Book Reviews of Uglies (Uglies, Bk 1)

I was blown away by this book, and will be recommending it to all readers I know with anything in common with my tastes. Part of its impact on me is due to the low/moderate expectations I set out with. I'll also be singing its praises to younger readers, especially my nieces and other young girls (not excluding boys - but the body image themes are often more relevant to young women. Research shows that this is changing dramatically to include men, however).
I'm an adult reader who likes a bit of a challenge, so I must admit to needing to adjust my expectations a little bit - but that became very comfortable in a short time. A book to really settle into and live in for a while. The advanced and mature themes are as sublime as any I've encountered in other reading - and it would be a real boost for the culture if this book continued to gain popularity.
Light sci-fi, beautifully written characters. 5 stars from me.

It is actually HARD for me to give a review for this book, for I lack the words. Yet I feel that I MUST describe how unbelievably INCREDIBLE this book, author and series is, so that others may enjoy it. So, I simply say a few words: THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SERIES I HAVE EVER READ! The other best series include Harry Potter (J.K.Rowling), Twighlight (Stephenie Meyer), and Witch (Nancy Holder, Debbie Vigue....I suggest that you read those too!

First of a teen fantasy trilogy sent in a future world where everyone is given an operation and turned pretty at the age of sixteen. Since we humans apparently hadn't learned our lesson and our civilization as we know it crumbled because of wars started based on differences between us, the powers that be have decided that everyone should be alike. The operation, based on years of scientific research, gives everyone a perfect, symmetrical face, shiny white teeth, sparkling eyes and a toned, trim body. Gone are the little (and big!) imperfections and variations that make us unique.

Of course, there are always going to be rebels out there, and Tally Youngblood meets one of them, a girl named Shay who shares her birthday. As they get to become friends, Tally, who is very much looking forward to turning from an Ugly (read: normal) into a Pretty, soon realizes that Shay isn't so excited about the operation. When she runs away a week before their birthday, Tally is worried about her--but not worried enough to jeopardize her own operation. Excellent start to a series that I'm very much looking forward to continuing; fiction with a bit of a conscience that gives all of us--teens and adults--something to think about.

This book is excellent! It is the first in the Uglies trilogy (Pretties, Specials) by Scott Westerfeld. They are soon to be made into movies!

These books aren't what I would call fantasy, they are more logical and futuristic and thought-provoking. Though if you like fantasy, you will like this too.

This is one of those books that is meant for teenagers, but manages to be interesting enough that I still enjoyed it. It is a bit simple and quick-reading, so if you're really picky about your sci-fi, you might want to skip it. However, the premise and pieces of the background story as to what has happened to civilization, people, and how things ended up this way is interesting. The teaching-young-people motives are obvious, but there's a good bit more here than a simple moral hammer.

I picked this book up based on a comment in a thread. The premise of the plot sounded so interesting with great potential. It's definitely a teen novel, though! Not my type of book so I won't be reading the others in the series. I wish it had been an adult book with more depth - it could have been a winner.

Really good story of a girl who can't wait until she is 16 so she can have an operation to make her pretty. Very soon she realizes that it might not what she wants at all. Can't wait to read the next in the series, Pretties

Playing on every teen’s passionate desire to look as good as everybody else, Scott Westerfeld (Midnighters) projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The "New Pretties" are then free to play and party, while the younger "Uglies" look on enviously and spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay’s cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy. But after finally reaching The Smoke she has a change of heart when her new lover David reveals to her the sinister secret behind becoming pretty. The fast-moving story is enlivened by many action sequences in the style of videogames, using intriguing inventions like hoverboards that use the rider’s skateboard skills to skim through the air, and bungee jackets that make wild downward plunges survivable -- and fun. Behind all the commotion is the disturbing vision of our own society -- the Rusties -- visible only in rusting ruins after a virus destroyed all petroleum.

Fun read about the future and pretty vs. ugly.

I loved this book so much! I cannot believe how great scott westerfeld wrote this book. The people that have this book on their wish list need to go and buy it because once you read it you will absolutly love it. I know i did! I rate this book a 20 out of 10

Wonderful trilogy!! This is the very first book in the uglies series. I am not very into sci-fi, but absolutely LOVED this book. This is up there with my favorite books of ALL TIME.

this series is easily my favorite... and i read all the time... the characters work so well together and the plot and premise keeps you involved. I am a huge fan of Westerfeld and if you are a fan of Uglies, you will enjoy the rest of the series as well as his Peeps series too.

