Westerfield, Scott. Uglies. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
When I was a teenager, I felt ugly; most of us do around that age, and you probably have too. Rotten though it is, it’s normal. We pretty much grow out of it or get over it eventually. But it’s painful while it’s happening, right? Wouldn’t it be perfect if we could just find a way to fix it?
Fast forward to the future: you can now get a surgery to become stunningly beautiful. Everyone does it. As soon as you turn 16, you get the surgery, become gorgeous, move to a new city where all your perfectly gorgeous friends live, and all you have to do is party and have fun all day. Seriously, that’s all there is to it, no hidden tricks. And everybody’s happy all the time, because there’s no uglyness or stupid stuff like that to stress them out.
But then your best friend decides she wants to run away and not have the surgery. What the heck? Who wants to stay ugly forever, on purpose? She’s obviously an idiot, and it’s not your problem…until you get dragged to Special Circumstances and find out you won’t be allowed to turn Pretty until you find her and bring her back. You can die ugly for all they care.
That is NOT acceptable, so you go off to find her. Pretty simple job, really. But what’s out there in the wilderness, anyway? Guess you’re about to find out…
