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Uglies | 
| Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
Category: EBooks
List Price: $8.99
Buy New: $7.19
You Save: $1.80 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  274 reviews
Sales Rank: 2269
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
ASIN: B000GCFY0I
Publication Date: June 19, 2006
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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. Teens will be entranced, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them gasping for the sequel. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell
Product Description
"Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you 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."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 269 more reviews...
 not ugly, but not pretty July 25, 2008
I thought the whole book was a good idea, being futuristic and all...very interesting to see one view of what the world could end up like.
The plot was pretty good, although I guessed a lot of it before it happened.
Throughout the whole book, it seemed like there was something missing and I just couldn't figure out what it was. But as I'm writing this review, I realize that the characters had no special attributes that set them apart. They were flat. Besides how Shay and Tally's views differed, they were all basically the same. They all talked the same and acted the same pretty much. I think it could've been a lot better if they each had their own individual qualities (Tally, Shay, David, Croy, Maddy, Az).
I also think it would've made the book a LOT more interesting if they talked more about how the world changed and why, and when they passed Rusty cities, it would've been cool if the author had David know what the cities were called. For example, the Rusty Ruins could have been a part of New York? That would've been really fascinating.
On the other hand, it was an alright book, and I suppose I'll read the rest of the series just to see what happens.
... July 19, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Welcome to a world 300 years in the future. A world where everyone gets to be beautiful when they turn 16, at that age you undergo an operation that "turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty." You live in a beautiful party mansion in New Pretty Town with other Pretties and have all the fun you want; and Tally Youngblood will be there in a few short weeks.
Tally's friend Shay isn't so sure she wants to become pretty and runs away to live in the wild. Doing so is not approved of by the authorities (though it does happen every once in a while) and they give Tally a choice: Track down and find Shay and bring her back or never become pretty at all.
 not just for teens... July 11, 2008
I am an 8th grade teacher and several of my students begged me to read this book to them during homeroom so I agreed. It did not take long for me to get just as hooked on this story as my students were as it is an incredible story. The writing is incredible and Westerfeld masterfully paints vivid pictures of this futuristic society.
The only thing that I hated was that nobody told me that this was book 1 of a trilogy. When I finished reading the book to my students literally the last week of school I pretty much yelled out when I got to the end and found out that it was not over. As soon as the summer started I went and bought Pretties and Specials and finished both in a couple of days.
What a great book to get lost in. Do not get discouraged that it is promoted as a "teen novel" because every adult who I know has read it feels the same way as I do - they love this series!
Logan's Run meets The Real Life July 6, 2008
I picked this up after reading recommendations by other SF authors, like Cory Doctorow. I'm way out of the target demographic for this book (being a middle-aged man) and, I'll have to admit, it's something I might be a little embarrassed reading in public due to the cover and obvious target audience, but I'd still heartily recommend it (and the rest of the series) to just about anyone of any age or sex. The book's cover and blurbs kinda hide the fact that this is pure, good SF - lots of action, intriguing moral dilemmas, with interesting cultural insights and satire.
I described it to my wife as an update to Logan's Run, where people live in isolated cities where their every needs are taken care of (not domed, but quite insular nonetheless). Instead of being terminated at the age of 30, like in Logan's Run, you are turned into Paris Hilton at the age of sixteen - made physically beautiful, but somehow turned into mindless party people. Like in Logan's Run, the protagonist, Tally, against her will, escapes the city right before being turned "Pretty" and discovers a whole world of dissidents and refugees who are fighting against the system, including old "Uglies" who live in the ruins of "Rusty" cities. The social issues are blatant and there are even metaphorical asides, such as the mutant orchids that have taken over much of the wild - smothering environmental diversity with their self-similar beauty. I admire the author, however, for never having a character say, "Oh, the orchids are like the Pretties" even though it is obvious, he never beats the reader over the head with the metaphor.
The later books move through the strata of these new societal levels, the "Pretties" and the "Specials" and you meet other isolated human societies, including a violent engineered "zoo" of "primative" humans. It would have been easy to portray all of these levels as simplistic social morality plays, but he keeps it all fairly realistic, or at least believable, with plenty of moral and ethical dilemmas that have no easy answers - is it correct to make choices for people who have been engineered to reject those choices? How much can you engineer the human psyche and still remain human? Each of us changes as we grow and mature, and we reject and alter our mindsets as we grow - does that make us different people? The "Pretty" cities have been existing in a productive, peaceful state with a level of environmental coexistence that the most radical "tree hugger" would love, for centuries, but at a severe loss of freedom of thought and under the control of those who think they know best for everyone. Is that OK? How much individual freedom can you abandon and still be free and human?
As I said, if you examine the cover and read the blurbs on the back, you would think that this is near future teen social novel, with plastic surgery enhanced teens vs. "normal" ugly teens, like the publisher is afraid that teen girls won't pick up a "real" SF book, but it's actually set centuries in the future with nano-technology, bioengineering, hoverboards, and a rebellious cyberpunk feel that should also appeal to boys and a wider SF audience. Of course, as sales results and critics have begun to point out, the teen/young adult market is very hot right now (led, in large part, by the Harry Potter phenomenon) and as many adults as teens are buying, reading, and enjoying these books. You should too.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld July 3, 2008
When I first picked up this book, I thought the premise was very intriguing. A world full of beautiful people sounds like Heaven. But as I got into the book more and more, it sounded more like you know where! It took me a few chapters to really become engrossed in the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. I was waiting for all the excitement to start happening. The story is based around Tally Youngblood, an ugly about to turn pretty. She meets Shay, an ugly that doesn't want to turn pretty. Shay runs away and Tally is forced to bring her friend home or never turn pretty. The events that follow start building up to the climax. After the climax, the story doesn't really slow down. The last sentence in the book will chill you to the bone and make you very excited about the next book. After a slow start, I really started to care about Tally and her friends. I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Pretties.
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