Book #10: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

One of many books that have been recommended to me by some old friends that I just never got around to reading. When I saw that they were in a very good condition in a charity shop, and for quite a reasonable price, I thought maybe now will be the time I actually read it.

As the first book in the series it starts everything, explaining this futuristic times with fancy new gadgets and technology, and of course culture and society. The whole premise of the series is very disturbing.

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can’t wait. In just a few weeks she’ll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she’ll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.

Now for a world where people decided to create a surgery where they conform their patients to one ideal type, isn’t that far a jump from what is happening now. Yeah sure we don’t all loom similar but a high percentage of supermodels have oddly similar faces and bodies. And for some reason a good portion of the general public aspire to be like them.

“You don’t believe all that crap, do you—that there’s only one way to look, and everyone’s programmed to agree on it?”

This quote hit home hard for me. Im not judging the people who aspire to be like the supermodels or the celebrities we see in magazines, because I am just like them. I wish I had those cheekbones and that waistline, but evidently by the statistics today this is harming us. So many different issues are touched upon in this book, but many more seem to be uncovered as you follow Tally through unearthing the brutal truth about the society she grew up idolising.

Scott Westerfeld writes in such an intriguing way you can’t help but finish the book and that is why I’m so looking forward to reading the other 3 books of the series! I loved it so much I’ve recommended it to 2 separate people since finishing it.