Reviews

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

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smuttea_matcha's review against another edition

2.0

The plot and idea were wonderful, everything else was just white noise. When the current society revolves around aesthetics so much, it was fascinating to stumble on Uglies. I just didn't connect with anyone. I didn't care for the characters and I just wanted to roll my eyes at Tally and just get the scenes over with. Her web of lies bothered me; but what if I were in her shoes and yada yada, whatever. The story was dragged out a bit, but I really just fell in love with the idea and concept. I don't think I'm in love enough to start on the next book. It was an interesting read.

alju2404's review against another edition

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4.0

liked it

queen_perfection's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I tried to like it. I really did. I just... didn't.

shelhunterr's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was VERY good. I love reading about the future, so this book definitley hit the spot. I'm only two books into this series, but it's got me hooked. HIGHLY-RECOMMNDED !

smallgourd's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense

3.75

jose_kg's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Thoughts before rereading: I read this book when I was about 13, maybe 14. I was totally taken in by the world Westerfield created, I absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to read the following books.

I think I was a bit disappointed that Tally ended up having the surgery, but I was excited to see where that led.

I think this was my favourite of the series that I read.

Thoughts during: I'm 19 chapters in

(Tally is just journeying to the Smoke to find Shae).

It's interesting how things hit differently now I'm an adult and I have two children. Firstly the lack of impact the parents have on their child/lack of knowledge of who their daughter is makes me sad, I can't imagine being that disconnected from my sons, even though they're both under 3 atm. I fantasised about boarding school as a child because of HP, but as I've grown I've come to realise how important I think it is to have a good relationship with your parents, especially in your teen years, to make sure you don't go completely off the deep end. So I'm not at the Smoke yet, but there is no talk of dealing with periods, especially when Tally is travelling by herself. I can be mean and say this really shows a man wrote this, or be more forgiving and admit that periods and their realities are not often discussed in any books, especially where camping/distopia is involved.

Thoughts after: I definitely enjoyed revisiting this book, it's a strong story and I think it still stands up to a lot of the similar books that came after, like Hunger Games and particularly Divergent (I know the author must have read this, the ideas are too similar). Big cliffhanger ending makes you want to pick up Pretties straight away. It falls into some of the traps that people fall into when writing about teenagers, the relationships that become super serious after only a few meetings.

I think it's ironic that David is held as this person who doesn't consider beauty, but for him to have decided he was interested in Tally instead of Shae that quickly it had to be about looks at least a bit. I personally don't love the main character started out with bad motives but learnt the error in their ways but didn't know how to tell the other and eventually gets found out in the most awful way trope, but I did think the author dealt with Tally's misgivings about telling the others what had led her there well. I probably wouldn't have handled it the same way (I'd hope not as a 31yo) but her reasoning for not telling sooner/not immediately setting off the bug were reasonable. I didn't spend chapters shouting at her to tell them in the way I do with some characters. Of course I would probably have told David's parents when they had their special chat, if I hadn't told already, but that's just me, I don't like secrets and I don't like being not genuine. My other gripe, that I suspect my sister (who's reading with me and is a doctor) is probably going to pick up on much more, is the medicine. They developed a pill to remove brain lesions! In 20 days!!! Honestly I could hear her turning in her metaphorical grave 😂 I do think with this genre you do need to through your science brain out the window a bit and just go with that they have such vastly more advanced tech than us that these things are possible in ways we couldn't even guess yet.