Uglies

by Scott Westerfield

[cornerfolds]

Uglies is a book that I've had my eye on for years, but just never got around to read it, despite the fact that it's one of my brother's absolute favorites. When it came up as the Dystopia Challenge group read for February, I knew it was time to take the plunge!

This is a story set at some point in the future when age (quite literally) comes with beauty. As children, everyone is an ugly, also known as normal. Everyone has nicknames based on their "ugly" qualities, but no one cares because they all know it's only a matter of time before they're made pretty with a complex medical procedure and moved to the pretty side of town.

Tally is very close to the day of her procedure when this book begins, before she makes friends with Shay and her whole world is turned upside down. Tally is also one of my issues with Uglies because I just really didn't like her very much. I tried to cut her a little slack, knowing that she had been brainwashed from birth, but I had a very hard time liking her. Her loyalties were disturbing and her insistence on becoming pretty even after she'd started to learn the truth made her difficult to sympathize with.

The story itself was definitely unique and had the potential to be great. The technology was cool and I found the ruins themselves fascinating! I thought the idea of this kind of "pretty" conformity was an interesting one and I wish it had been better fleshed out. Instead, I had problems with the world building and the writing, finding it slow even when it was supposed to be exciting. I really wanted to know more about the why and how of the current state of the world. Maybe that's something that will be further explored in the remaining books.

I really expected more from Uglies than what I got. I think part of the problem might be that I waited too long to read it. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more ten years ago? The concept was interesting and there were certainly some bits that were enjoyable, but I probably won't continue with the series.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars