Pretties (Uglies, #2)

by Scott Westerfeld

humanity is a disease, a cancer on the body of the world.

invisible superheroes in the sky.

operation had been invented. Maybe some people were happier being that way.

The beauty of the world… has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. —Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at least try to grow your own brain.

She sighed. At least one thing was consistent about her life: It just kept on getting more complicated.