Review Detail

Reader reviewed by darklightkid

In the future, 16-year-olds are required by law to undergo extreme cosmetic surgery that turns them into people almost too beautiful to be human. Until then, until the day they become Pretties, they have to live in their own dorm halls, with only their peers for company, as unwanted Uglies.

Tally Youngblood is about to turn 16 herself, and she is tired of being the oldest ugly in the house. Her best friend Shay will get the operation a few days before she does. But on the big day, Shay inexplicably vanishes without a trace. And even worse, Tally is approached by Dr. Cable, the fearsome and intimidatingly beautiful leader of the Special Circumstances squad, who gives her an ultimatum: Find Shay and bring her back, or Tally will never become pretty.

So, Tally goes on a mission, across the same blasted post-apocalyptic landscape she and Shay used to hoverboard around on, carrying nothing but the clothes on her backs and seemingly endless packages of synthetic pre-packed food - specifically, SpagBol, or Spaghetti Bolognese, which Tally eventually gets tired of (a running gag for the rest of the series is that she will eat any other such food - PadThai, CurryNoods - anything but SpagBol.) Eventually, Tally discovers a camp full of runaway renegades, all ugly but mostly adults, Shay among them. And as she stays there, Tally discovers that being pretty is not all it's cracked up to be. The horrible sad truth is, when a person undergoes the Pretty operation, the surgeons sneakily insert brain lesions to prevent the Pretties from thinking of anything but partying. Who will Tally trust? Will she betray her best friend?

It's a sin that most people look at this book and automatically assume it's strictly chick-lit. I'm a dude and yet I still enjoyed this book, because Westerfeld is one of my favorite authors (and if I ever become a writer myself someday, I would cite Westerfeld as one of my influences.) It's not the best book in his bibliography, but it's a good start to a series with amazing potential. And it carries a very serious message, too: similarly to a famous quote from The Incredibles, when everyone's pretty, no one will be. Chew on that, Kim Kardashian!