

After all, who in their right mind would choose to remain Ugly?

Al ...more

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Aug 13, 2015 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 21th-century, young-adult, science, fiction, fantasy, romance, adventure

Uglies (Uglies, #1), 2005, Scott Westerfeld
Uglies is a 2005 science fiction novel by Scott Westerfeld. It is set in a future post scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is considered an "ugly", but then turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Young blood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her newfound friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "Pretty".
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پانزدهم ما Uglies (Uglies, #1), 2005, Scott Westerfeld
Uglies is a 2005 science fiction novel by Scott Westerfeld. It is set in a future post scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is considered an "ugly", but then turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Young blood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her newfound friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "Pretty".
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پانزدهم ماه سپتامبر سال 2016 میلادی
عنوان: زشتها کتاب اول از چهارگانه؛ نویسنده: اسکات وسترفیلد؛ مترجم: نوشین هنرپیشه؛ ویراستار: نیما کهندانی؛ تهران، آذرباد، 1393، در دو جلد؛ شابک: جلد اول: 97860062255555؛ جلد دوم: 9786006225562؛ در 448 ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نوجوانان از نویسندگان انگلیسی - سده 21 م
تالی به زودی شانزده‌ ساله می‌شود، او نمی‌تواند صبر کند. تا چند هفته‌ ی دیگر عمل جراحی ای را انجام خواهد داد، که او را از یک زشت نفرت‌ انگیز، به زیبارویی خیره‌ کننده، تبدیل خواهد کرد؛ و پس از زیباشدن، در بهشتی با فن‌آوری پیشرفته، زندگی خواهد کرد؛ که تنها کار او در آنجا، خوش‌ گذراندن است. اما دوست جدید تالی، «شِی»، مطمئن نیست که می‌خواهد زیبا شود، یا نه. پس از فرار شِی، تالی، بُعد تازه‌ ای از زندگی زیباروها را، کشف می‌کند... و بُعد چندان زیبایی نیست. مقامات دولتی، گزینشی پیش روی تالی می‌گذراند؛ میخواهند دوستش را پیدا کند، و تحویل دهد، یا هیچ وقت زیبا نخواهد شد. انتخاب تالی دنیای او را برای همیشه تغییر خواهد داد... کتاب حاضر نخستین قسمت از مجموعه‌ ی چهار قسمتی زشت‌ها است. ا. شربیانی ...more

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Mar 23, 2012 María rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: library-and-others, reviewed, dystopian, young-adult

Do you know that feeling, when you really want to punch a character in the face? Well, Tally Youngblood, you must be grateful that I can't see your face.

Now I should stop the rant... the book itself was a quick read, but I don't get the hype. Enjoyable, yes. Good, not that much. I'm not really sure if I'll ever finish this series. Maybe one day if I'm actually bored.

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Jul 01, 2008 Reed rated it really liked it

I remember my initial disappointment when Scott Westerfeld switched from adult sf to YA fiction. How could he do this to me? I liked his books, but I don't wanna read a dopey YA novel!

I'd read in an interview that it was mostly a financial decision--the YA market has exploded, and that's where the money is right now. How can you fault a guy for trying to make a living?

As a junior high Language Arts teacher, it's impossible not to notice that Westerfeld's first YA series has done extremely well. I remember my initial disappointment when Scott Westerfeld switched from adult sf to YA fiction. How could he do this to me? I liked his books, but I don't wanna read a dopey YA novel!

I'd read in an interview that it was mostly a financial decision--the YA market has exploded, and that's where the money is right now. How can you fault a guy for trying to make a living?

As a junior high Language Arts teacher, it's impossible not to notice that Westerfeld's first YA series has done extremely well. I guess it's time I checked it out for myself.

Well, after the first section of the novel, I can understand why Uglies has been a hit with the YA crowd--it's a fun, easy read. While Westerfeld hasn't completely dumbed down his writing, it is certainly much more accessible than his adult novels. Tally is a likeable teenager that the readers will identify with, and her plights are standard ones, considering the world she inhabits.

Yes, it takes some suspension of disbelief to accept the premise that all people are given massive plastic surgery and made "pretty" at the age of 16. But if you are willing to accept the premise, the rest of the world makes sense.

Tally wants to be pretty, as do all teens in this world. But she's a mischievous girl and loves to play pranks and pull tricks. When she meets up with Shay, a fellow prankster, her world is turned upside down. Shay introduces her to a world where people don't consider being pretty the ultimate goal, and when Shay runs away, choosing NOT to be made pretty, Tally is led down a road that will completely alter how she sees herself and the world around her.

