"Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world-- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever..."
The premise of Uglies is that in the future when kids reach 16, they all have mandatory plastic surgery to turn their bodies into a perfect standard of beauty based on human brain's reaction to visual stimulus. Unfortunately (and this is a slight spoiler, so my apologies, but it really is an element that is pretty obvious from page one, though not clearly stated until later), when the teenagers are having the surgeries to make them pretty, the surgeons change their brains, too, to determine their decision-making capabilities. Taking away their capacity for independent thought, questioning and even sense. Basically, the pretty surgery makes most people stupid, unless the occupation that the government determines for them requires intelligence. So far so good, a really interesting concept with the ability to explore stereotyping, body image and self worth.
However Westerfeld wasted the concept and his moral arguments are a little dubious and not well fleshed out. While on one level he mildly criticizes the idea of basing a society on a hierarchy of physical looks, the characters repeatedly interact within that hierarchy, calling each other "pretty" and "ugly" at every turn and defining "pretty" people very specifically.
Ultimately, the arguments of why the government requires the pretty surgeries make a lot of (horrific) sense in the stories. The surgeries solve anorexia, heath problem, bring world peace, and save the environment. Plastic surgery is made to sound fun and Westerfeld literally makes no compelling arguments against body alteration and doesn't even dip a toe into the idea of self worth, or lack of, these characters must have. At the same time, I'm left feeling that Westerfeld thinks it is a bad idea, though he is not convincing.
Unfortunately, some parts of this story where actually engaging and for a while I wanted to find out what happened. But his characters never develop deep self-respect or intelligent motivation for their actions, and even when their decisions seem healthy, Westerfeld makes a better argument for the unhealthy decisions. Now I realize that I didn't even talk about the uber-annoying slang language he develops for the Pretties and Specials. I'll just say "bubbly" and leave it at that.
Age Rating 12+. Nothing at all untoward.
“Happy birthday, Stanly. We hope you like your present…Cynical, solitary Stanly Bird is a fairly typical teenager – unless you count the fact that his best friend is a talking beagle named Daryl, and that he gained the powers of flight and telekinesis when he turned sixteen. Unfortunately, his rural Welsh home town is not exactly crying out for its very own superhero. London is calling – but what Stanly finds there is a good deal weirder and more terrifying than anything he could have imagined. Perhaps he should have stayed in Wales …"
This is one of the most original and funny books I’ve read in a while. Stanly is immensely entertaining with such a clear and distinct voice that it’s hard not to become best friends with him.
The premise of ‘Bitter Sixteen’ sounds unbelievable, and you’d be right, as even in the realms of sci-fi and fantasy, a boy waking up on his sixteenth birthday with superpowers, who already is the owner of a talking beagle called Daryl, sounds daft in the extreme. Here’s where the big ol’ ‘but’ comes in. Stefan Mohamed has created a fantastical situation in a such a realistic environment, that the events that unfold feel plausible and uncontrived.
Counting down to the exact moment he turns sixteen, reflecting on life as a modern teen, (while coping with an enormous migraine) Stanly evaluates his life as extremely…ordinary. Then, as the seconds tick past, he experiences a bolt of white-hot pain, leaving him with an all-over tingle that he can’t explain. Oh yeah…and he’s floating off the ground. From that moment on, ‘ordinary’ flies out the window. As does Stanly on a regular basis.
This is a funny, off-kilter take on the super-hero genre that, for most part, did not take itself too seriously. It has everything; superpowers, a talking dog and as many geek references as I could ever wish for. Stanly’s argumentative internal monologues are hysterical. Age Rating 13+ The main monster is very scary, slenderman with side doses of spider thing.
"Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone - vanished from her life. There's something unique about Rosemary's sister, Fern. And it was this decision, made by her parents, to give Rosemary a sister like no other, that began all of Rosemary's trouble."
This is a novel that is best read with as little pre-knowledge as possible. It starts out as a seemingly emotionally troubled college-age woman is telling a story involving her apparently dysfunctional family. Around 1/4 of the way through there is a "reveal" that totally changes the way you look at the novel.Although the change made the book a bit awkward and a little too fantastical at first, Fowler develops it.
A book definitely out of the mainstream that starts out as a conventional rite of passage told by an adult looking back on her childhood in the typical American family, with siblings, parents and grandparents. One is jerked out of this narrative by the 'twist' which has been highlighted as the main feature of the book, and which cannot be revealed as it acts as a significant spoiler. From this point onwards, the story proceeds in a more and more disturbing fashion, with the loss of siblings and the fragmentation of the family.
The author has created several memorable characters including the narrator, Rosemary, who is both endearing and irritating at the same time; her brother Lowell, idealistic and very driven; her self- introduced friend Harlow, certainly flaky; her mother, who struggles with depression; and her father, whose truly unpleasant character is revealed very early in the story.
I found this very disturbing book, and not just in its references to the way human beings have treated our primate brothers and sisters as merely experimental animals. It says much about modern family relationships.
So psychologically smart and sophisticated.I loved all the literary and psychology/science references. So entertaining. Though the ending wasn’t perfect for me, it was okay and mimicked real life in its inability to have a fairy tale happy ending.
Unfortunately I could not relate to the characters and the choppy writing style! I wanted to like this book, and there were very interesting elements, but I couldn't connect to the way the story was told.
Age Rating 13+. Some brutal descriptions of animal cruelty within many industries that would be disturbing for younger readers.
"Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.
