Sunday, October 16, 2005

Uglies ****

Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse, 2005.

I guess this would be considered speculative fiction. Although this isn't a genre that I enjoy, I have to say that I did enjoy this novel.

This novel takes place in the future. Things have changed. When teens turn 16, they go from being Uglies to Pretties. They go through massive plastic surgery to become what society thinks is pretty. Everyone looks forward to being pretty. That is especially true for Tally who is friendless now that her best friend Peris is now a pretty and living in Pretty Town. She meets Shay, who has run away and doesn't want to be pretty. Shay knows of a place where people run away where people want to say Ugly-- The Smoke. She gives Tally directions to find them if she decides to run away.

Tally ends up being taken by the Special Circustances unit, and she is blackmailed. They won't make her pretty unless she tells then where The Smoke is. She doesn't know, so they give her a necklace with a locket on it. They tell her that once she gets there, she should push the button in the locket. Things are complicated because she doesn't want to betray her friend. She also ends up falling in love with Dave, but Shay is in love with Dave-- he is the reason she ran away to begin with.

I won't go into any more details. There is a lot more going on, but I don't want to give any more away. This is also the first book in a trilogy, so readers will be interested to continue on and read the next two books. Highly recommended for anyone wondering what the future could be like. This is a great mix of speculation and adventure/action.

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