Westerfeld has created a good old-fashioned coming of age tale in a sf world. Sure it's a YA novel, but that's ok. We need to create another generation of sf readers. It might be a bit of an easy read for a more sophisticated (ie. old) reader like myself, but it was still enjoyable. The book is in fact the first of a trilogy, but it is possible to read the first novel by itself. Sure, the story continues, but Westerfeld does give the first book a sense of closure.

I think the YA market is lucky to have Westerfeld. I hope he continues to have great success. And maybe someday, he'll write adult novels for his growing legion of YA fans.

...more

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Nov 02, 2007 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, apocalyptic-or-post-apocalyptic, urban-fantasy, sci-fi, 2007, dystopian

Three hundred years after an apocalyptic-sized disaster that reshaped the world, Tally is about to turn 16 and pretty. In her contained, isolated, self-sufficient city - just like all the other contained, isolated, self-sufficient cities - the operation to make her pretty will be intensive, extreme and, as far as she and everyone else alive is concerned, absolutely worth it. Once she's pretty, she'll go to live across the river in New Pretty Town and party the nights away, loved by all.

It's a sh Three hundred years after an apocalyptic-sized disaster that reshaped the world, Tally is about to turn 16 and pretty. In her contained, isolated, self-sufficient city - just like all the other contained, isolated, self-sufficient cities - the operation to make her pretty will be intensive, extreme and, as far as she and everyone else alive is concerned, absolutely worth it. Once she's pretty, she'll go to live across the river in New Pretty Town and party the nights away, loved by all.

It's a shock to her, then, to find that her friend Shay doesn't want to be pretty, and doesn't think she's ugly now. Of course she's ugly - everyone's ugly before the operation. But Shay runs away to the mysterious, secretive Smoke where her friend David awaits, leaving Tally a set of cryptic directions in case she changes her mind and decides to go too. But Tally has no intention of running away: turning pretty is all she wants, so she can be with her friend Peris again across the river, and be noticed and listened to because beautiful people cannot be ignored.

But on the day of her own operation, she is taken instead to Special Circumstances, where cruel pretties with lethal reflexes bring her to Dr. Cable. They want to know about Shay and the Smoke and where it is located, but Tally keeps her promise not to tell. Even when Dr. Cable tells her she won't get the operation and be turned pretty until she does what they ask, she does not yield. Not until Peris unexpectedly visits her in Uglyville, and reminds her of the promise she made him, that she would be with him again, a promise that predates the one she made Shay. Latching onto this ray of hope - for she doesn't want to stay ugly the rest of her life - Tally is sent to spy for Special Circumstances and give them the location of the Smoke by sending a transmission via a heart pendant given her by Dr. Cable.

When she arrives, though, it's not that simple. Yes, the people are all ugly, and that takes a while to get used to. But there's something else about them, something sharp and clear at odds with the vacuousness of all the pretties she's ever known, including her own parents. And then there's David, who was born in the Smoke and is definitely not pretty ... but who teaches her that she's beautiful because of who she is, not what she looks like.

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me a lot of Isobelle Carmody's books, her heroines especially, and also Ellie from John Marsden's Tomorrow series, and a host of others. She's a quick thinker, afraid yet brave, resourceful and caring, faced with a choice no one at sixteen would want to have to make. The writing style is clear and descriptive without wasting a word, the characters deftly portrayed. While the themes and messages of the book may not be subtle - nor are they meant to be, since we're talking about the structure of their world here - there are depths to the concept, and nothing's black-and-white. There are also little digs about our own lifestyle (we are the "Rusties" in the book - because what's left of our cities are just rusty ruins), about how we clear-fell forests and waste resources and genetically modify plants. The entire concept could have fallen flat on its face for being too contrived and as superficial as the operation itself, but Westerfeld holds it all together with a great heroine in Tally, a dark sci-fi underworld beneath the glitter and party fun, and an examination into what price we really want to pay for the things we hold most dear. ...more

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Jun 11, 2018 Kalyn Nicholson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian

Parts of it I'm obsessed with, other parts I think I'm a little too old for.
That said, here I am picking up another teen-fiction. I am in denial. I'll be 60 and still reading teen fictions.

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Feb 02, 2018 Fables&Wren rated it really liked it

I loved this book for what it is: a reminder of my childhood and a beautiful story about accepting yourself for who you are. RTC.

