Uglies (Uglies, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Jul 27, 2007 Lisa rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Pretties, the sequel is on the tbr. And Specials is waiting to be read also, they are all part of a trilogy.

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Oct 24, 2007 Maria Elmvang rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2008, owned-physical-book, 2013, 4-stars, ya, 2020

A 3.5 star review.

For most of this book I was absolutely captivated. It is well written, funny, poignant and thought-provoking. I would have given it 5 stars in a heart-beat if it hadn't been for one thing... the ending. Cliff-hangers are bad enough in movies and tv-series, but they annoy the crap out of me in books. A good book to me is a book that it's possible to read on its own. It may of course be part of a series, but it should mostly be self-contained. Uglies wasn't.

That said I loved the ...more

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Jun 17, 2009 Porter rated it it was ok

At about halfway through:

Paraphrasing my friend Rivka, this book has an interesting premise, and the development of that premise is relatively good.

After finishing the book:

I'm bumping this book down to 2 stars. This is the first I've ever wanted to be able to use half stars here.

The second half of the book dragged quite a bit for me. It was obvious what needed to happen, and I got really bored waiting for it to happen already. It was reminiscent of the frustration I felt trying to finish The Ho ...more

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Jun 01, 2017 Tiffany rated it really liked it

Shelves: teens, dystopia

I expected this to be a light, easy read. Nothing too heavy, good to read on the bus, but nothing I would really remember after. Your basic YA dystopian fiction. And yet ... I *really* enjoyed it! It was a good story, and I kept turning the pages, and yearning to read it during work.

As a lot of reviews imply (or say outright), this book is basically a metaphor (or not... Parable? Not-so-hidden moral story?) of the "ugly" world: how people view each other, with imperfections deemed "ugly," and t I expected this to be a light, easy read. Nothing too heavy, good to read on the bus, but nothing I would really remember after. Your basic YA dystopian fiction. And yet ... I *really* enjoyed it! It was a good story, and I kept turning the pages, and yearning to read it during work.

As a lot of reviews imply (or say outright), this book is basically a metaphor (or not... Parable? Not-so-hidden moral story?) of the "ugly" world: how people view each other, with imperfections deemed "ugly," and the goal of being a Pretty, whose face is perfectly symmetrical, body is perfectly toned, mind is perfectly ... bland. Differences -- physical and mental -- are deemed as ugly and unacceptable. Why would you want to be like that? Be a Pretty! But of course, the moral is that differences are good, not everyone looks perfect, you can look imperfect and still be a good person or an interesting person, etc. Through the things that others tell Tally, the main character who wants so desperately to be a Pretty, we're reminded that it's okay -- and even a good thing -- to be different. Her new best friend, Shay, and the new boy, David, along with others, show her that we don't all have to be perfect, and that our differences can make us intriguing. Etc. You get the idea. At times, it's sort of heavy-handed, but because it's written as people trying to convince Tally of these things, so it has to be heavy-handed because she doesn't believe it. But it makes you think. Some might call the writing too heavy-handed, but I appreciated it. I saw it as a good moral for teens, and well-written because it's character dialogue and characters trying to convince another character, not just the author trying to convince the readers and beating us over the heads with it.

Then there's also the apocalyptic aspect: something destroyed the way the world used to be. "Rusties" (basically, us) had their world of cars with gas (whereas the current world has hovercars and hoverboards that run on magnets), some wind power (A character says, "Not all Rusties were dumb," or something like that. Yes, some were smart and used wind power.), factories, etc. And imperfect bodies. But something wiped them out. Some even died amidst the panic, in their cars, trying to flee. There are other things mentioned that touch on that apocalyptic/save-the-world aspect, too, such as non-native, invasive plants that destroy an ecosystem, etc. Those apocalyptic touches are another thread of moral story running through this book.

Thinking about the rest of the trilogy, when I was about 60 pages from the end, I thought to myself, "Okay, this was a decent book, but I don't think I need to read the rest of the trilogy. I think I'm good at one book. Good book, but don't need to read the rest." Then, five pages from the end, CLIFFHANGER! I thought to myself, "How is he going to wrap this up in five pages?" He didn't! Damnit! CLIFFHANGER! Now I *have* to read at least the second book! ...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Mallori rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book even though it was simply written and I wish it would of gone into more detail or had better adjectives to explain certain things. Near the end was excited to get started on the second one, but I read the second books summary and it put me off it. I don't like how the book is going to change its whole point. They had a good theme going in the first book and then it seems in the second book that just is wiped off the map and a new theme comes into play. I might read it ...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Kerry (The Roaming Librarian) O'Donnell rated it liked it

Shelves: ya-fiction, fantasy, science-fiction

This story has a great concept behind it and that helped me get passed my initial dislike of the main character Tally and her friend Shay. I began to enjoy the characters more as the series went on though. Overall I think I liked the themes and ideas more than the actual story (which I was able to predict most of while I was reading. But I'm intruiged enough to pick up the next titlein the series, Pretties. We'll see how that goes. I'm anticipating a future love triangle... ...more

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Oct 01, 2007 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: teen-fiction, teen-fiction-fantasy-sci-fi

The story of a future world in which everyone becomes "pretty" at age 16. Unfortunately, even their brains are prettified, and all they think about is parties and fun. There is a rebel faction, however, known as the smokies (they live off the grid and have fires to stay warm and cook), and one teen has to decide whether to run away and stay ugly or become pretty. ...more

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Jul 23, 2007 Kate rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: youngadult, sci-fi_fantasy

Excellent job of creating a future utopian society with its own rules that make sense and are strictly followed. The story was a wee bit preachy, but the setup is great and the adventures are exciting. Plus, the ending makes you want to dive right into Pretties.

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Feb 17, 2008 Eh?Eh! rated it it was ok

Shelves: babble-added

teen fic, interesting premise and nice set-up for the rest of the trilogy. argument for/against uniformity/central control/appearance/independence. i'd like to read this if it was rewritten for an older audience. ...more

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