Valet Reader

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

If the first line of your book is “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit,” odds are you’ve got me hooked already. Believe it or not, that’s how Uglies starts. I had a fear that it would be oddly similar in some unusual way to Gone which I really didn’t enjoy very much. But, it wasn’t, hooray!

It’s pretty clear from the get go that this was going to be a book with a strong and in your face moral. A story that features “ugly” people vs. “pretty” people. Um, pretty blunt. More often than not a book that appears to have that strong of a point will certainly be a turn off for me. But, regardless of that I decided I would still give it a shot. I’m not exactly sure why to be honest, but that’s irrelevant.

All in all, I can fairly say that I enjoyed this book. It’s not as though I would put it high on my list, but after reading this, the first book in the series, I actually feel encouraged and intrigued enough to read the second novel, Pretties. Being a YA book the language wasn’t exactly complex and many of the literary elements I really enjoy in books were absent but the story was original and it was a quick read. Both things that are encouraging for me. Not only that but the fact that the protagonist is a female, similar to Suzanne Collins Hunger Games made the book a bit more unique.

I guess you could say that it’s a “pretty” instructional book. Being in the age of plastic surgery everyone and anyone these days can pretty much decide how it is they want to look. Take for instance this waitress I had the other night. The face she had on, was most certainly not the face she was born with and it was quite possibly one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen. I’m assuming that this woman thought it was “pretty,” and I am loathe to believe that others may feel the same but I suppose it’s true. What I take away from this book is the idea that conforming to a general sense of beauty in appearance is an extremely unhealthy and vain excersise in humanities attempts to make things uniform while at the same time ignoring the inner beauty (cheesy, I know) of people. That was a mouthful.

The nice thing about this book is the way in which these ideas are espoused. It may be blatant but it’s done so in a pretty good story. Set in the future, once a teenager turns 16 they undergo “the operation” which miraculously turns them from an “ugly” into a “pretty.” They are then relocated to New Pretty Town where they can party with the other “pretties” to their hearts content. Naturally there are those who rebel and realize that there is indeed something sinister about the surgeries and that’s where the story really takes form. Don’t worry, I haven’t, nor will I ever, spoil the story without telling you beforehand.

Given what I’ve told you it’s rather easy to see where the story goes and how it progresses into a bit of a social commentary while at same time providing a good plot line. Like I said, I’ll be reading and of course reviewing Westerfeld’s second book in the trilogy “Pretties” soon.