Uglies

Scott Westerfeld (author)

Simon & Schuster, New York, USA: 2005; 425pp

ISBN: 0689865384

Genres: adventure, science fiction

Issues: community, environment, ethics, friendship, identity, values

Tally lives in a world where physical beauty, or prettiness, is bestowed upon everyone on their sixteenth birthday. Extreme plastic surgery is used to reshape bones, grow unblemished skin and change an individual's features to such prettiness that the previous person can be unrecognisable.

 Tally has been waiting to become a Pretty and join her friend, Peris, for months, so that she, too, can enjoy the Pretty life of parties, parties and more parties. After all, prettiness equals happiness, doesn't it?

When a new friend, Shay, runs away to join the Smoke, a mysterious group of people who have rejected the artificiality of the city lifestyle and learned to live in a low-tech world Outside, Tally finds herself in a dilemma that forces her to think deeply about who she is rather than what she looks like. As a result she begins to question the social structure and values around her.
This conceptually disturbing but rather interesting narrative was written in response to a Ted Chiang short story about humanity's programmed response to physical beauty. The writing is a little dictatorial, a vehicle to convey the author's passionate opinions about the value of the individual. Rather than showing the reader the circumstances and allowing them to respond in their own way, there are times when Westerfeld seems determined to drag the reader to his point of view - which is one they probably would have come to anyway, with less forceful arguments. Despite that, however, this is a thought-provoking, interesting enough to encourage reading of the sequels, although unlikely to appeal to a wide readership.

Similar ideas: Originator (Claire Carmichael); Body Parts; Envoy (Shannah Jay); Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula Le Guin); The Chrysalids (John Wyndham)