Tolog Review: The Uglies

Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld
reviewed by Madeline Gray 

Why would you not want to be pretty? The book Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld tackles this topic by giving the characters in the book no choice but to be pretty. This fictional novel follows a group of characters on a journey from ugly to pretty and tells the story of their struggles. They learn that what they thought would be an amazing transformation turns out to be quite the opposite.

In the Uglies, the teenage characters feel that they are ugly and awkward and don’t belong with the pretties. They long to fit in and be more like the pretties or at least what they envisioned a pretty to be. The main character Tally and her best friend Shay, learn that being pretty is not what they thought it would be after all. Their whole way of living could be altered by their change in appearance. Things that they could do when ugly, suddenly become politically incorrect for the life of pretty. People who looked at them one way, could now possibly view and judge them differently. Society leads these characters to believe things about themselves that may not necessarily be true. 

Overall, I found this book to be relatable to everyday life. Society’s view of what pretty should be, guides us in the way we treat and judge others. This was evident in the book as well. The author tells the story from the characters perspective making the story seem more like a true story rather than fiction. There are three other books in this series that follow the same characters and their journey from uglies to pretties. I highly recommend this book to challenge what we all believe to be true about beauty.