Set in the future, 300 years from now, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld addresses many present day issues such as self worth, body-image, and individuality. In Uglies a futuristic civilization has come up with a great way to stop differences and genocide. With a system of classes, and a surgery procedure they solve all of their problems.


In this civilization if you are under 16 you are ugly this is because you have not gone through the surgery to become “pretty”. If you are under 16 then you are either a “Littlie” or an “Ugly”. Post surgery you are either a “New Pretty”, “Middle Pretty”, or “Late Pretty” these are stages you go through as a pretty. The leaders of this civilization thought that if everyone was almost the same then any difference issues would disappear. This was the case for Pretties but not for Uglies.


Tally and Shay, two 15 year old girls with the same birthday, were awaiting the surgery to change them from ugly to pretty. They went on many adventures together in their last two months of being ugly. Although they were both waiting for the surgery Shay was not as positive about the transition as Tally was.


I love Shay’s point of view in this story, despite what she has been taught, she still thinks of herself as a great person and doesn’t understand why anyone would want to be like everyone else. Not many people in present day America have that outlook on life. To me she seems to say, “I am me and I have no reason to wish to be someone else.”.


In my opinion, Tally has the common American thought process. She seems to think that if someone important says something right then it is. Just like many people today who see a celebrity indorse a product so they then buy it, because “it’s cool”. Tally is under the impression that she truly is ugly just because the government says so.


This book has such an amazing lesson to teach us. Even though the book is a fantasy book because of it’s unrealistic view on the past and future and the knowledge of the futuristic people, it shows us some important things to learn.


I like the way that the civilization in this book doesn’t kill the world. They don’t waste many products because of advances in technology. Also, they salvage the land that was wasted by past humans that they call “The Rusties” who wasted iron and raw materials.


This book is a great read as either a fantasy novel or for a new view on line. Overall, the author of this book did a great job of writing a fantasy novel while still including present day allusions into the story line.