Uglies

by Scott Westerfeld
CMSW, paperback, 425 pages

I started out listening to this on CD, but it was much too annoying. The reader's voice was making me crazy and I wanted to see how the story went. This is one of our 7th grade novel choices.

Tally Youngblood is a 15-year-old who is awaiting her sixteenth birthday and "the" operation that will turn her from an Ugly into a Pretty. She thinks up daring tricks, like sneaking into New Prettytown to see her best friend Peris, who is startled to see her and asks her to not get into trouble before she turns pretty and joins him. Soon she meets Shay, another 15-year-old who likes to do tricks. But Shay has no desire to ever turn Pretty, a fact she slowly reveals to Tally, asking her to run away and join the Smoke, a group of runaways.

Liked the dynamic in the Smoke, especially David's character. Loved the hoverboards. Didn't like the self-centered immaturity of Tally. Or the attack on the Smoke.