Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Title: Uglies (Uglies Book 1)
Author: Scott Westerfield
Number of Pages: 448
Age Level: Young Adult
Genre(s): fantasy, future, science fiction

Synopsis: All Tally wanted was to turn pretty and move to New Pretty Town and party with her friends, but that all changed the night she went to see Peris and met Shay, another ugly trying to escape after Tally pulled the most daring trick of all. Now she has to find and betray The Smoke or stay ugly forever.


Review: Uglies is the first book I've read by Scott Westerfield. The premise and plot are actually quite interesting and I loved every minute of the read. The world that he builds sucks you in and you can't escape until you've finished the book.

Tally is actually a very amazing character with her desperate desire to become one of the many "Pretties" living in New Pretty Town, so that she can join her childhood friend Peris who left her only a matter of weeks before the book begins. The rather sweet and rather obvious crush she harbors for Peris at the beginning is adorable but as the story progresses it becomes rather obvious that after everything Tally has gone through she has grown greatly from her time in The Smoke.

Needless to say her feelings for Peris have gone from sweetly infatuated to realizing that they were childish dreams when confronted with the sweetness of a first love in David and her fight with Shay over Tally's supposed betrayal by stealing him away.

The last few chapters truly make Tally shine as a character and show that her growth wasn't superficial and she isn't returning to Special Circumstances just so she can become Pretty which by this point has become a foolish desire to her. She's returning out of neccessity so that David's mother has a subject to test her new pill on in order to see if she can reverse the effects that becoming Pretty has on the brain of the person getting the surgery.

They also show the emotional gamut that she goes through in having to leave the boy she cares deeply about and her guilt for the death of his father and betraying the Smoke without realizing it.