Uglies by Scott Westerfeld – Series Review (Reread)

Series Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Books in the Series:

• Uglies

• Pretties

• Specials

• Extras

Best Book: Uglies (Book 1)

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian

Spice: Mild

Summary:

Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic city where everyone undergoes surgery to make them Pretty at the age of sixteen, and until then they are considered Ugly. Tally is only a few months away from her sixteenth birthday, and she can’t wait to become Pretty. Since her best friend Paris got the surgery and moved to New Pretty Town, Tally has been feeling his absence. One night, she sneaks into New Pretty Town to see Paris, who’s completely changed. As she flees the authorities, she meets another Ugly who has sneaked out of the Ugly dorms, Shay, and they bond over their shared loneliness and talent for being tricky.

As Tally grows closer to Shay, Shay reveals that she doesn’t want to become Pretty and tells Tally there are people who live outside the city in the wild, never becoming pretty. On the eve of their sixteenth birthday, Shay escapes the city, only leaving Tally a vague note on how to follow her to one of these groups out in the wild, called the Smoke. When Tally shows up for her surgery, she is met by an intimidating woman, Dr. Cable, who gives Tally an ultimatum. Follow Shay to the Smoke, leading Dr. Cable and her Specials to the rebellious Smokies, or don’t turn Pretty. Now Tally must decide whether to betray her friend or stay Ugly forever.

Reaction:

The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld was one of my first introductions into the dystopian/science fiction genre. The original trilogy, which I originally read in middle school and high school, features Tally as the main character, then the fourth book introduces a brand-new protagonist in the same world. Back then, this was one of my favorite series, probably because of the rebellion against authority present throughout. Rereading as an adult with a lot more dystopian reading under my belt, I was not as impressed.

I think the premise set out by the book is one that’s interesting and relevant: a society that eliminated conflict by making everyone look equally “pretty” via surgery. And seeing this society through the eyes of a young adult on the cusp of becoming pretty allows the young adult audience to relate in a major way to Tally. It speaks to all the insecurities every 15-year-old has about how they look compared to those slightly older who have finished the awkward age of puberty.

But from there, I didn’t like the direction the series took for multiple reasons. First, there were multiple times that things associated with teenage mental health, such as insecurity over the way one looks, were used as a plot device without addressing the emotional impact they might have on a character or reader. I felt like this was a missed opportunity to add depth to the narrative and allow the reader to better relate to the FMC.

Secondly, I didn’t like Tally’s character as the stories progressed. She starts the series indoctrinated to believe there is no way to be pretty except to receive the “pretty” surgery. As the story continues, she is exposed to other ways of thinking, but never convincingly changes her beliefs. The reason I say that is whenever she splits from her upbringing, it’s not because she recognizes something is conceptually wrong. Instead, it’s always when she is making the choice out of peer-pressure, fear, guilt, or a motivation to save someone. Overall, I felt her character had a major lack of character growth because of this.

Thirdly, I felt like there were too many unrelated dystopian concepts brought up without a clear focus, which made the narrative seem unfocused, and Tally’s character inconsistent. For me, the fourth book where Tally is not the FMC did a better job of picking a major couple of themes and clearly focusing on them.

I think these books do have a good mix of action and plot and feature realistic future tech that make the action sequences exciting. The world-building was satisfying even if the settings themselves aren’t that dissimilar to our modern world. There is not much romance, just enough to further the plot (and I suspect appeal to the teenage girl demographic). While I really liked the high level concept and there are aspects of the books that I liked, I didn’t enjoy these books as much as I did when I was a teenager, and I won’t be itching to reread them again soon.