World peace has been achieved, the environment has been saved, and crime is almost non-existent. Since everyone is “pretty”, there’s no jealousy or inferiority complexes. Once you hit… (mid-twenties, maybe?), you are assigned “volunteer work”. I don’t fully understand how that works yet, but perhaps it’s either explained in the other books or I’m just not imaginative enough to comprehend it. It’s a society that reminds me of The Jetsons. You then spend the rest of your days living amongst a society of “pretties”, carefree and always provided for.įuturistic technology makes every item recyclable, so there is no need to deplete resources from nature. Your bones are stretched and grinded for perfect height and proportions, your face is completely reconstructed, your teeth are replaced and set, the irises in your eyes are enhanced, and your skin is removed and replaced with better, blemish-free skin. On your 16th birthday, you undergo a mandatory operation to make you “pretty”. At the age of 12, you are sent to boarding school in Uglytown, where you will live throughout your puberty years until you turn 16. Rather than call them ‘mom’ and dad’, you refer to them on a first name basis (not sure if this is a rule or just a cultural thing). Picture it: You are born to beautiful parents whom you look nothing like. The citizens stay mostly isolated in their own cities and live in a seemingly perfect society, which is later revealed to have a darker side. It’s a dystopian novel set centuries after modern human’s civilization has obliterated itself. The Uglies series reminds me a bit of The Giver. The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit. Tally’s choice will change her world forever… The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all.

When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world– and it isn’t very pretty. And as a pretty, she’ll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.īut Tally’s new friend Shay isn’t sure she wants to become a pretty. In just a few weeks she’ll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty.

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can’t wait. Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Uglies novel