Uglies

My latest book is Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

(Again - Spoilers!)

Uglies is the story of America in the future. The powers that be have decided that past generations ruined their world with their stupid, petty, jealous minds. They decided to take care of all those problems - by taking sixteen year olds and giving them an operation that makes them gorgeous. When everyone looks the same and has the same opportunity - there is no fighting. They all renewable resources, all the power and food they want, they don't have to worry about money, the New Pretties party all night - life is great!

Tally can't wait to be pretty - because her best friend turned and left her behind. She meets another Ugly when she sneaks into New Pretty Town to see her best friend. Shay, her new friend, tells her of another place where people do not have the operation and stay ugly for life. Tally doesn't believe her and does not understand why someone would ever chose that life.

Then Shay disappears. All she left behind was a cryptic note to the Smoke, the hidden village where the forever-Uglies are hiding. Tally is kidnapped by the Specials - the people who run the City, and is blackmailed with her surgery to go to the Smoke, lead the Specials there - and they she can be pretty.

Tally does it - and while at the Smoke she sees how happy people are, how connected they still seem, she falls in love with David - who has never lived in a city at all. David's parents were doctors who used to perform the surgeries to change people to pretty and they discovered that during the operations - the Specials did something to the brain that caused lesions and pliability. That is why Pretties are happy.

The Specials find the Smoke, capturing the inhabitants, turning Shay pretty. Tally and David manage to break the others out - and David's mother thinks she found a cure for the lesions in Shay's brain. Shay will not consent to taking the medication, so Tally gets herself captured to be turned Pretty so she can try the cure.

This is a great book. As a woman, it made me feel a lot of things. I do know how to feels to look in a mirror and not be pleased at what I see. I do know how it is to be TOLD what is pretty. We are inundated all day with images of those who are gorgeous. I have felt jealous. I have wished that I was thinner and prettier. Never enough to go through plastic surgery or anything - but enough to allow the fleeting thought.

The message is wonderful. The message to embrace individuality, freedom, hard work, and critical thought. It talks about the value of our things, to make sure that we don't view our surroundings as disposable, and that we have to work for the things that are really important to us.

This book is a young adult book - and since my last book was YA also, I was more prepared for this writing. I was ready for it to be linear and simple. I didn't mind near as much in this book, the message and the society that was built was interesting enough to overlook the simpleness. I had a good time reading this - I am rooting for the characters, and I can't wait to find out what happens next. I hope Tally can handle being pretty.