YA Lit Review: 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfield

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

available here at bn.com

Did you ever wish you could be one of them?  You know, the pretty ones.  They walk down the street with the perfect hair, the perfect skin, the perfect body, the perfect eyes ... Well, imagine a world where, when you turned sixteen, you could be one of them.  In Scott Westerfield's world, when you turn sixteen, you get an operation that makes you gorgeous - a Pretty.  Before then, you are an Ugly.  In fact, you are so ugly, you have an ugly nickname and have to live in a dorm with all the other Uglies.  The nice thing is that everyone is considered Ugly before they are sixteen.

Tally, the main character of the book, is just weeks away from her sixteenth birthday and she wants nothing more than to join her friend Peris in New Pretty Town where all the recently-made Pretties party nonstop.  (Uglyville is high school, New Pretty Town is that 'totally awesome' party school you can't wait to get into.)  Before then, though, she meets Shay who has the same birthday and who isn't quite as keen on being Pretty as Tally is; Shay is quite happy with they way she looks.  With just days away from their birthday, Shay decides to run away to The Smoke, where Uglies go to live a different life.  Tally turns down Shay's offer to come along.  On the day of her operation, Tally is taken to the Special Circumstances office and is told that unless she finds Shay and The Smoke, she won't be getting her operation.  Desperate to join in the fun, Tally makes the difficult decision to be a spy.  She finds The Smoke and a deep dark secret about her own world of Uglies and Pretties. 

After a slow start, I found myself unable to put this book down.  I finished the last 250 pages in one day.  The world Westerfield has created and the issues it brings up about our own society is intriguing.  The characters are rather complex for a piece of YA literature.  This is especially true for Tally who wipes the innocence from her eyes to find out what the world is really like.  Her story mirrors the process of becoming an enlightened adult (making an interesting connection to the Myth of the Cave).  It would be a lot easier to remain in the dark and party all the time, but once she has found out the truth she realizes that there is no going back.  Teenagers will get a lot out of this book.

This book, though, is not for the faint of heart.  It is a brick at 400 pages.  Most teenagers, except for those avid readers, may be put off by its size.  Those who delve into the book may have trouble with some advance vocabulary and the world Westerfield has created.  Those students who have trouble visualizing and comprehending realistic settings may find themselves struggling in a world that requires the reader to imagine, visualize, and go on faith.  I could see that some teenagers will fight through this struggle, especially upon hearing good reports from their classmates.

The book is like no other YA Lit book I've read and I think this will attract many readers.  It deals with real issues in the world (providing for possibly rich discussion), but at the same time deals with real teenage issues in the teenage world.  Because of its focus on beauty, I could see it as a nice lead-in novel to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.  What's even better is that it is the first part of a trilogy and the ending begs you to read the next part.  And, I will be doing that as soon as I can!

Comments

[Kristine]

My accelerated 8th graders and I LOVED this book and passed it on to everyone we knew to read. When I brought in the 3rd book after it was released in May, I thought I might have a brawl on my hands. Oh how I love to see students fighting over who will get to read a book first. Enjoy the rest of the series.

[Jenna]

I am only a 7th grader and i just recently finished this book and i am starting the 2nd book ("Pretties"). But I think this is a truly amazing book and I couldn't agree more with this review. Before I read this i had some confidence problems but after, i realized this world shouldn't be based around how people look. It isn't right and it isn't fair. Now I don't really care what people think about me. I recommend this book to anyone, but especially to teenagers with confidence problems. It really helps.

[okay]

nope no true im bred so ya and i did read the book!