Customer Reviews
Being Pretty isn't All Good 
2008-06-23
Mr. Westerfeld has established a very good reputation as a writer of imaginative and engrossing YA science fiction, and this book is a prime example of how he has earned that reputation.
The palette for this book is a society that has declared that everyone must be pretty, and achieves that goal through a set of medical operations at age sixteen, so that no one will end up with the misfortune of having less than stellar looks, thereby eliminating many of the conflicts associated with people who look `different'. Those in the `tween' years of 12 to 15 are, of course, comparatively ugly, and are typically known by that moniker, as opposed to the `littles', the `middle pretties' - those in middle age, and the `crumblies' - still pretty, but old. Pretties get to party all night and all day, with practically whatever they want delivered on demand through the convenient service outlet in their rooms. The uglies, of course feeling somewhat left out, often try to trick their minding sensors and crash the pretty parties, with some more successful than others.
Tally Youngblood is one such ugly, an inventive, bright fifteen year old, only a few weeks away from her pretty operation. Her `tricks' to enter the pretty society across the river and her friendship with another ugly, Shay, eventually lead to her being noticed and unwillingly being recruited by the Specials, a shadowy group that seems to actually be in control of this society, to help find and destroy a small group of renegades from this utopia who live in the wilds. Her travels in pursuit of this goal eventually lead her far from the city and just as far from the mental viewpoint it encapsulates.
Tally is well drawn as a young girl with perfectly understandable goals and emotions. The problems she faces have immediate and forceful impact on not just her worldview, but on the reader's. The challenges are not small molehills of little larger relevance, but in fact have great import in her development while at the same time allowing the reader to see and think about the problems of such a society and what the alternatives to it are. All of this is done without any preaching or overt philosophizing, in very clear prose.
I did have a few reservations about just how the economy of this society actually worked, as only hints were given about just what the middle pretties did, how things were manufactured, or just what technology was really behind some of the gadgets. But these were pretty small quibbles compared to the presentation of Tally's character and those around her, both those sympathetic to her and those wishing to control her.
This is only the first book of this trilogy (actually now four books), so the end of this book leaves a lot of threads hanging, but it does manage to conclude the initial scenario quite well, and shows us a Tally who is a far cry from the Tally at the beginning of the book. It perhaps is not a great sf book, but it's a whole lot better than some of the `adult' material being published today, as it is quite accessible by people who don't have Ph. D. in rocket science, while still being both quite inventive and with quite a bit of meat hiding behind it's story of one girl's growth.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Great and very different Sci-Fi!!!!! 
2008-06-05
Last I heard they were making a movie out of the trilogy. This book caught me by surprise as to how good it was. Tally's adventures are incredible and entertaining that you cannot let go of the book. It still reads like a teen book but do not let that stop you from reading this book it is GOOD!!!!!
A fantastic start to the fantastic series 2008-06-03
Devour is not nearly appropriate enough for how I read this book. I nearly inhaled this fast-paced story, and could never have hoped to put it down before I finished it.
The premise may have been done before, but Scott Westerfeld breaths new life into the idea, and markets it to the fertile minds of Young Adults who can use it.
Tally lives in a gorgeously complex dystopia, set in a future that seems all to far off and yet at the same time all to near, that appears very simple up front. 'At the age of 16, you get a surgery to become beautiful', what could possibly be wrong with that? Everything. This novel (and subsequent ones) explore the darker natures of humanity about how far one is willing to go to remain an individual, when everyone else is screaming "Conform!"
beauty and dystopia 2008-05-31
"Uglies" is a dystopia about the perils of beauty. Set in a future after the death of our own culture (to denizens of this dystopia, we're the Rusties because we built so many things with metals), society focuses on becoming beautiful. At age 16, every child undergoes a major surgery to meet the standard of beautiful: wide eyes, full lips, perfect skin, even a standard height. Before the surgery, they're called "uglies"; post-surgery, they're called "pretties". The stated goal of the surgery is to make everyone equal by making everyone meet a predetermined and narrowly-defined standard of beauty.
Tally Youngblood is a 15-year-old girl who is just shy of her 16th birthday. Her best friend, Peris, has already had the surgery, and she misses him fiercely. She makes a friend in Shay, another girl who is missing her friends. Shay is missing her friends for a different reason. Instead of submitting to the surgery, Shay's friends have run away from their city to go to the Smoke, a community of other Ugly runaways. The night before Shay's surgery, she runs away too, leaving a note for Tally in case she wants to join her.
Tally chooses to stay and become pretty. On the day of her surgery, she instead finds herself in the hands of Special Circumstances, a frightening enforcement agency that most Uglies and Pretties think doesn't exist. Special Circumstances wants to know more about the Smoke, and they give Tally a terrible decision: go find Shay and betray her and the Smoke, or never become pretty. Tally finally agrees to go to the Smoke. When she arrives, she meets David. His parents, both doctors, founded the Smoke when they discovered the horrible secret behind the surgery. Tally, shocked, decides that she will stay in the Smoke, and destroys the homing device that she was given by Special Circumstances.
Destroying the device activates it anyway. Special Circumstances comes, rounds up all of the runaways, and takes them back to their city. They first turn Shay pretty, which verifies for the runaways the horror of the surgery. Tally admits to David and his mother that she was the cause of their discovery, and sets about making it right. The book ends there, leading to the next book in the series.
I came to read "Uglies" by a recommendation in the blog of John Scalzi. His recommendation made me pick it up when I stumbled across it a few days later. I started reading the novel at 9pm that night; at midnight, 300 pages in, I had to force myself to put it down so that I could get at least some sleep before work the next day. I couldn't wait to get home to finish it, and now I'm disappointed that I didn't have time this evening to buy the next book in the series. It's been a long time since I've been unable to put a book down. I hope that the rest of the books in the series are as good as this!
