Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

So, after finishing Zarafa by Michael Allin, on April 14, I took a little break.  Then, on May 1st I started Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, and finished it on May 22nd.  This is book 1 in a series by the author - Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and I learned when looking it up on Amazon, a fourth book, Extras.  I was talking with a co-worker a while back about books - I think she heard me talking about the Alchemyst series, and also about the Eragon series, and thought I would be interested in this series.  She brought the 3 books to me the next day.  So, I decided to give them a whirl.  I had no idea what they were about.  Luckily, Uglies caught my attention and held it. 

These books are set on futuristic Earth (like 300+ years in the future) where civilization as we know it is over.  People are separated into groups - littlies (kids), uglies (teens), pretties (16 years old +), middle pretties, crumblies (old people).  They live in managed settlements and all know their place in the world.  When uglies turn 16, they undergo an operation to make them pretty, and they move to an island full of other pretties where they party all the time and are bubbly.

Before uglies turn pretty, they get into mischief and pull "tricks" - bucking authority and doing their own thing.  Tally, one of the main characters, meets Shay while pulling a trick on the pretty island.  They become fast friends, and pull many other tricks, including going to the rusty ruins - the ruins left behind by human civilization (as we know it).  Shay knows of a splinter group of people who are living outside the managed cities, free from oversight of the wardens and "specials."

I can't give too much more away without spoiling things, so I'll have to stop here with the story synopsis.  Westerfeld's writing and story-telling is good.  The characters are interesting, and the story holds your interest.  You wonder about things, that eventually get revealed in the books.  It feels as if Westerfeld is commenting on elements of society today - the "perfect" body, "beautiful" people, wasteful behavior, crowd mentality, the havoc humans wreak on the earth, and more.  But, to me at least, it doesn't feel overly preachy.  There seem to be similarities between the old human society and the new society - like waste from the past human society that the characters talk about all while ordering up anything they want from the "hole in the wall" and then putting the things in the "recycler" when they are done using it one time.  Seems a little ironic to me.

Regardless, the book was entertaining.  I enjoyed it, and towards the end, I found myself doing my speed-read-page-turn-can't-wait-to-see-what-happens late-night reading binge.  Thanks to a little search on the Google, I have learned that this appears to be in development for a movie.  I'm sure it will be great!  Until next time...