Tolog Review: Uglies

Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld
reviewed by Sofia Paragas Bejerano

What could possibly be wrong in a world where, at sixteen, you are given a free surgery that would ensure you to become supermodel beautiful; a surgery that takes away all physical flaw from one’s body?

Tally Youngblood finds herself longing for the day she turns sixteen, for the day that she would be eligible for her turn to finally become a Pretty. She does not want to be an Ugly anymore. Well, that is what she thought until meeting her new friend, Shay. She is an average ugly. What makes her out of average? She cannot stand the thought of the surgery, the thought of becoming a Pretty.

At first, Tally refuses to believe in Shay’s talk of a city outside of their own, a city filled with people who were all ugly. Ugly, and left without the luxuries of their city and everything that Tally has grown up around. How could anyone ever want a life like that? A life in the wild where you never become supermodel beautiful; never have everything they want in an instant. Tally thinks Shay is absolutely crazy until she gets thrown into that world; the life that she never wanted, until she meets David.

David opens Tally’s eyes to what life was before the surgery was made. To her horror, she finds out so much more than she has ever wanted to know. How could the world she grew up be so cruel and destructive? How could these people living in the wild be right?

She has a decision. Does she give in and give up on her newfound knowledge of the truth behind the surgery and what has happened in the city, or stick around in the wild and accept how the world was before? How badly does she want to be a Pretty? She does not know if she can betray her friends just for the sake of a surgery that did not seem that important anymore.

I found Uglies to be a wonderful novel. It has an interesting plot line set in the future where humans have advanced everything to their liking. It is provoking, almost making it seem as if the reader were part of the city, about to receive the surgery. Friendships, desires, a whole mix of emotions in the first book of a trilogy. Truly, this novel is exceptional.