Uglies

jtesar - THERE IS A SPOILER IN THIS WRITING!!I loved this book. It is about a girl named Tally that lives in a world where at age 16 you have to have surgery to make you supermodel gorgeous. But is it as fun as it seems? She meets a friend named Shay that wants to run away and not become pretty. She doesn't believe in that. So Shay and Tally become real good friends until Shay decides to leave. Tally is concerned about her friend. She wants to be her friend and become pretty. But at that moment it isn't possible. One day she gets called into Special Circumstances. Special Circumstances is the place where you become pretty. She has already made a promise to 2 friends. Peris and Shay. She said she would become and not become pretty. Who's promise will she break. Shay's or Peris's. She still wants to become pretty but is fretting about the decision. When she is called in she discovers it's not to become pretty, but to betray Shay and give away the place Shay has ran off to. The smoke. Shay has given Tally directions in case she decided to travel to the Smoke. Will she betray Shay? She decides to go into the Smoke, but as a spy. She is given a heart pendant and has to activate it when she gets to the Smoke. She overcame a LONG dangerous journey and arrives at the Smoke. She meets David Shay's boyfriend, and falls in love with him. She kissed him and Shay is real mad at her. She decides not to get the surgery because she believes in True beauty on the inside not on the outside. She then discovers what happens to you when you become a pretty. You get lesions that mess up your brain. She decides to destroy the pendant. The thing is the pendant sends out a signal when damaged. She accidentally gives away the Smoke's location. Now Shay is madder than ever. Her friends get taken away and only David and Tally escape. They rescue their friends but discover Shay became pretty when they got caught. She was forced to. David's dad dies and she wants to turn Shay back. Heal her. She acts differently. Real different. Shay can take pills and be cured but she has a new mind which makes her decide to stay pretty. They will not force her into taking the pills however can only do so if they have a WILLING PRETTY. Tally decides if nobody is going to she will give herself up become a pretty and be the willing subject. David gives a HUGE fight to keep her at the smoke because he loves her. That doesn't change her mind and she tells David she was a spy. He doesn't believe her and runs away. She gives herself up and becomes a pretty. Read the NEXT BOOK to find out more. It is called the Pretties. I really recommend this book. Bye.

March 21, 2005
In this launch title of a planned trilogy, teenager Tally Youngblood is living an unexamined life in a world unlike ours, hundreds of years from now. She's impatiently awaiting her birthday because in her town, Uglyville, everybody gets the same gift at age 16: cosmetic surgery which transforms them into gorgeous creatures. They also move into "party towers" in New Pretty Town. Tally's best friend has already made the transition and, motivated by her desire to see him, she sneaks into town. Her near-capture leads to a new best friend, Shay, who has the same birthday. On the eve of their operations, Shay reveals a plan to escape to a renegade settlement called "the Smoke." When Shay disappears, government agents blackmail Tally into leading them to the rebels. Once in the Smoke, Tally has a crisis of conscience when she learns the surgery is more sinister than she imagined. Teens will appreciate the gadgetry—including bungee jackets and hoverboards that work by magnetic levitation. But plausibility problems creep in, such as Tally leading a breakout of Smokeys from a high-tech compound while wearing handcuffs. As in his So Yesterday
, Westerfeld introduces thought-provoking issues, but readers may lose track of the plot while sorting the many messages about how the "Rusties" nearly destroyed the planet. They may also feel cheated when, after 400-plus pages, the ending leaves loose ends to be tied up in the next installment, Pretties
. Ages 12-up.

February 7, 2005
In this launch title of a planned trilogy, teenager Tally Youngblood is living an unexamined life in a world unlike ours, hundreds of years from now. She's impatiently awaiting her birthday because in her town, Uglyville, everybody gets the same gift at age 16: cosmetic surgery which transforms them into gorgeous creatures. They also move into "party towers" in New Pretty Town. Tally's best friend has already made the transition and, motivated by her desire to see him, she sneaks into town. Her near-capture leads to a new best friend, Shay, who has the same birthday. On the eve of their operations, Shay reveals a plan to escape to a renegade settlement called "the Smoke." When Shay disappears, government agents blackmail Tally into leading them to the rebels. Once in the Smoke, Tally has a crisis of conscience when she learns the surgery is more sinister than she imagined. Teens will appreciate the gadgetry--including bungee jackets and hoverboards that work by magnetic levitation. But plausibility problems creep in, such as Tally leading a breakout of Smokeys from a high-tech compound while wearing handcuffs. As in his So Yesterday , Westerfeld introduces thought-provoking issues, but readers may lose track of the plot while sorting the many messages about how the "Rusties" nearly destroyed the planet. They may also feel cheated when, after 400-plus pages, the ending leaves loose ends to be tied up in the next installment, Pretties . Ages 12-up.

Starred review from March 1, 2005
Gr 6 Up -Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they'll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking "pretties." Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots -or remain forever "ugly." Tally's adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels' cover. Ethical concerns will provide a good source of discussion as honesty, justice, and free will are all oppressed in this well-conceived dystopia. Characterization, which flirts so openly with the importance of teen self-concept, is strong, and although lengthy, the novel is highly readable with a convincing plot that incorporates futuristic technologies and a disturbing commentary on our current public policies. Fortunately, the cliff-hanger ending promises a sequel." -Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2005
Gr. 7-10. Fifteen-year-old Tally's eerily harmonious, postapocalyptic society gives extreme makeovers to teens on their sixteenth birthdays, supposedly conferring equivalent evolutionary advantages to all. When a top-secret agency threatens to leave Tally ugly forever unless she spies on runaway teens, she agrees to infiltrate the Smoke, a shadowy colony of refugees from the "tyranny of physical perfection." At first baffled and revolted by the rebels' choices, Tally eventually bonds with one of their leaders and begins to question the validity of institutionalized mutilation--especially as it becomes clear that the government's surgeons may be doing more than cosmetic nipping and tucking. Although the narrative's brisk pace is more successful in scenes of hover-boarding action than in convincingly developing Tally's key relationships, teens will sink their teeth into the provocative questions about invasive technology, image-obsessed society, and the ethical quandaries of a mole-turned-ally. These elements, along with the obvious connections to reality programs such as " Miami Slice, "will surely cause this ingenious series debut to cement Westerfeld's reputation for high-concept YA fiction that has wide appeal. Suggest M. T. Anderson's " Feed "(2002)" "and Westerfeld's own " So Yesterday "(2004)" "to readers antsy for the next installment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)