Review: Uglies (Uglies #1) By: Scott Westerfeld

Title: Uglies (Uglies #1)

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Published: February 8th, 2005

Goodreads Summary:

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

My Thoughts:

I have been wanting to read this series forever! I finally got to and I am so glad that I did because I absolutely loved this one! This book was an awesome dystopian novel. It reminded me of Lauren Oliver's Delirium series in a few ways (Although technically, Uglies came out first so Delirium would be like Uglies but, I read Delirium first lol) I love dystopians and I enjoyed this one especially because the world building was interesting and fun but, it wasn't too heavy and confusing you could really see how in the future the world could want to live this way. 

Our main character is Tally Youngblood, just a regular 15 year old girl who is about to become 16, which in the world of Uglies is the turning point in a person's life. When you turn 16 you get the operation to where you become Pretty. I thought this was such a fascinating idea, I feel that our society is totally obsessed with looks and plastic surgery is such a popular thing in our society, so the idea of everyone getting plastic surgery done to look Pretty didn't seem like such a farfetched idea to me. All her life Tally has grown up going to school In Uglyville and knowing she is just an Ugly but, someday she won't be. They teach her that it's biology, people naturally like a person who is pretty better, it makes everything fair and it keeps the mistakes of the past from repeating themselves. The people of the past called The Rusties, were wasteful and ruined the earth, in the new society everything can be reused and recycled and nothing is wasted. Rustie's society was unfair Tally is told because people who were taller or better looking got the better jobs and had the better lives, so if everyone looks pretty, the society becomes fair, or so Tally is taught. Tally feels completely alone in the beginning of the story, her best friend Peris has already had his surgery and is living his new life in New Pretty Town while she has to wait 3 more months to get her surgery and be an Ugly no longer. After sneaking into New Pretty Town, to visit Peris Tally meets another girl hiding among the weeds named Shay. Shay is the person who opens Tally's eyes to so many things she never thought of before and is the catalyst to change Tally's life forever. Shay says she doesn't want to be pretty, there is a society that lives outside the city where Shay's friends have gone where you don't have to grow up and become Pretty you can stay Ugly and be just who you are. Tally at first cannot  believe it, all she has ever dreamed about is growing up and becoming Pretty. After Shay decides to run away right before her and Tally's shared birthday she thinks that is the end of it. She will never see Shay again and she will be pretty soon enough anyway, so why should it even matter to her at all. But little does she know the city has other plans for Tally Youngblood. 

So, like I said before I really enjoyed the world building aspects and imagining what this dystopian society was like, I think I enjoyed it  because everything seemed like something that could really happen to our world in the future and I didn't have to try to wrap my brain around something that could never happen.  I love seeing a character grow and change and become the amazing heroine they were meant to be and throughout Uglies you really see Tally become a strong person. I also loved some of the cool technology that Westerfeld added into the story, for example hover boards (whenever  I think of them I remember Back to Future 3 lol and I wish we could have something like them now!) 

I can't wait to read the second book, Uglies leaves you on a total cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see what will happen to Tally in the future. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys dystopian books especially Lauren Oliver's Delirium series. It's not a new series  but, it's definitely a great one and Scott Westerfeld has become another author that I want to read all of his books!

Happy Reading!

Kristin