Review Detail

Considering this was on my wish list, I was very much looking forward to reading it. I must say, I was greatly disappointed. It started off well, introducing us to Tally and her utalitarian world. The story held my attention for about the first 100 pages before I started to become frustrated with the plot development and the fact that I wasn't connecting to any of the characters.

There is one goal: to be a Pretty.

Tally longs to join the folks in New Pretty Town and become what society deems as 'perfect'. After the first 100 pages, I started to get bored as the story was just dragging along. There was always constant movement, yet the story was not progressing. Many scenes lacked significance. At times, I felt as if I was in a parked car, and everything around me was moving. Although we get to see Shay and Tally go on adventures, it felt as if the story wasn't going anywhere. I felt as if I could do without those scenes as they didn't add much to the story. I wanted Westerfeld to just get to the point and stop lollygagging.

The story just didn't fly off the pages for me. I didn't feel the presence of the character, I didn't particularly care for the romance that was forming between Tally and David nor did I care much for how the story would end. I skimmed a few pages, particularly towards the end, which I don't like to do, as I feel I'll miss out on important information. It's a good concept. It just wasn't executed well. At least, that's how I feel.

Westerfeld writes well, but the story just didn't grab me. Uglies was an okay read, but I don't think I'll be continuing on with the rest of the books in the series.