April 22, 2008

Scott Westerfeld: Uglies



After a month in a half of not really reading and trying to pick up a few different books, I managed to jump into one this week and keep reading. I just finished it earlier today.

After hearing Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series being brought up time and again at work and on LibraryThing, I give it a try. My biggest disappointment is that I didn't buy any of the other books in the series.

Right away I could tell this book takes place somewhere different than our world because of the technology, and in a way, it does. It takes place in the future. We are known as what they refer to as Rusties. There are no more people in the simple way we see it as now. Instead there are Littlies, Uglies, Pretties...

They have some interesting terms (SpagBlo) and devices of technology (crash bracelets), but at the same time it's funny hearing them talk about things from our day (roller coasters) that characters are just as mystified over.

In future, people looking different is done away with. They are all made to look the same, equally pretty, upon their sixteenth birthday. All of one's life, children are brought up to believe they are hideous and ugly, to become beautiful only with the surgery that will change their lives for the better.

I think if anyone had a problem with this book (which I doubt, but if it happened), they should at least consider this: this book can do wonders for young teenage girls. If anything it will teach them there is more to the world than being pretty, and that beauty comes from within. It's about being an individual, a good friend, and doing what is right.

The ending of this book definitely holds on to you and makes you want to know what happens next. With luck I'll find out soon...but I'm not wanting to buy any books at all except for Stephenie Meyer's The Host before I go on my trip this summer. I'm eager to read the excerpt for the next book, Pretties, that's in the back of this one, but because I know it won't be till when I can borrow it from a friend in June that I can read it, I'm not going to.

My book challenge is so shot this year. I still have hope, though.


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