Vintage Tuesdays - What is Beauty?

Uglies

Written by: Scott Westerfeld

Released: February 8, 2005 by Simon Pulse

Summary: 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.

I don’t know why but I thought that this book was a little older than this. I guess not. Either way, I remember after reading this book that I immediately forced it upon my friend Rachelle and making her read the amazingness that is this book.

It’s just that this book has such a different look on how we as a people perceive ourselves. It’s crazy that people would perceive everyone who’s “normal” by our standards as “ugly” by theirs. Then the book makes you realize that there are extreme ideas of beautiful placed upon us already and we’re not that far off from what this book depicts.

Of course, I’m trying to be subjective only where the first book is concerned. The book is magnified as the series goes on and the series of a whole is fantastic… except for the fourth book which I don’t consider to be a part of the series as a whole but an off-shot that has cameos of previous characters. Where the series itself is a perfect 10/10 and Uglies doesn’t disappoint in that perfect score; 10/10 all the way. If you haven’t read the series put it on your TBR list, it’s well worth it.


On a side note, check out the different covers. I have the one on the right, and it matches the other books in the series that I have, but the other one really shows what a big part of the book (turning pretty) is about.