I read this book after reading the stellar reviews on PBS as well as a recommendation from a friend... well, I was disappointed by all the hype in this book. The characters are flat and uninteresting. I realize this is a young adult book but it seemed very juvenile. I have heard it compared to Twilight, which I strongly disagree with. The whole book just seems to be a rant agains "pretty" people. I'll pass this one on in hopes that I'm the only one who hated this book!

First off, this was a great book! For teens and adults. (After all, there's a lot of us who are no longer teens, but don't mind or enjoy stuff like this because we know what we could be missing if we acted our age. ;P) I wasn't sure what to expect after the disappointment in the last teen series I read (Twilight) that was hyped, but this one surprised me. Perhaps because the angst in the teens was conditioned as opposed to a couple of overly sniveling ones who are mad at the world.

I think this book may have been written with the intentions of scaring us away from wanting a "perfect" society, but the advances in medicines and technology that are environmentally friendly are pretty amazing. So many of the things the Pretties have provided for them almost make you wishful that we had such peace and harmony as well. And, even though though certain individualisms are given up (which is narcissistically trivial anyway), the people as a whole seem to prosper and are happy in this "Brave New World". I guess a peaceful society, even if it is gained through a type of mind-control for the average pretty, is better off than the chaos, violence and unhappiness humans have created for themselves on a daily basis.

It also appears that the people in Smoke may feel free, but have managed to recreate many of the catalysts for problems we have today in pollutions and respect for other forms of life in their environment. They may seem to recycle everything left over from the previously felled civilizations, but eventually someone always wants to take shortcuts that impact the environment in a negative way. This actually happens when David wants to clear-cut brush to more easily reach scrap metal, but agrees not to after others are concerned about the waste that would be created.

Overall, this book has a lot of things controversial from both sides, and even though it's sci-fi for us, it still gives us a lot to think about.

This book is in the tenn section, but I thought it was a very good read. It makes you think about how important it is in our society to be pretty, but taken to an extreme in the future. It is a very good read and I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series!

I love getting into YA series. Yes I did get started with the Twilight series. I love that there is a theme about superficial things. I also like that I can read a hundred pages, put it down, and come back to it, with the same excitement. I think that the writing is great, and can't understand how a man got into the head of a 15 year old girl!

This book was an innovative, eye opening adventure! He does a spectacular job at pulling you into his world of Uglies and Pretties! I particularly enjoyed stepping into the shoes of the brainwashed ignorant 'ugly' as she seems to be pulled into awareness by fate. The story is simple, yet deep, touching on an undeniable struggle we currently see in society. That is the struggle with obsessing over beauty. I'm very excited and look forward to following Tally's journey toward a world that may not be perfect, but is blessed by the flaws of natural humanity.

I heard good things about this book so i got it... at first I was like what? It took a few chapters (which I had to make myself read) to get good ... BUT after that I couldnt put it down, now I cant wait for the next one :)

Has a great moral, but also a fast moving plat so it doesn't get overbearing. A fun read you can be glad to share with your kids.

this is a great read for anyone out there who likes a good story and who likes great characters....i was reading it for my niece, to see if she would like it and thought it was one of those novels that was better than STEPHANIE MEYER'S TWILIGT SERIES!!!!

Once you get into the story its hard to put down.... This is almost sci-fi but with a chick lit twist.

I thought this was a fantastic book. It was not what I expected but far better. I enjoyed reading the whole series.

I liked Westerfeld's writing style a lot, enough that I'd like to pick up one of his non-YA SF novels. And I liked this book. However, I would have liked it better if I were around 11 or 12. It reminded me a bit of some of HM Hoover's kids books.
Around 200 years in the future, an apocalypse has occurred (of the non-specified variety). Population has been drastically reduced, and people now live in small, enclosed cities and are told shocking stories of how people in the past lived a destructive, non-environmental lifestyle. (They cut down trees!). Society is rigidly stratified. Young people look forward in anticipation to the day of their Operation - a drastic plastic surgery that will make them beautiful. Until then, they call each other Uglies, insult each other, and dream about how they'll look after that day. After that, of course, they become Pretties, and live in Pretty Town, where they don't associate with Uglies, but live a life of fabulous parties and non-stop fun. In middle age, people settle down and raise children, and then get gracefully old, with more surgeries and life prolongation treatments.
It doesn't sound so bad!
Which, I think, is why Westerfeld had to change the whole hypothesis halfway through the book.
It's impossible to mention this without spoilers - but it's also the main problem with the book. The book is advertised, and it seems like it started out, being about our ideas of attractiveness and individuality, and the importance many people place on their body image. The Ugly/Pretty society depends on the idea that the reason for the surgeries is that uniform beauty (along with a size-controlled population) eliminates racism and prejudice, and allows people to live in harmony.
However, it's discovered that there's a dirty secret - it's discovered that, along with the cosmetic surgeries, the Powers That Be are also giving people a brain surgery to make people happy, non-violent, carefree (and ditzy).
Yep, that's a lot more scary. But it also pretty much nullifies anything that Westerfeld might hve been trying to say about uniform prettiness maybe not being such a good thing. He fails to make that case, and instead brings up a whole other case. And it's not that hard to argue that brain surgery, performed on subjects without their knowledge or consent, to make them easy to manage, is Not A Great Thing.
The other problem I had with the book is a plot thing. The story centers around two friends. One runs away to a group living outside the city, composed of people who haven't had the operation. Special Circumstances, a secret-police force, sends the other one in a spy to find and allow them to eliminate the group, blackmailing the girl with the threat of not being allowed to have The Operation if she fails. However, on the way to find the secret group, the girl encounters a group of environmental rangers from another city, who know about the group, have no desire to eliminate it, and specifically tell her that if life there doesn't work out for her, she could join them in their city and become a ranger herself. So the power of that blackmail should have been effectively eliminated - but it's not even mentioned.