- - -

THIS JUST IN: SCOTT WESTERFELD IS WRITING FOUR NEW NOVELS IN THE UGLIES WORLD AND IT IS LIKE MY CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE. IT IS GOING TO BE CALLED IMPOSTORS AND COMES OUT SEPTEMBER 11TH AND MY LITTLE HIGH SCHOOL HEART IS BEATING AGAIN I REPEAT BEATING AGAIN.

REREADING THIS NOW AND THEN I WILL TELL YOU GUYS HOW MUCH I STILL ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.

SLDFJ ...more

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Nov 24, 2018 Ivana - Diary of Difference rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sent-by-gift, owned, recommended-by-friends, favourites, read-in-2018, stars-5

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A world where you are an ugly until your sixteenth birthday. And then, you undergo a surgery and you become pretty. And life is perfect. Except, maybe it isn’t.

This is one of those books where you visualise a world in so many details, and feel like you’ve lived there all your life. Also a book that captures society for what really is. A very pleasant and enjoyable read.

I received this book as a birthday gift. Have a look at my birthday book hau ...more

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Feb 10, 2016 Fabian rated it it was ok

Things become quite one-sided (or one-dimensional) in this YA dystopian yarn that imagines stuff in a... half-assed kind of way (repressive governing scientists: too uninteresting an antagonist, a teenaged character with absolutely zero references to the parental unit, scant description/character development...) presenting tropes for the new young'uns (and hopeful lifelong readers) to gawk at but offering nothing much too pleasant for the reader that's more enthralled by the complexities of that ...more

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Aug 05, 2014 Aj the Ravenous Reader rated it it was ok

Shelves: dystopia, physically-owned-books, sci-fi

Seeing this book always popping up every time I searched for best YA novels, I knew I just HAD to read this. I've been actually saving this trilogy for a special reading occasion because I am really into dystopians and discovering this series was written even before the Hunger Games, I expected that I will be more than impressed. Sad to say, the book did not meet my expectation. Sure, the concept is cute- every one at the age of 16 gets operated on to become pretty while every body else is consi ...more

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May 11, 2009 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Thomas by: Read it in 2008; read it again in school

Shelves: five-stars, young-adult, romance, science-fiction

"Uglies" is about Tally Youngblood, who is about to turn sixteen, much to her liking. This is a futuristic novel, and when you turn sixteen you get an operation to make you "pretty". What being pretty means is that you have all your bones taken and ground, your skin re-sized and your whole entire body is basically re-done. Like a huge surgery. The thing is, during her wait to turn sixteen (Tally was the youngest in her group of friends) she meets a girl named Shay, who doesn't want to get the op ...more

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Aug 30, 2010 Ryan rated it liked it

I go a little crazy if I read more than one Margaret Atwood novel a year. I hope I'm not alone in this. I get the feeling that Atwood's sharp, but her writing is filed to a finer edge. I realized a while ago that one book per year was enough.

I have a similar reaction to Stephen King, though I'm not sure why. I really loved The Stand, but when it was over I knew that I wasn't going to read another of his works for a while.

At first, I thought this meant that I didn't like Stephen King and Margaret ...more

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Feb 11, 2018 Tan Markovic rated it really liked it

Reviews can be found at: www.booknerdtan.wordpress.com

3.5

I absolutely love diving into dystopian worlds and this is a YA series I have been meaning to start for years just never got round to it - so happy I finally have!

Tally has grown up in a society where you are made to believe that you're ugly. As soon as you turn 16, however, you're given the rights to an operation to turn you from an 'ugly' to a 'pretty' and Tally cannot wait for this day. Things take a slight turn when Tally's friend Shay Reviews can be found at: www.booknerdtan.wordpress.com

3.5

I absolutely love diving into dystopian worlds and this is a YA series I have been meaning to start for years just never got round to it - so happy I finally have!

Tally has grown up in a society where you are made to believe that you're ugly. As soon as you turn 16, however, you're given the rights to an operation to turn you from an 'ugly' to a 'pretty' and Tally cannot wait for this day. Things take a slight turn when Tally's friend Shay doesn't want to become pretty and runs away to The Smoke. Tally is faced with a difficult decision which only becomes harder as she gets to know the people in The Smoke and her views about becoming pretty are questioned.

I got sucked into this world pretty quick and managed to finish it in no time. I loved the way Westerfeld described the world; descriptive and vivid, but not too descriptive that you get bored and I loved the parallels of our society that were incorporated in the story.

