Uglies

Back in April, while I was making up a new genre for every letter of the alphabet, I was also reading a lot of exciting new books. And I’ve got to say, I LOVE the Uglies Trillogy by Scott Westerfeld. I didn’t read it until after my D is for Dystopia day, but trust me, this is far and away my favorite dystopia.

The problem with a lot of dystopia (and really books of any genre) is that they’re predictable. Twenty pages into it, you know the ending. It’s obvious who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and who the love interests are and then just spend the next several hundred pages watching everything you predicted unfold.

That is not the case for Uglies. Twenty pages into Uglies, I thought I knew the ending. I was totally wrong. And all along the way, there would be a big twist and I’d think I knew what direction things were going to go, and every time I was wrong. The thing that makes this series so unpredictable is that nobody is totally good and nobody is totally bad. Everyone thinks they are doing the right thing and everyone makes mistakes. Nothing is black and white, only endless shades of gray. And the journey though all these various viewpoints, in this amazingly complex futuristic society, is a very entertaining ride. If you like YA dystopia, you have to read this series. If you don’t like YA dystopia, read this series anyway and maybe it will change your mind.

Here is what goodreads has to say about the first book in the series, if you’re curious about things like plot.

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.