The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld encompasses the main trilogy of books that follows Tally Youngblood and a book set a couple years later that follows Aya Fuse. I will be reviewing the main trilogy here. I have read the series before, but since it has been approximately fourteen years since I have read it, it seemed that it was about time to reread it. Though I loved these books as a pre-teen, it has been so long since I read them that I could not remember much of the story.

In Uglies, fifteen year old Tally Youngblood can’t wait to turn sixteen. Her best friend Peris has already turned sixteen, had his operation and moved across the river into New Pretty Town. Tally however, has to wait three more months to become pretty. One night, Tally sneaks across the river to see Peris. She has not seen him and barely heard from him since Peris became pretty and she worries. She finds Peris, then has to make a daring escape from New Pretty Town; uglies are not supposed to be in New Pretty Town. On her way back to the bridge, Tally bumps into another ugly who has decided to journey across the river, a girl named Shay. They become fast friends. They start planning tricks together and Shay teaches Tally how to hoverboard. Once Tally is a good enough rider, they begin making night trips to the Rusty Ruins, the remnants of a dead civilization. Shay mentions someone named David, who supposedly lives outside of the city. They never meet David on their excursions, but Shay insists he’s real and vocalizes her discomfort about the pretty surgery. Tally doesn’t think much of it until Shay runs away, leaving her a note with vague directions to reach Shay’s destination. When Special Circumstances show up on her sixteenth birthday, they tell her unless she finds and betrays her friend, she will never become pretty. Tally finds herself with a difficult choice; she wants to be pretty and with her best friend in New Pretty Town more than anything else, but she promised Shay she wouldn’t tell anyone anything about what she knows and where Shay is headed. Feeling that she doesn’t have much of a choice, Tally sets off to find the Smoke with a dormant tracker disguised as a pendant and enough gear to last her a couple of weeks.

In Pretties, Tally is finally a pretty. She can’t remember much of what happened over the last couple of weeks before she became pretty, but it doesn’t matter to her much. She’s back with her best friend Peris and her new friend Shay-la and they’re living it up in New Pretty Town. On the night of Tally’s vote-in to her new clique, the Crims, part of her past from the Smoke shows up. An ugly from the New Smoke tells her where to find something that he wants to give her and then flees, Special Circumstances hot on his trail. Zane, the leader of the Crims, takes a sudden interest in Tally and invites her to breakfast the day after her vote-in. Zane helps her find the pouch that the ugly from the new Smoke had left her, which contains something she did not expect or remember. There’s a note, worded by Tally herself, but written by Shay, that details what they do to people during the pretty operation. Along with the note are two small pills, the cure for the lesions that are left after the operation. Tally takes one and Zane the other as Special Circumstances arrive, someone having called them in after Tally and Zane were spotted on the roof. As the cure starts to work, Tally and Zane start trying to find a way to contact the New Smoke and get out of New Pretty Town. They don’t just need to find the New Smoke to get away, they also need them to find out why Zane has had headaches ever since he took part of the cure.

In Specials, Tally is now part of the Cutters, a special group of specials led by Shay. Unlike when she was pretty, Tally remembers everything. She remembers how David manipulated Shay, then herself. She remembers how the Smokies destroyed nature to sustain themselves like the Rusties once did. And, worst of all, she remembers how her boyfriend Zane ended up having part of his brain consumed by the half of a cure for the lesions that she was never instructed on how to take. Tally is determined to help Shay and the other Cutters bring down the New Smoke. When a mission goes wrong and a member of the Cutters and some of their high tech hoverboards are taken, Shay and Tally concoct a plan to find the New Smoke, bring their friend back and get Zane, Tally’s boyfriend, into the Cutters. There’s only one problem. Zane’s debilitated. The two girls must find a way to break him out so he can get to the Smokies; they’ll track them back to their base of operations from there. Tally still has moments of doubt though, her emotions, though mostly suppressed, keep bubbling to the surface. During the trek to the New Smoke, she is faced with yet another set of difficult choices, ones that will change her world permanently.

This series is very easy to read. It is targeted at a young teen audience and, as such, there are no challenges for an older reader reading these books. There is a lot of pretty language in the books however, particularly in Pretties, which can be a bit repetitive, but not unrealistic for a group of teenagers. The story is paced well enough, though keeping track of the passage of time is a touch tedious. Westerfeld doesn’t clarify how much time has passed very often, only vaguely referring to weeks or months having passed a couple times in each book. It is a bit of a shock to find the whole trilogy takes place in the matter of about a year. The technology in the story is important, but Westerfeld makes it easy to keep track of. It keeps the science of the tech light or unexplained in a way that is acceptable for a younger reader.

For a teenager, Tally is a relatable main character. She is a little self centered, most teenagers are, but she cares about those around her and tries to do what’s best for herself and her friends. Tally has a tendency to take risks, but doesn’t like confrontation; she does her best to avoid it. She is stubborn, but just wants to fit in and belong with her friends. She has a habit of finding herself trapped by her decisions. Tally is also manipulated by some of the other characters in the series, particularly Dr. Cable. While Tally is smart, she is a bit narrow minded, unable to see the full spectrum of the conflict going on for what it is. She betrays many people throughout the series, almost always unintentionally, and does her best to make up for the damage.

The Uglies trilogy is a nice, easy to read foray into the dystopian sci-fi genre. I got a great deal of enjoyment out of my reread of the series. Tally is nowhere near the most annoying teenager I’ve read about. The tech is not too complicated. Overall, it’s a good series that I will probably reread again once I forget the plotline.