Book Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Uglies

By Scott Westerfeld

Reviewed by Reece
3 stars

“Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?
Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.”

Tally just wants to go to New Pretty Town and join her best friend, Paris. She can’t stand not seeing him. She hasn’t seen him in such a long while, so she decides to sneak into New Pretty Town, and find him. Find him she does, in an elevator. She describes how beautiful he is. Then she accidentally gets mud on his white jacket. Then she bungee jumps off the building. On her way out of New Pretty Town, she meets another ugly, named Shay.

Her and Shay become close friends, and a couple weeks before there supposed to have their own operation to become pretty, Shay tells Tallly they should leave and go to The Smoke.

The Smoke is a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. It’s a secret. Tally doesn’t know if she should go with her friend, or stay. She stays. But the day of her operation, something goes wrong. She is denied her right to be pretty, and has to go on a quest to find Shay. Luckily, Shay left Tally some directions, which were left in a type of riddle only tally could understand. It went like this:

Take the coaster straight past the gap,
Until you find one that's long and flat.
Cold is the sea and watch for breaks,
At the second make the worst mistake.
Four days later take the side you despise,
And look in the flowers for fire-bug eyes.
Once they're found, enjoy the flight,
Then wait on the bald head until it's light

Tally had no idea what it meant but she decided to play it ear. 

The riddle is one of the only things I like about this book, other than the whole “pretty and ugly” deal.

This book sounded very thrilling, but I was not too impressed. The book was rather dull, except for the traveling part.

As boring as it was, I might read the next book, just because of the cliff hanger it leaves you on.