Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

Pages: 425
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 3rd January 2006

Other Titles in the Series: Pretties, Specials, Extras

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

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

I read this book for the first time a couple of years ago after getting it out of the school library when a friend recommended it. I loved it then; I love it now.

Scott Westerfeld provides so much to think about. Tally's reaction to the Rusties world and the way that it was talked about made me realise just how stupid some of the things that we do actually are. It also epitomises the way a teenager feels about themselves and the effect that people have on those feelings and I identified with Tally completely. It's scary to think that society's desire for beauty could be taken to such extremes and that in order to have a peaceful world peoples brains need to be altered. Scary stuff.

And besides I really want a hoverboard. It sounds like amazing fun!

Sophie