I apparently like Scott Westerfeld a lot because Uglies is the fourth book of his that I could just NOT put down. Uglies is about a society where normal is ugly and ultra-pretty is the norm. Good looks get you whatever you want and being average makes you meaningless. Sounds like a pretty familiar extreme. Almost too familiar.

Its been a while since I read a book that held my attention so well and made me seriously think about the book’s world in contrast to our own. Westerfeld has a fantastic ability to weave social commentary into his novels without letting the reader in on the secret until well into the book. Uglies is a fantastic escape into a seemingly simplistic world that explodes in a torrential downpour of complications about love, friendship, social status and free thinking.

You find out pretty early that the Uglies world is our world, not unlike Heston’s ape-ruled world was also ours (less big reveal and more scary possible.) Its a world where the ‘Pretties’ get whatever they want and the ‘Uglies’ pine, mope and fight until they turn 16 and get to be ‘pretty’ themselves.  This raises some interesting questions about our own societyand puts a new spin on the meanins of ‘coming of age.’

To what extent do we value beauty? And how far are we willing to go to obtain that beauty? These are questions that Uglies has to answer and the response to those questions is more shocking than we might want to believe.