This book was really great. I am thinking we are the Rusties that are living now. LOL. The writing was wonderful. The storyline was great. The underlying messages are fantastic. I want to get this one for my 15 year old to read. Will read the next one in the line up. Wanna know how it all goes

What makes this book, and the rest of the series so popular is one thing, its accessiblity. Tally and Shay maybe be from the future, but its a future everyone can invision, and many have indeed tried before. Its a world where everyone is ugly before they turn 16, and pretty is garruanteed after. Tally is your typical teenager, who finds herself dragged into a world that is far different from the one she knows, and slowly starts to unravel the truth from the hype, and in turn think for herself.

Blech, what a waste of time! This author should honestly be ashamed to write something so simple and condescending for young adults. I was so bored I could barely bring myself to finish it. PLEASE save yourself some time and effort and read some worthwhile sci-fi such as Dun or Fahrenheit 451.

Captivating read, although it is targeted to the tween/teen reader- I can honestly say that most readers would probably enjoy this.
Of course it also hooked me into purchasing the rest of the set....

A futuristic teen adventure book that will keep even adult readers enthralled from the first page.

Tally is ready to be pretty. When you turn sixteen in this futuristic world, you are plucked from school and taken to have the "operation" that turns you from an Ugly into a Pretty.

When you're pretty you can do anything. You get to move to New Pretty Town and party all night long if you choose and Tally can't wait to join her friends who have already "turned."

By turn of chance Tally meets Shay. Another "Ugly" like herself who happens to share her birthday. As their friendship grows and they embark on new adventures together, Shay lets Tally in on her secret: She doesn't want to be pretty.

Tally can't understand her new friend's defiance and refuses to run away with her. When the authorities find out that Shay is missing however, they know that Tally is the key to finding her and now Tally must face a choice: Betray her friend, or stay ugly...forever.

I was sad when this book ended. I can't wait to read the second book and I would totally recommend it to any teen who is having issues with how they look or with society's idea of what beauty is. Westerfeld's message is simple, but surprisingly hard to grasp for many youths these days: Embrace diversity and be yourself.

Rave reviews! Five stars!

I like this book, I really did. However, unlike in the Harry Potter series, where you're drawn into a world that feels real, this world feels a bit contrived. Maybe the concept wasn't fleshed out enough, or maybe the terminology was too unimaginative. I don't know what it was, really.
The story however, was interesting, and the themes thought provoking. What happens when we become too disconnected from nature? What is the price of making everyone as attractive as they want to be? Is peaceful coexistence worth the loss of freedom?
Despite its shortcomings, I liked this book enough that I am excited to read the other books in the series.

Good book, but I prefer his "Midnighters" series.

I have to start by saying that I am a 32 year old. This is NOT the kind of book I normally read but I saw a review for it on PBS that raved about it so I thought I would give it a shot. My goodness, I am glad I did! The plot is very clever - teenagers at the age of 16 are made 'pretties', until then they are 'uglies'. Pretties all look the same and act the same. Some seek a different life. I will not give anything away (hate that!) but the book is rife with interesting commentaries on what is 'pretty', ethical dilemnas, and is very well written. It leaves you wanting more. This book would make an excellent book group selection. I highly recommend it!

This was about a girl named Tally, her dream was to turn 16 and become beautiful, so she can be with her best friend peris. Only a few months away, she meets Shay, and her life changes. This was a very good, easy read.

I thought this book was really good. At first the concept seemed simplistic, but quickly details added up until it became a really thoughtful and complicated story. I read the whole series, unable to put it down, and found the ending satisfying.

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