Module 5: Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Book Summary:

Tally Youngblood is about to turn 16 and in her city that means she is about to become a Pretty. Everyone in her city is an Ugly until they turn 16, then they undergo surgery to become beautiful. Tally cannot wait to finally be a Pretty, but then she befriends Shay. Shay tells her about a place outside of their city where you can go if you don’t want to have the surgery. It’s called the Smoke. This makes no sense to Tally, but that doesn’t stop Shay from running away. The city finds out about Shay running away and forces Tally to find her and bring her back. On Tally’s journey to find the Smoke and Shay she begins to see that maybe being a Pretty is not the most important thing.

APA Reference of Book:

Westerfeld, S. (2005/2011). Uglies. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.

Impressions:

When I first read the description of this book I was a little unnerved by it. I mean it sounded like a book about teens having plastic surgery so that they can be beautiful, which in a way it is. However, there is so much more to the story than that. It is a science fiction type book about a world where it is tradition that when you turn 16 you have surgery to become beautiful. That is their normal. I think this book does an excellent job of taking our society’s obsession with beauty and good looks, and shows up how obsessed and crazy we are becoming. Everyone wants to be beautiful. Some people do not care what they have to do to become beautiful. I will even admit that after reading a little bit of the book, I thought to myself, “It wouldn’t be that awful if everyone could just be pretty and then we wouldn’t have to be obsessing about it all the time.” I almost took on Tally’s attitude. She did not see anything wrong with the system that her city had in place. Then after befriending Shay and going to the Smoke, she begins to realize how her city has pretty much brainwashed them into believing that they can’t be beautiful unless they have the surgery. This is so relevant to teens today! Not just teens but everyone! Society has convinced us that in order to be considered beautiful we need to be a certain size and look a certain way. What we forget to take into consideration is that flaws can add to beauty. Personality also plays a huge factor. After Tally has been at the Smoke for a while, she starts to see how beautiful people become once you get to know them. Then David’s parents discover some interesting things about how the surgery affects people’s brains. This brings on even more interesting concepts on what you would give up in order to be beautiful.

I love the concepts about beauty that this book presents and how relevant it is to our society. It takes our views and amplifies them to show us just how crazy our ways of thinking have become. I definitely think this book should be read by teens, especially teen girls. Even with these great themes, this book still provides adventure and romance, which will keep readers interested. It also has a dystopian feel to it, which is very popular genre right now. Overall, I loved this book and am going to recommend it to everyone.

Professional Review:

“Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld—Hard-hitting sci-fi with plenty of romance and suspense. Intense, yet shouldn’t offend anyone by being overly graphic. A great story that doesn’t need sex, graphic violence, or profanity to propel the action. I had a popular, athletic girl bring Uglies to a pep rally to read!”

Chen, D. (2011). Susan guest blogs: “Walking in sunshine”- Non-depressing fiction for younger readers [Review of the book Uglies, by S. Westerfeld]. School Library Journal, Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/practicallyparadise/2011/06/22/susan-guest-blogs-%E2%80%9Cwalking-in-sunshine%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94non-depressing-fiction-for-younger-readers/

Library Uses:

I think that the best activity for this book would be to read this for a teen book club. There are so many important things to discuss in this book that are so relevant to teens. Beauty is a goal that so many people are striving to achieve. People become obsessive about it and sometimes dangerously so. I also think it is important for teens to be able to discuss the concept of beauty with their peers and to be able to talk about how important individuality and uniqueness is important. Since there is so much to discuss in this book, you could have meet once a week or twice a month. Since this book is supposed to be made into a film, it would be fun to have teens read the book together and then go see the movie together.