Mini Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (SPOILER FREE)

Title: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia

Rating: 4 / 4.5 Stars

Synopsis

Tally can’t wait to turn sixteen and become pretty. Sixteen is the magic number that brings a transformation from 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.

Review

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a book I came across on Amazon whilst scouring for other Dystopian reads I hadn’t seen before so I can read them not only for pleasure but for my Dissertation too which is going to be focused on YA Contemporary Dystopia’s.  I love this genre, I love being able to fully immerse myself into the world and escape, I love the totalitarian governments and the characters journey to save society but most of all I love that a lot of them feature such strong heroines.
                                                                         Yaaay for strong female characters who save the day. 

Uglies is a book with mixed reviews but personally for me, I really enjoyed it. I love the concept of the plot that plastic surgery is compulsory and being Pretty is how society is broken up and it is the lead hierarchy of this society. One of the reasons I enjoyed the concept so much was because its our society, our reality but too a larger excess, magazines alter images to get the perfect ‘pretty’ picture, we have plastic surgery to fit in with a mold of what’s pretty. The only major difference between the book and our reality is we aren’t forced into surgery to fit in with societies view of whats beautiful we do it willingly.

What made this lack a 5 star read for me was I found it predictable at times, especially towards the end – the turning point. I’m not sure if that’s largely to do with the actual plot or if it’s because I have read so many Dystopia’s I can work out where the story is heading. However saying this, in comparison to other Dystopia’s I have read this one follows a different plot sequence, YA Dystopia’s are usually focused on the hero or heroine saving society from a controlling government therefore working against them however Uglies considers Tally as a character who infact helps the government sure this is because she is blackmailed but it offers an interesting relationship between the two. 

I wanted to make this a mini review because I read the book a few months ago and I am only just finally getting round to reviewing it and also because I am using this for my Dissertation and I don’t want to put too much detail into my points because knowing me I’ll put them in my essay and then it will come up on the essay tracker for plagiarism of an online source.

I would definitely recommend this series, the writing style is easy to get into and Scott Westerfeld has a brilliant description so you can fully immerse yourself into his world. Previously to seeing this book on Amazon I actually had not seen it mentioned on Booktube or book blogs before so I will be interested to know if any of you have come across this for yourself.

Tip: The book is part of a trilogy and the story continues within the next book after a cliffhanger, if you are going to read them perhaps make sure you have the others close by so you don’t end up waiting too long for your next book to arrive!

Have you read Uglies? Let me know in the comments your thoughts or if you think this sounds like a book you fancy picking up for yourself?

www.scottwesterfeld.com | www.bookdepository.com/Uglies