Hey, guys!
So, I finished rereading Uglies by Scott Westerfield and I have to say that I'm glad I did. I say that I reread it because I read it for the first time in eighth grade, I believe. I don't think I was paying much attention while I read it the first time. Or maybe it's just been a while . . . yeah, I'm gonna give myself the benefit of the doubt.
Anyway, I remembered the general plot of it but now I'm reading it through the eyes of a book blogger and English major who knows how to spot cool stuff like symbolism and metaphor and all that jazz. And I have to tell you, it makes the book so much better.
Okay, so Tally Youngblood lives in this futuristic society with hoverboards and smart robot stuff and, get this, a pretty operation.
The last probably didn't make any sense at all. Allow me to explain, my eager little readers. For those of you who have not read this book, the pretty operation is an operation that makes you pretty. The doctors basically give you a new body with a perfectly symmetrical face, big beautiful eyes, flawless skin, and all the right proportions.
Got it? Good. So, in this society, everyone gets the operation when they're sixteen (results may vary in different cities). This way everyone is beautiful and happy and nobody's causing trouble.
Except for the uglies. An ugly is a person like Tally Youngblood who is anxiously awaiting his or her sixteenth birthday so that they can finally be pretty. In other words, they're normal people who are considered ugly. They are taught in school to hate their bodies and to believe that the only way they can be an important part of society is to get the operation like everyone else and live happily ever after.
And here we have Tally, a soon-to-be-sixteen-year-old girl who wants to be pretty so that she can be with her best friend again. (Oh, yeah, uglies aren't allowed in New Pretty Town. Harsh, right?)
But things change when she meets Shay, an also soon-to-be-sixteen-year-old-girl who shares the same birthday as Tally. But her views of the world are utterly different. She doesn't believe that she needs the operation to be beautiful. Of course, Tally thinks she's nuts.
So Shay runs away. Into the wild to find a place known as the Smoke, where people never get the operation and live apart from a society they believe to be cruel.
And they're right. After Shay runs away, Tally is approached by the authorities known as Special Circumstances, who give Tally an ultimatum: either she goes after Shay and helps them find the Smoke, or she can never turn pretty. Not getting the operation means that Tally will be an outcast in her own city for life.
Doesn't sound like a very hard decision to us, right? That's because we weren't spoon fed all this garbage about needing an operation to be beautiful since we were born. Or were we? Food for thought.
Anyway, this book comes highly recommended by me (for middle school students, high school students, and far beyond), as it is thought-provoking and action-packed. I can't believe what a good job Scott Westerfield did of stepping totally into his characters' shoes. Any other writer would be tempted to write from Shay's perspective (at least I would have).
But writing from the perspective of someone who grew up in a totally different setting with utterly different belief systems would be a challenge. And to pull it off so well? Hats off to you, Scott Westerfield.
Hope you guys will read Uglies and that you'll come back looking for more blog posts. I shall start reading If I Stay by Gayle Forman and rereading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. Follow me on Twitter and like my Facebook page for updates. You guys know the drill.
Happy reading!!
So, I finished rereading Uglies by Scott Westerfield and I have to say that I'm glad I did. I say that I reread it because I read it for the first time in eighth grade, I believe. I don't think I was paying much attention while I read it the first time. Or maybe it's just been a while . . . yeah, I'm gonna give myself the benefit of the doubt.
Anyway, I remembered the general plot of it but now I'm reading it through the eyes of a book blogger and English major who knows how to spot cool stuff like symbolism and metaphor and all that jazz. And I have to tell you, it makes the book so much better.
Okay, so Tally Youngblood lives in this futuristic society with hoverboards and smart robot stuff and, get this, a pretty operation.
The last probably didn't make any sense at all. Allow me to explain, my eager little readers. For those of you who have not read this book, the pretty operation is an operation that makes you pretty. The doctors basically give you a new body with a perfectly symmetrical face, big beautiful eyes, flawless skin, and all the right proportions.
Got it? Good. So, in this society, everyone gets the operation when they're sixteen (results may vary in different cities). This way everyone is beautiful and happy and nobody's causing trouble.
Except for the uglies. An ugly is a person like Tally Youngblood who is anxiously awaiting his or her sixteenth birthday so that they can finally be pretty. In other words, they're normal people who are considered ugly. They are taught in school to hate their bodies and to believe that the only way they can be an important part of society is to get the operation like everyone else and live happily ever after.
And here we have Tally, a soon-to-be-sixteen-year-old girl who wants to be pretty so that she can be with her best friend again. (Oh, yeah, uglies aren't allowed in New Pretty Town. Harsh, right?)
But things change when she meets Shay, an also soon-to-be-sixteen-year-old-girl who shares the same birthday as Tally. But her views of the world are utterly different. She doesn't believe that she needs the operation to be beautiful. Of course, Tally thinks she's nuts.
So Shay runs away. Into the wild to find a place known as the Smoke, where people never get the operation and live apart from a society they believe to be cruel.
And they're right. After Shay runs away, Tally is approached by the authorities known as Special Circumstances, who give Tally an ultimatum: either she goes after Shay and helps them find the Smoke, or she can never turn pretty. Not getting the operation means that Tally will be an outcast in her own city for life.
Doesn't sound like a very hard decision to us, right? That's because we weren't spoon fed all this garbage about needing an operation to be beautiful since we were born. Or were we? Food for thought.
Anyway, this book comes highly recommended by me (for middle school students, high school students, and far beyond), as it is thought-provoking and action-packed. I can't believe what a good job Scott Westerfield did of stepping totally into his characters' shoes. Any other writer would be tempted to write from Shay's perspective (at least I would have).
But writing from the perspective of someone who grew up in a totally different setting with utterly different belief systems would be a challenge. And to pull it off so well? Hats off to you, Scott Westerfield.
Hope you guys will read Uglies and that you'll come back looking for more blog posts. I shall start reading If I Stay by Gayle Forman and rereading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. Follow me on Twitter and like my Facebook page for updates. You guys know the drill.
Happy reading!!
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