Uglies - Scott Westerfeld - 3 stars

I had thought about reading this book quite awhile ago but I thought maybe it would be too youngish for me and I would not like it at all. I kept hearing really good things about the series though. I found the 2nd book on a sales rack and decided to buy it and then I went to the library and picked up this one. I have to say I did enjoyed it. It was quite engaging and really easy to follow. It kept pretty good paced throughout.

In this book we have Tally who is about to turn 16 and will be all ready to become a pretty. Her friend is already a pretty and he is patiently waiting for her to be there. Tally makes a new friend named Shay. She is pretty much an ugly rebel and decided that she did not want to be a pretty and ends up running away. Tally is presented with a choice when the authorities discover Shay has run away. She can either agree to find Shay and turn her in or not and never turn pretty at all.

The plot of this story ended up being pretty interesting although it was annoying as far as 'uglies' and 'pretties' were concerned. I did not like the fact that these kids were taught that they were ugly and they were classed as that, and strived to be turned into pretty. I think that there is enough of that going on in this world. Everyone the same, with no differences, and no mind of their own, is just kind of a sad perspective. I didn't think the names of places were not that well thought out though. Names such as Uglyville and Pretty town, kind of generic really. But I guess for the readers that were targeted it would make more sense. Other than that I did think the book has a lot of action and excitement, enough to keep me turning the pages and picking up book 2 in the near future.

The characters were pretty good. There was however next to no backstory on any of them and I think it would have been most helpful to learn a bit more about them. I really did not like the main character Tally at all. She is rude, judgmental and disregarded others feelings for most of the book. She got less annoying towards the end of the book though. I liked most of the 'smokies' and mostly liked Boss who stood up for history that the others were really not taught much about. I do hope to see these characters develop more throughout the series.

I can recommend this book to anyone who likes dystopian stories. I am not huge on dystopian but there are a few I liked, and this one does have enough for me to want to continue with.