Thought provoking and entertaining 2008-05-30
I very much enjoyed beibg introduced to this new and futuristic world that Tally lives in. It was an adventursome read. What will happen next?
not ugly, but not pretty 
2008-07-25
I thought the whole book was a good idea, being futuristic and all...very interesting to see one view of what the world could end up like.
The plot was pretty good, although I guessed a lot of it before it happened.
Throughout the whole book, it seemed like there was something missing and I just couldn't figure out what it was. But as I'm writing this review, I realize that the characters had no special attributes that set them apart. They were flat. Besides how Shay and Tally's views differed, they were all basically the same. They all talked the same and acted the same pretty much. I think it could've been a lot better if they each had their own individual qualities (Tally, Shay, David, Croy, Maddy, Az).
I also think it would've made the book a LOT more interesting if they talked more about how the world changed and why, and when they passed Rusty cities, it would've been cool if the author had David know what the cities were called. For example, the Rusty Ruins could have been a part of New York? That would've been really fascinating.
On the other hand, it was an alright book, and I suppose I'll read the rest of the series just to see what happens.
... 2008-07-19
Welcome to a world 300 years in the future. A world where everyone gets to be beautiful when they turn 16, at that age you undergo an operation that "turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty." You live in a beautiful party mansion in New Pretty Town with other Pretties and have all the fun you want; and Tally Youngblood will be there in a few short weeks.
Tally's friend Shay isn't so sure she wants to become pretty and runs away to live in the wild. Doing so is not approved of by the authorities (though it does happen every once in a while) and they give Tally a choice: Track down and find Shay and bring her back or never become pretty at all.
not just for teens... 2008-07-11
I am an 8th grade teacher and several of my students begged me to read this book to them during homeroom so I agreed. It did not take long for me to get just as hooked on this story as my students were as it is an incredible story. The writing is incredible and Westerfeld masterfully paints vivid pictures of this futuristic society.
The only thing that I hated was that nobody told me that this was book 1 of a trilogy. When I finished reading the book to my students literally the last week of school I pretty much yelled out when I got to the end and found out that it was not over. As soon as the summer started I went and bought Pretties and Specials and finished both in a couple of days.
What a great book to get lost in. Do not get discouraged that it is promoted as a "teen novel" because every adult who I know has read it feels the same way as I do - they love this series!
Logan's Run meets The Real Life 2008-07-06
I picked this up after reading recommendations by other SF authors, like Cory Doctorow. I'm way out of the target demographic for this book (being a middle-aged man) and, I'll have to admit, it's something I might be a little embarrassed reading in public due to the cover and obvious target audience, but I'd still heartily recommend it (and the rest of the series) to just about anyone of any age or sex. The book's cover and blurbs kinda hide the fact that this is pure, good SF - lots of action, intriguing moral dilemmas, with interesting cultural insights and satire.
I described it to my wife as an update to Logan's Run, where people live in isolated cities where their every needs are taken care of (not domed, but quite insular nonetheless). Instead of being terminated at the age of 30, like in Logan's Run, you are turned into Paris Hilton at the age of sixteen - made physically beautiful, but somehow turned into mindless party people. Like in Logan's Run, the protagonist, Tally, against her will, escapes the city right before being turned "Pretty" and discovers a whole world of dissidents and refugees who are fighting against the system, including old "Uglies" who live in the ruins of "Rusty" cities. The social issues are blatant and there are even metaphorical asides, such as the mutant orchids that have taken over much of the wild - smothering environmental diversity with their self-similar beauty. I admire the author, however, for never having a character say, "Oh, the orchids are like the Pretties" even though it is obvious, he never beats the reader over the head with the metaphor.
The later books move through the strata of these new societal levels, the "Pretties" and the "Specials" and you meet other isolated human societies, including a violent engineered "zoo" of "primative" humans. It would have been easy to portray all of these levels as simplistic social morality plays, but he keeps it all fairly realistic, or at least believable, with plenty of moral and ethical dilemmas that have no easy answers - is it correct to make choices for people who have been engineered to reject those choices? How much can you engineer the human psyche and still remain human? Each of us changes as we grow and mature, and we reject and alter our mindsets as we grow - does that make us different people? The "Pretty" cities have been existing in a productive, peaceful state with a level of environmental coexistence that the most radical "tree hugger" would love, for centuries, but at a severe loss of freedom of thought and under the control of those who think they know best for everyone. Is that OK? How much individual freedom can you abandon and still be free and human?
As I said, if you examine the cover and read the blurbs on the back, you would think that this is near future teen social novel, with plastic surgery enhanced teens vs. "normal" ugly teens, like the publisher is afraid that teen girls won't pick up a "real" SF book, but it's actually set centuries in the future with nano-technology, bioengineering, hoverboards, and a rebellious cyberpunk feel that should also appeal to boys and a wider SF audience. Of course, as sales results and critics have begun to point out, the teen/young adult market is very hot right now (led, in large part, by the Harry Potter phenomenon) and as many adults as teens are buying, reading, and enjoying these books. You should too.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld 2008-07-03
When I first picked up this book, I thought the premise was very intriguing. A world full of beautiful people sounds like Heaven. But as I got into the book more and more, it sounded more like you know where! It took me a few chapters to really become engrossed in the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. I was waiting for all the excitement to start happening. The story is based around Tally Youngblood, an ugly about to turn pretty. She meets Shay, an ugly that doesn't want to turn pretty. Shay runs away and Tally is forced to bring her friend home or never turn pretty. The events that follow start building up to the climax. After the climax, the story doesn't really slow down. The last sentence in the book will chill you to the bone and make you very excited about the next book. After a slow start, I really started to care about Tally and her friends. I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Pretties.