The writing, and Tally, can get a bit tiresome during the first half of the book; there's only so much of her repeating that she can't wait to become 'pretty' without it starting to grate on you. There's only so much you can read about a teenage girl wanting to become 'pretty' because that's when you have all the fun without wanting to slap her. Having said that thought, despite Tally being the most suggestable character ever (annoying) at least towards the last half of the book you can see her character developing for the better which leaves me with hope for the rest of the series.

The only other thing that slightly let the story down for me was the romance that developed - it kind of left a bitter tast. I felt like it was the perfect opportunity for a strong female friendship to develop and Tally kinda throws in her friendship with her best friend extremely quickly. Meh.

Overall though this book had me hooked and I wanna jump back into the world asap. I bought the following books in the series immediately after finishing and I can't wait to find how Tally and the story progess. ...more

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Sep 29, 2008 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2008, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. At an unspecificied time in the future everyone turning sixteen is given surgery to become "pretty." Tally Youngblood is young woman, counting down the days to the procdure which despite being extremely intensive is considered worth it for a life of luxury and decadence among her peers. She's waiting to be reunited with her best friend and enjoy the life of being pretty together.

That is until she meets Shay. The two bond over having lost all their friends to the surgery and waiting to join them. At an unspecificied time in the future everyone turning sixteen is given surgery to become "pretty." Tally Youngblood is young woman, counting down the days to the procdure which despite being extremely intensive is considered worth it for a life of luxury and decadence among her peers. She's waiting to be reunited with her best friend and enjoy the life of being pretty together.

That is until she meets Shay. The two bond over having lost all their friends to the surgery and waiting to join them. They sneak out of the city to the wasteland and Tally discovers that not only does Shay not consider herself "ugly" but she has no intention of having the surgerys. Instead she wants to run off with a mysterious boy named David to a secret group of insurgents who refuse to have the surgery. She invites Tally to come with her, but Tally refuses.

Shay runs away, leaving details on how Tally can find the group if she desires. On the day of her surgery, Tally is taken aside by Special Circumstances and told unless she finds Shay and betrays her to them, she (Tally) will be ugly for life. Tally agrees and sets out on her quest to find the rebels.

If that were all the story was, it might just be merely interesting. And though the story does follow a fairly predictable character arc for Tally (she finds the group, fits in better than Shay and decides to stay), the secret behind the surgery that Scott Westerfield reveals mid-way through the novel is far more fascinating. And it also goes a long way to explaining some of the behavoir by post-surgery characters in the novel.

Tally finds out that the surgery creates a specific kind of brain damage among all receipients. This twist explains why certain characters are so vapid and hedonistic in the story. Not only are the people being made to all be the same externally, they're being made to think the same way, to no longer question anything and to live only for the pleasure of the moment. The process is reversible (theoretically) and all of these various storylines lead to one massive cliffhanger that had me curious to see where things go next. ...more

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Jan 31, 2019 Leore rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, read-in-2019, dystopian, sci-fi, 2-5-star-reads

2.5/5 stars. Great idea, poor execution.

I was listening to the audiobook so I don’t know if the reading experience is any different but I found certain chapters in this fairly boring to get through. Story was creative, main character really annoying and the writing okay. Won’t be reading the next one anytime soon.

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Feb 09, 2008 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2008-books-read, dystopia, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, young-adult, favorites

After finishing 425 pages that I couldn't put down, I'm finding myself needing to buy the next in the series as soon as possible. No wonder editors are getting copy-cat novels similar to this from aspiring writers.

Uglies tells the story of a post-apocalyptic dystopia where everyone gets a surgery at age 16 to make them "pretty" with a perfect body, perfect face, and diminished personality. This surgery is supposed to prevent people from having an unfair advantage in the workplace because of the ...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Amanda rated it liked it

Recommended to Amanda by: From Coventry's "take my books" party

Shelves: fer-teenagers-kids-and-younguns, 2009, fantasy-and-some-sci-fi

I'd heard of this book before, but I didn't realize it was futuristic. The story line is one you've all heard before--in the future, everyone is forced into some nutso plastic surgery which makes you gorgeous, and of course, the post ops spend all day living it up and having a grand ol' time because they're brainwashed and beautiful. It sounds kinda like an ok life, but there are some folks who are like, "Hellz no, you ain't cuttin' me, beyotch!" So these folks have to become renegades, and that ...more

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Oct 13, 2017 Athena ღ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

•2.5 αστεράκια•
Ξεκίνησα να το διαβάζω έχοντας μεγάλες προσδοκίες για αυτό, αλλά δεν δεν δεν. Από τις σπάνιες φορές που δεν συμπαθώ ούτε ταυτίζομαι με κανέναν χαρακτήρα. Μου φάνηκαν αρκετά βαρετές οι πρώτες 200 σελίδες. Μετά βέβαια σε αποζημιώνει με λίγη δράση και ένα τέλος που σε αφήνει με τη περίεργια του τι γίνεται στη συνέχεια.

