This is my third installment of a YA Dystopic novel as part of my participation in the BOTNS DystopYA challenge. The first two were The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I also reviewed those two on this blog. Please be warned, I am not good at reviewing without some possible spoilers.
That said, this book felt a tad bit immature for what I am used to reading. However, it was recommended to me by a bookseller so I hoped that I would enjoy it. I did.
The premise is at some point in the future, most probably the United States, or what used to be the United States. They determined that at age 16 everyone underwent a series of cosmetic surgery to make everyone “Pretty.” Until that operation, most adolescents lived in dorm like settings and were called “uglies.” Our main character, Tally, had her best friend turn 16 several months before her. She wasn’t a rule follower. This seems to be typical of all dystopic lead characters. She broke curfew, rode her hoverboard (flying skateboard) at all hours of the night and took off her interface ring so the authorities would not have any way of tracking her. It’s during one of these tricks (that’s what they are called) that she meets Shay, another Ugly who happens to have the same birthday as Tally. Tally is very enthusiastic about having the surgery and becoming a Pretty, whereas Shay, from the beginning, is a rebel. She doesn’t want to become Pretty and thinks that everyone should look the way they are and that they ARE pretty by being themselves. Shay introduces Tally to the Ruins (where we all used to live apparently) and talks of the Smokies, a band of rebels who ran away from society in order to live their lives freely and as themselves, sans surgery.
Shay runs away before it’s her time to have the surgery and leaves Tally a very cryptic note to guide her to the Smokies. However, the authorities, rather than operating on Tally makes her wear a pendent and seek out the Smokies to help the authorities capture the rebels. There are a group of cruel Pretties called Special some-thing-or other (ala our CIA) and this begins the struggle for Tally, for she meets all of the Smokies and begins to like their way of life. There is a romance with David, who Shay of course fancied, and parental units. It appears that there was brain alteration in addition to the physical alterations.
It took me much longer to read this book than it should have and while I did enjoy it, as I said at the beginning it was rather adolescent from time to time. I never felt this way when I was reading The Hunger Games or Catching Fire, so I felt like I was unfairly judging this book. I did however, feel like that when I read Twilight, so what does that say. I also put the book down several times to read other books, so perhaps that played a part in it as well.
There were several instances throughout the book where I thought to myself that I could definitely see this happening in our society. Heck, it happens already where young girls want plastic surgery to fix things. And indulgent parents allowing that sort of thing. Is it the kids maturing physically at younger and younger ages, or is it me just getting older. Did my parents and their parents before them feel this way as well? Hard to say.
I will say, that I am going to read the next book in this series, Pretties, although, I’m hoping that the silly adolescent portion goes quickly.
Rita's Three R's: Reading, Running and Recipes 