Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

[goodreads]

Title: Uglies Author: Scott Westerfeld Genre: YA, dystopian Rating: 3.5/5 # pages: 425 Date read: February 2008, February 2013, June 2020

Tally can't wait to turn sixteen and become Pretty. Sixteen is the magic number that brings a transformation from a repellant 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.


For most of this book I was absolutely captivated. It is well written, funny, poignant and thought-provoking. I would have rated it 10 out of 10 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 universe Scott Westerfeld created and am dying to learn more about it. I've ordered the two remaining books in the trilogy from interlibrary loan and can't wait to read them. If they live up to the promise of the first one, it'll be an amazing series.

Reread 2020: Wasn't quite as taken with the book this time around. It was still good, but I have no desire to read the rest of the series - despite the cliffhanger.

Comments

[jadeejf.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear your review- I'm reading it right now as well, and like you, I hate cliffhangers. I'm glad there was fair warning!

[bogormen.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it :) Hope it wasn't too much of a spoiler?

[jadeejf.livejournal.com]

Not at all- I've barely started reading the book, but I like knowing when books are going to have cliffhangers- it irritates me, so having the warning is a good thing!

[bogormen.livejournal.com]

I'm the same way, which is why I didn't think to issue a spoiler-warning. I hope you'll enjoy the book as much as I did. It really is brilliant :)

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'm too old or what, but the second two books in the series made no sense to me at all. There's all this crazy slang, and I couldn't keep track of what all the words meant. Also, the characters start cutting themselves, and it's put forth as a good thing, which skeeved me. I mean, impressionable kids read these books. I would not be thrilled with my daughter reading about cutting as a positive choice.

[bogormen.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I'm glad I'm warned. Thanks.

[bogormen.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that the first book is DEFINITELY the best, but I disagree with you that cutting is put forth as a good thing. The way I read it, it's put forth as something done by crazy people, because they think it makes them feel better... sort of like taking drugs: everybody knows it may make you feel better for a time, but also that it's pretty damn stupid.

I'm glad to have read the series, but was disappointed at how the second two books in the series couldn't deliver what the first one had promised.