Uglies (Uglies, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Jan 26, 2009 Stephen rated it it was ok

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

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.
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Sep 29, 2013 Liz rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, 21st-century, dystopia

Another book to add to the genre of young adult female (always female!?) characters making bad decisions for the sake of a more catastrophic plot. And while the world is perfectly fine, there's nothing really stellar about this dystopia in particular. I found myself speeding up the audiobook just to get it over with faster because I didn't hate it enough to refuse to finish it, but it felt like there were better things for me to do with my time. I always feel slightly guilty doing that, as thoug ...more

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Jun 21, 2008 Tom Gromak rated it it was amazing

What a great story!

I bought this as a birthday present for the awesome teen daughter of one of my best friends, hoping that she might enjoy getting into some science fiction. I figured it would be a good idea to read it for myself so that I know exactly what I'm giving and we can talk about the story a bit.

If there are more "young adult" titles out there with this level of intelligence, action, and humor, I definitely want to find them. The rest in the series have just been added to my list. ...more

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Jan 02, 2010 S.E. Allain rated it it was amazing

I liked this book. I did. I like the idea of the government making everyone looking the same and basically addling people's brains. HOWEVER. While the concept of this book was good, I found myself skimming some of the tired descriptions. I wanted more about the characters. The idea was good, but the writing didn't make me latch onto every word. I am planning on reading the other books, but I can't give this four stars (or five) because I found myself getting bored a few times. Yet, I did like it ...more

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Jun 24, 2008 Donna (Jaevenstar) rated it really liked it

Just finished this book a second time through (we are featuring it in AUgust!) and I loved it just as much this time through as the last time through. I may even like it better!

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