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Jul 04, 2015 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: z2015, overrated, ya

So it took me five days to read this book but it felt like I was reading it for about two weeks. It was so slow and so painful. This book is very overrated, I just don't understand how it's so popular. It never grabbed me and so I just wasn't interested. I'm giving it 2 stars because I'm feeling generous.

What I liked:
- The type of world Scott Westerfeld created. At first I thought it was a silly premise but as the story progressed and I found out more about the world Tally was living in, I und So it took me five days to read this book but it felt like I was reading it for about two weeks. It was so slow and so painful. This book is very overrated, I just don't understand how it's so popular. It never grabbed me and so I just wasn't interested. I'm giving it 2 stars because I'm feeling generous.

What I liked:
- The type of world Scott Westerfeld created. At first I thought it was a silly premise but as the story progressed and I found out more about the world Tally was living in, I understood why this kind of a world would seem ideal. I liked how Scott Westerfeld talked trash about us (or as he called us - "Rusties").
- Hoverboards. Very cool.

What I did not like:
- Tally. Sweet Baby Jesus, she was so irritating. I know she was 15/16 but I didn't like her.
- David. Why did everyone love him? I just didn't see the appeal of his character.
- The rest of the characters. They were weak characters. The words boring, clichéd and one-dimensional spring to mind.
- The "romance". It was so weak. I didn't see any connection between Tally and David. Their insta-love and angst was annoying.
- The pace. SCOTT, MY GOD MAN, PICK UP THE PACE. This book was quite possibly the slowest book I've ever read in my life.
- The writing. I just didn't like it. I knew from the first chapter where Tally was explaining the vomit-coloured sky that I wouldn't like the writing and I was right.
- The Special Circumstances people. They didn't seem like consistent characters. Lightening fast reflexes, superhuman senses etc and yet two teenagers outsmarted them? Not buying it.
- How predictable it was. It was so predictable and the godawful slow pace just made the book so much worse.

I wouldn't recommend this book. You won't miss out on anything if you skip this book. Do I want to read the sequel? No. Will I read the sequel? Probably. I wish I was someone who could have put this book down as a DNF (I really really wanted to) or someone who could skip reading the sequel because Uglies was a poor book but unfortunately I am not. Who knows, maybe the next book will be better but I'm not going to hold my breath. ...more

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Oct 06, 2013 Macarena Yannelli rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, leidos-en-ingles

4,75
Wow, que mundo. Que historia. Me encanto espero seguir con la historia pronto porque ese final... i mean, Scott, loquillo, terminar un libro así, no da,o sea... no.
Reseña completa en Gracias a los Libros.

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Jan 03, 2012 Ariel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

WELL THAT WAS GREAT. WOW. WOW. 4.4 STARS. WOOOOO IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

I got this book over a year ago, I received it for Christmas 2011, and had specifically asked for it because I had heard such great hype around it. I tried picking it up around the Christmas period and only got a few pages in and giving up because I was just not in the mood. A couple of days ago though, I have no idea why, I just felt it. Something from above said "You feel like reading Uglies!" And boy, was it just what I neede WELL THAT WAS GREAT. WOW. WOW. 4.4 STARS. WOOOOO IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

I got this book over a year ago, I received it for Christmas 2011, and had specifically asked for it because I had heard such great hype around it. I tried picking it up around the Christmas period and only got a few pages in and giving up because I was just not in the mood. A couple of days ago though, I have no idea why, I just felt it. Something from above said "You feel like reading Uglies!" And boy, was it just what I needed.

Let's talk pros, and the mention the little cons.

PROS: My love for this book comes from four directions. Firstly, the world. The entire concept is intricate and well played out. I can tell that Scott Westerfeld had late nights thinking up how this world would work in all it's small details. The world building is great, absolutely unlike anything I've thought of or read before. Secondly, the actual exciting plot. We have this great and fascinating world, where every new idea is really fascinating, but you also have a great story happening in the world. I was constantly excited, and a few times I found myself, either internally or vocally, saying "NOOOO!" because I was just so into what was going on! It's FUN to read a FUN story. Thirdly, character development. There were a few characters in this novel and they all had pretty decent development. I understood their actions and could appreciate when they thought new things and changed. Fourthly, the theme. The theme in this book is super simple: Your appearance does not define you; as an individual or a society. Even though it was so simple, so obvious, it was great. The times where I was reading and it really hit me, or when the characters were discussing it, I felt great about it. Honestly, I started feeling like a more beautiful human. That might sound cliche, but having these characters not understand that their appearance does not define them made ME appreciate it.

