Book Review- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies ( New York; Simon Pulse,2006), 406 pages.
Reviewed by Lee Millicent, Los Osos High School, Rancho Cucamonga, CA

The society depicted in the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is that of the future generations. Apparently, the book mentions that the society we live in today, still exists, but is in ruins. It is referred to as The Rusties. There is a social status that is upheld in the society shown in the book. It is divided between the Pretties, Uglies, and the Specials. Basically, every one can turn into a pretty at the age of 16. By the phrase 'turning into a pretty', it is pretty obvious that they were talking about a surgery we would probably categorize as being 'plastic surgery'. Whereas the specials are just pretty people with stern faces (or in this case, they work for the government) Other than the distinctions between being an ugly and pretty, the world they live in is divided into various towns.   There are Pretty Town, Ugly Town, and Special Circumstances Town.

I really like the descriptive way they introduce us to the new world, where technology plays a really important factor of the lives of both the uglies and pretties. In the setting of the book, we have Tally Youngblood the main protagonist taking off her interface ring. This interface ring serves as the purpose of communicating with the room. She says into midair,"Good night" and the room replies with a, " Sweet dreams, Tally." Here we can slowly foreshadow how technology would be portrayed in the new world. The book started with Tally's physical features and slowly progresses toward her emotional and mental features. Gradually, we can see the distinctions between an ugly and a pretty. The Pretties have high self esteem whereas the Uglies don't. I get extremely engrossed in Tally's narration because the author makes her seem as if she was a normal individual like us, ourselves. I found myself slowly becoming a part of the character as we are considered as one of the 'Uglies'. I slowly found out that the Uglies were normal people, whereas the Pretties were the abnormal ones. They all went through surgery and their faces look similar.Thus, us readers can relate to the experiences and thoughts of that of Tally's.

The theme of the book is pretty apparent, it revolves around friends and appearance. The author's intention of showing that theme is properly depicted in every chapter. Sometimes, right when we get pretty much absorbed into the book and forget the main motive of the book, the author drops a little hint of her theme here and there to remind us of the main idea in this book. I really enjoyed reading this book, not only because of the plot itself, but also because the author does a really good job of expressing the life of the new world. Although some things of the new world seem weird, the author never fails to explain to us.

-Millicent L.