Uglies, and Pretties, and Specials (oh my)
Categories: Teen Books , Science Fiction & Fantasy
I recently finished reading Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters series and liked it so much that I looked to see what else he had written (check out Westerfeld's blog here). I found Uglies, which stars Tally Youngblood, who can't wait to turn sixteen.
But instead of Tally getting a driver's license on her sixteenth birthday, in this world turning sixteen means going under the knife and getting a life of parties and prettiness. Shortly before her much-anticipated surgery, Tally befriends a girl named Shay, who shocks Tally by not wanting to be made "pretty." The consequence of not going through with the surgery is being Ugly. For life.
So Tally is shocked when Shay disappears shortly before the surgery - and horrified when the Special Circumstances department sends her on a spying mission to find the uglies who escaped from their pretty destiny. Tally resolves to turn in the uglies who live outside of civilization so she can at last become "pretty."
As Tally begins to learn what really happens in the pretties surgery, she has to decide whether the life she's always wanted is worth the cost of betraying her newfound friends.
Read the whole series!