CONS: Although I super duper enjoyed this, I had one problem. But it was kind of a big problem, and that was the writing. I really did not enjoy the writing in this. It was very distracting and very confusing. Often during exciting action scenes I didn't ACTUALLY understand what was going on because it wasn't explained clearly. I would understand "Oh, okay, she's escaping on a hoverboard.. sort of," but I would get so confused by the actions of the board or the way she was moving or what was going on around her because it all felt so muddles. Also, and maybe most importantly, I don't know how he managed it, but I felt like Scott Westerfeld's writing actually ruined exciting moments. Something huge would happen, a big revelation or big plot twist, and while I'd be shocked I'd also be confused that the excitement of the story was not matching the excitement of the writing. I felt like Westerfeld either wasn't excited at all, or REALLY didn't know how to write excitement. It was actually really upsetting because some of the shocking revelations would be pushed down a bit by the unexcited delivery. It's like someone really depressingly says "Yeah, whatever, you aced the test." And you're confused.. yay you did good? What? Why is this person not happy about it?!

Overall though, I obviously really liked this. It was super exciting and wonderfully intricate. I ABSOLUTELY want to pick up the next book to see what happens next. I won't be doing a solitary review for this book: I'll mention it in a round up, but I will be doing a review of this series when I finish it! (Which prolly wont be for a while so don't get too excited yet!)

** Note on the cliffhanger: I might be doing a video about this, which is why I won't be going to in depth about it, but basically I hate cliff hangers. I feel that their a cheat and a trick: the author/publishing house is trying to trick me into buying the next book in a series. If you're going to write a series or trilogy, in my opinion, each book should be able to stand on it's own. Obviously you would have to read the first book before enjoying the second book, but you should be able to read the second book and be satisfied. It's really important to me to be able to say "I feel like I finished something," when I finish a book. BASICALLY, before I drift too much, I felt like this was a great cliffhanger. It was exciting and crazy enough to make me want to pick up the next book, but I don't feel cheated. I feel like I did finish a story. As though if I don't pick up the rest of the series I'll still have finished something. ...more

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Oct 14, 2017 Mareira rated it it was ok

Σ’ έναν κόσμο τελειότητας όλοι οι έφηβοι υποβάλλονται σε εγχείρηση που εξαφανίζει όλες τις ατέλειες μετατρέποντας τους πάντες σε όμορφους. Η ευφυέστατη ιδέα κέντρισε εμένα και φυσικά τους περισσότερους αναγνώστες, όμως ο συγγραφέας -Scott Westerfeld -δεν εκμεταλλεύεται τις ενδιαφέρουσες παραμέτρους αυτής. Η ιδέα έχει αντίκρυσμα και στο σήμερα γιατί ζούμε και εμείς σε μία τελειοθηρική κοινωνία. Σε μία κοινωνία παθιασμένη με το φαίνεσθαι και όχι το είναι. Το δυστοπικό μυθιστόρημα εγείρει αρκετά ηθ Σ’ έναν κόσμο τελειότητας όλοι οι έφηβοι υποβάλλονται σε εγχείρηση που εξαφανίζει όλες τις ατέλειες μετατρέποντας τους πάντες σε όμορφους. Η ευφυέστατη ιδέα κέντρισε εμένα και φυσικά τους περισσότερους αναγνώστες, όμως ο συγγραφέας -Scott Westerfeld -δεν εκμεταλλεύεται τις ενδιαφέρουσες παραμέτρους αυτής. Η ιδέα έχει αντίκρυσμα και στο σήμερα γιατί ζούμε και εμείς σε μία τελειοθηρική κοινωνία. Σε μία κοινωνία παθιασμένη με το φαίνεσθαι και όχι το είναι. Το δυστοπικό μυθιστόρημα εγείρει αρκετά ηθικά και κοινωνικά ερωτήματα (μήπως η αψεγάδιαστη ομορφιά επιβάλλει έναν τρόπο σκέψης μετατρέποντας τους πάντες σε άβουλες μάζες) αλλά δεν αναπτύσσονται όσο θα μπορούσαν εξαιτίας της απλοϊκής (ακόμη και παιδικής) γραφής.

