Uglies and Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

There are some young adult books that I have a hard time saying I like, but which I nevertheless have a hard time putting down. One of these is Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, which I read after learning that the author is a BYU grad, and that the books are wildly popular among teenage girls right now. I didn’t think it was well-written enough to set it above any other standard teen lit, and after talking about it with several other women around my age who got just as swept into it as I did, I decided that maybe the reason I couldn’t put it down and finished it in two days flat was because it so blatantly played into every teenage girls’ fantasy. It was not my adult self reading it so much as my junior high self, and from that perspective the story was deeply satisfying. (For the record, I was unable to make it through the sequel, and at this point will probably never make it to the third book at all.)

I think Uglies was like that in a way. I have plenty of gripes with the book. There are too many story elements that have been overused in other works of fiction. But there was still a freshness and energy to it that made it highly entertaining. My junior high self absolutely loved it even as my adult self took up the position of back-seat critic all the way through.

The story is basically your prototypical future-dystopia story: at some point in the past, humans have gone and destroyed themselves, whether by nuclear holocaust, epidemic disease, or (in thise case) vulnerability through oil dependence. The new generation of humans appears more stable, but at a cost—minds and memories are being carefully controlled by an elite group of leaders. Our protagonist inadvertently becomes involved with the few renegades who know the truth, and finds him- or herself drawn into a plot to reclaim humanity. This is a book I feel like I have read dozens of times.

Still, the world of Uglies is credible, and the writing is clean and fast-paced, if not particularly sophisticated. The characters are likeable, and while the basics of the story are no different from other young adult dystopia stories, the details are unique enough that I felt compelled to finish the book. In the world of Uglies, humans grow up with their parents, and then spend their awkward teenage years in dorms preparing for a much-anticipated operation at age 16 that will make them “pretty” by erasing the characteristics (like big ears or freckles or boniness) that cause feelings of envy and superiority. They will then inhabit their scientifically perfected bodies, spending several years enjoying endless parties before settling down as more responsible (but still beautiful) adults, with jobs and families, at harmony with the environment and each other.

Tally is our heroine, and shortly before her sixteenth birthday her friend Shay reveals the existence of a secret colony of people who have refused to undergo the operation, and have chosen to run away and remain “ugly.” This new knowledge leads from one hard decision to another, and to plenty of action and a few surprises. The book doesn’t involve much thinking, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is not in the habit of reading youth fiction, but it is entertaining enough.

By the time I finished I was itching to pick up the sequel, but although I finished it, I found that it was much harder for me to get through, and left me with little desire to finish out the series of four books (originally meant to be a trilogy). Although the first felt fresh and new, by the time a second book started the ideas were old, and the clichés and overused plotlines were a lot harder to ignore. I’ll probably finish the trilogy at some point. After all, they’re quick reads, and I can probably pick up the third book at the public library. But I’m not on the edge of my seat waiting to know what happens next.