Originally published at Me Playing Games. Please leave any comments there.
As much as I want to start the next book in the series, I feel I should document my comments and feelings on the first one, lest the second book should change any opinions. From reading the summary on the back, one expects this to be very 1984-esque. This seems to be a very common and popular theme in the past ten years. Look at the Matrix, the rebirth of Aeon Flux, V for Vendetta, Equilibrium and -sure- these are all movies, directors choose now, early 2000s to promote and produce them. I’ve also heard rumors of The Giver possible becoming a movie. The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld follows along in a similar vein. Only here, the protagonist is a significantly younger than Neo and much less confident than Jonas.

The main character, Tally, also does not start this trip off of her own free will. Blackmailed by the city authorities, she sets of in order to get what she thought was always one’s right. My biggest irritation is that even after she reaches her destination, she doesn’t seem to take the time to consider the effects of her actions. More development of the charcters -perhaps a little more insight by way of internal dialouge- is highly desired. The character of Shay is well described, not by her own actions, but by the observation of
others. We wouldn’t know that she is slightly impulsive unless the love interest, David, hadn’t alluded to it. This is the type of character personality description that this book needs a little more of.
Also, I think that the language is too simple. For a book to be found in the teen’s fiction section, I would expect there to be a more challenging vocabulary. I would be intersted in doing a reading level test on this novel to see where it really lies. Aside from kissing, I would say that this book is at a sixth grade reading level, at 10-12 years old, that is hardly teenage years. Perhaps I am being too harsh, but it is a GOOD thing to challenge younger readers with newer words. I think one of the longest words in the book is “volunteer.” I used to read novels with a dictionary next to me and occassionally a list of new words.
While the content of the book is enjoyable and I have the second book, Pretties, right next to me, I feel that some editing from a more critical eye was needed. I can get off the negative horse, though and talk about the good things that follow here. Uglies is partially about a society’s ideas of beauty after a catastophic event of our known world. What I did like was the explanations -though slightly glossed over- of biology, how humans determined beauty and symmetry. I also enjoyed the depiction of the utmost importance the library and archival materials played -and hopefully will come in to play again- of the images in magazines.
I am also relieved to see that there is an author who values the strength of a romantic relationship. Instead of becoming more selfish when she find attraction, or perhaps love, Tally works to right her past wrongs, and in the process discovers that doing the right thing is hard. She also learns that doing the right thing is, ultimately, RIGHT and finally begins to make decisions on her own with conviction.
As I mentioned, I like the content and picked up both Pretties and Specials at the library this morning and will probably be done with the whole series in a week. I hope to see the vocabulary improve and perhaps we will see if the content (unlike the Harry Potter series) remains appropriate for the same age group start to finish.