Uglies

I first heard about Uglies by Scott Westerfeld a few years ago. A friend's daughter was interested in trying to write a screenplay adaptation of this book and was talking about it on Facebook. At the time, I kind of shrugged it off; it was a YA book and I wasn't all that interested.

Boy, what a difference a few years make.

What really cinched the deal for me was the fact that I just recently finished two other books by Westerfeld and enjoyed them enough that I wanted to see what else he had to offer. So onto my Kindle went Uglies and I just now finished it.

This is the story of Tally Youngblood, an Ugly who is about to become a Pretty. Apparently at some point in the (near) future, society gives people an operation at the age of sixteen that wipes away all physical imperfections and makes them all good looking. Once you become Pretty, you move across the river and party all the time.

But until then, you're stuck in Uglyville, and that's where Tally finds herself, longing to be made Pretty so she can join her friend, Peris, in New Pretty Town. To pass the time, she starts pulling pranks on the younger Uglies and the new Pretties. And that's how she meets Shay. Like Tally, Shay is also waiting to be made Pretty. Sort of. But Shay has a slightly different dream in mind, one that will pull Tally away from the future she had planned into one that's a little more real.

This was a fun read. Once again, Westerfeld did a great job creating a plausible world, and he also crafted some really memorable characters, especially Tally. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to reading the others in the series. But not yet. I still have close to two or three dozen books in my to-be-read pile.

But when I burn through those, you can bet I'll be going back to Uglyville.