Uglies

That's the ending? Really? Well, fine then. I'll just have to read the sequel to Scott Westerfeld's Uglies. It's a good thing I got the box set at such a good bargain. This is the second book I have read recently that feels like a series, like one really long story. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children has the same, obvious, cliffhanger ending. Any resolution at all not likely coming until the end of the series. I don't usually like that feeling, that nothing is known, that you must read the next novel before you can know anything, but like Miss Peregrine's, I enjoyed Uglies enough for it not to matter. I want to know more about this society, how it got there and where it's going.

Uglies also reminded me a lot of Delirium. Both stories take place in a society where something is taken away, leaving a more "peaceful" people. When Delirium removes love, the reaction is more shocked, I think, from the reader.  When Uglies removes ugliness, there's more hesitation, doesn't everyone want to be pretty? That's what drew me to the series, the idea that no one is judged on looks because everyone is pretty. There's even a pretty standard. How the Uglies treat each other, how they idolize the Pretties, seemed an almost logical exaggeration of what happens now. The Uglies are teenagers, a time when a person is learning about themselves and also in need of guidance. If pretty adults come to you and tell you that one day you'll be pretty too, why question it?

Uglies (like Delirium) centres around a girl who is fine with the status quo. Tally (like Lena) starts out wanting the operation that will make them normal. It is a friend that starts them down the rebellious path. Is it the boy that keeps them their, or is it that their beliefs change? I like to think the later. Tally learns the truth about the operation. It changes how she views everything and everyone she has ever known. I like the idea of the unwilling rebel/hero. I've seen it twice now in these dystopian novels. I wonder if I'll see more of it. 

 

I have to say, that scene with Tally, Shay, and the magazines was really interesting. I liked Tally's reaction to them and how Shay explained things too her. I like the idea that magazines, fashion magazines, could hold a piece of our history that future generations would never know about otherwise. I also found it interesting that in Tally's world, not everyone learns penmanship. Not even basic printing. Technology is such a huge part of Tally's world that even people living in the wilderness have to use it. 

I'm excited to read the rest of the series. Westerfeld has created and intriguing world and left the end of Uglies with a big setup for Pretties. The series is four books, and I don't think it'll be long before I have read all of them.