Μεγάλο μειονέκτημα η ανάπτυξη χαρακτήρων. Οι ήρωες δεν είναι ούτε αντιπαθείς, ούτε συμπαθείς. Δεν είναι ολοκληρωμένες οι σκιαγραφήσεις τους. Ίσως μία πρωτοπρόσωπη αφήγηση να βοηθούσε περισσότερο στο να εμπλακούμε συναισθηματικά. Σε αρκετά σημεία αγανακτούσα και φώναζα «Έλα ‘’κουκλίτσα’’ μου»! Με την Αθηνούλα που ξεκινήσαμε το buddyread ανταλλάσσαμε μηνύματα κυρίως απογοήτευσης και major ξενέρας. Και έχουμε διαβάσει μαζί τα δύο πρώτα βιβλία της σειράς «After» της Anna Todd και αυτό σημαίνει πολλά! Όλο το βιβλίο προχωράει στον αυτόματο πιλότο και δεν επιφυλάσσει σχεδόν καμία έκπληξη. Προσπάθησε βέβαια ο συγγραφέας στο τελευταίο μέρος του βιβλίου να μας κρατήσει σε αγωνία και ως ένα βαθμό το πέτυχε. Έτσι όπως ολοκληρώνεται το βιβλίο σου βάζει το ζιζάνιο να διαβάσεις και το επόμενο. Ακόμη αμφιταλαντεύομαι στο αν θα το ξεκινήσω ή ούχι. Δεν ήταν το χειρότερο βιβλίο που έχω διαβάσει αλλά το είχα πλάσει διαφορετικά στο μυαλό μου. Περίμενα ότι θα μετουσιωθεί σε κάτι ουσιωδέστερο. ...more

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Mar 31, 2015 Norah Una Sumner rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: young adult readers

Shelves: adventure, great-female-characters, loss, romance, series, young-adult, fantasy, from-library, 4-star-read, read-in-serbian

Real rating: 3.5

Well,this was fun.After reading a bazillion bad reviews I thought that this will be really,really bad.But it's not,it's quite amusing actually.The main character,Tally,is really cool.I liked her a lot and I completely understood all of her actions,which is a really rare thing for me.I liked the story line and the whole concept of separating ugly *cough*normal*cough* and pretty people.I also liked the new technology described and used in this book-I'd love to try those hoverboards ...more

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Oct 18, 2014 Anna rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopia, young-adult

Ο κόσμος στο παρελθόν είχε καταστραφεί από την έλλειψη πετρελαίου. Στη σύγχρονη εποχή, είναι όλοι μαζεμένοι σε μεγάλες πόλεις και όλοι οι νέοι μετά από κάποια ηλικία υποβάλλονται σε μια σειρά επεμβάσεων, όπου τους καθιστούν όμορφους (πολύ εμβιομηχανική πέφτει εδώ πέρα) και "κουφιοκέφαλους" και κάθε βράδυ κάνουν πάρτυ στις εστίες όπου κατοικούν. Γενικά, η ζωή φαντάζει ονειρεμένη, εξασφαλισμένη και βολεμένη, μα έλα που τα πράγματα δεν είναι όπως φαίνονται: κάποια στοιχειώδη δικαιώματα περί αυτοδιά Ο κόσμος στο παρελθόν είχε καταστραφεί από την έλλειψη πετρελαίου. Στη σύγχρονη εποχή, είναι όλοι μαζεμένοι σε μεγάλες πόλεις και όλοι οι νέοι μετά από κάποια ηλικία υποβάλλονται σε μια σειρά επεμβάσεων, όπου τους καθιστούν όμορφους (πολύ εμβιομηχανική πέφτει εδώ πέρα) και "κουφιοκέφαλους" και κάθε βράδυ κάνουν πάρτυ στις εστίες όπου κατοικούν. Γενικά, η ζωή φαντάζει ονειρεμένη, εξασφαλισμένη και βολεμένη, μα έλα που τα πράγματα δεν είναι όπως φαίνονται: κάποια στοιχειώδη δικαιώματα περί αυτοδιάθεσης και προσωπικής ελευθερίας, βρε αδερφέ, όχι κάτι σημαντικό.

Η Τάλλυ, η πρωταγωνίστριά μας, ενώ περιμένει πώς και πώς τη μέρα της εγχείρισης όπου θα γίνει όμορφη, μπλέκει άθελά της (πιο άθελά της δεν γίνεται) με μια ομάδα επαναστατών εφήβων, οι οποίοι δεν θέλουν να υποβληθούν στην εγχείριση και να χάσουν την προσωπικότητά τους και παρασύρουν την Τάλλυ στον Καπνό, ένα μέρος όπου οι άνθρωποι ζουν ελεύθεροι μεν, σε πρωτόγονες συνθήκες δε.

