Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a sci-fi novel that is set in a Utopian society. Tally lives in a world where being pretty is valued over everything. At age 16 you get the surgery and enter the world of the Pretties. Before that you are an Ugly and even before that you are a Littlie. A few weeks before Tally turns sixteen she meets Shay, a girl who is planning on running away before her surgery. After Shay runs away, the authorities tell Tally either she helps them find Shay and turn her in or not be pretty. When Tally decides to find Shay, she has no idea what she has gotten herself into.

I started reading this book and almost gave up on it. With a creative plot, you would think that the author could come up with better names. Come on! Uglies, Pretties, Littlies, New Pretty Town, Uglyville. Seriously those are the least creative names for places and groups of people I have ever heard! But once I put that aside I enjoyed the book. The plot dragged at points, especially when Tally was alone. I thought the idea was not quite original, a supposedly Utopian society that isn't as perfect as it seems, in ways it reminded me of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The way the story was told though, was what set it apart. In Fahrenheit 451, free thinking was banned while in Uglies it was never really banned. I give this book 3 stars.