Οι αποκαλύψεις πολλές, το βιβλίο καλογραμμένο, περνάει διάφορα μηνύματα που θα αφορούσαν τους εφήβους προς συζήτηση (θα ήταν ενδιαφέρον project book σε book-clubs εντός του σχολείου) και η χρήση της σύγχρονης τεχνολογίας προσωπικά με ενθουσίασε. Επίσης θα ήταν πολύ ενδιαφέρον να βγει σε ταινία, βέβαια αν κρίνουμε από άλλα ΥΑ, ίσως καλύτερα που δεν έγινε. Για τους λάτρεις του dystopian young adult fantasy είναι μια εξαιρετική επιλογή. ...more

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Sep 07, 2014 Dystopia28 rated it really liked it

Shelves: own

Okay, so this book was really good! I want to finish Throne of Glass before I move on to Pretties, but I really liked this book! The first and last lines of this book were just.... interesting? My favorite character was Shay, she was so awesome! I hope everything ends up working out for her in the end. Maddy was also pretty awesome. For a woman who is like fifty, she is pretty athletic and awesome! David was a good character, especially when he explained the Rusties. Oh, the Rusties. Tally's vie ...more

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Nov 16, 2015 Davyne DeSye rated it it was amazing

An enjoyable YA dystopian novel…

This isn’t as “deep” as some – the The Giver, for example – but it still explores dystopian themes and does so through the eyes of a teenager, using motivations that a teenager would understand…

I first picked this book up because one of my own teenagers was reading it. Interested, I read the blurb and couldn’t decide if I should worry or not: did it sound interesting or horrifying? I mean let’s start with the idea that one of my daughters was reading a book called An enjoyable YA dystopian novel…

This isn’t as “deep” as some – the The Giver, for example – but it still explores dystopian themes and does so through the eyes of a teenager, using motivations that a teenager would understand…

I first picked this book up because one of my own teenagers was reading it. Interested, I read the blurb and couldn’t decide if I should worry or not: did it sound interesting or horrifying? I mean let’s start with the idea that one of my daughters was reading a book called “Uglies” and continue with the fact that the main character can’t wait to turn 16, so that she can have surgery and become beautiful…

As it turns out, I enjoyed the book.

In a post-apocalyptic future, everyone lives in “Cities” (of about a million people). Until the age of 16, people grow up “naturally,” but at the age of 16, every teenager gets an operation that makes them a “Pretty,” – someone with a beautiful face, fantastic figure, excellent health (including no acne) – and then they move to New Pretty Town. Here they all are popular, happy, surrounded by friends and have nothing they have to do… it’s all one big party. Without revealing too much about myself, this is right along the lines of what I would have liked to have happen to me at 16! ;) Now, I’ll admit, the Pretties did seem a little shallow to me, but I suppose there has to be a drawback, right?

Tally, our main character, is an Ugly… a pre-16-year-old whose only desire is to get her operation and move to New Pretty Town. She’s counting down the days. She’s been planning different “versions” of how she might look as a Pretty. She can’t wait.

…Until her best friend starts saying that she doesn’t want to be a Pretty – “They all look the same. I want to look like me.” Tally can’t imagine not wanting to join the crowd, but her friend is adamant – so adamant, she runs away from the City a week before her 16th birthday to live in the “wild.”

The enforcers of the benevolent City that provides everything for its citizens is not happy with any runaways… makes you wonder why, right? Needless to say, Tally is suddenly faced with an impossible choice: Leave the City to find her runaway friend, or never turn Pretty.

Tally’s journey and the things she learns upon leaving the City teach her a bunch of things about her City that she never wanted to know. The question becomes: Does she ever want to go back? Does she have a choice?

The characterization was excellent, with each character being their own person, the writing was smooth and easy to read and the world-building well done. I didn’t see the ending coming. My only complaint about the ending would be that it came dangerously close to the to-be-continued, cliffhanger ending that irritates me. After some thought though, I decided it ended well… I just want to read the next one in the series!

Highly recommended to lovers of YA dystopian fiction! ...more

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About Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld

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Scott Westerfeld is a New York Times bestselling author of YA. He was born in the Texas and now lives in Sydney and New York City. In 2001, Westerfeld married fellow author Justine Larbalestier.

He is best known for the Uglies and Leviathan series. His next book, IMPOSTORS, returns to the world of Uglies. It comes out September 11, 2018.