Uglies Book Review

 

"Tally can't wait to turn sixteen and become Pretty. Sixteen is the magic number that brings a transformation from a repellent Ugly into a stunningly attractive Pretty, and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks, Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend, Shay, isn't sure she wants to be Pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the Pretty world - and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worse choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn Pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever." - Amazon

As the cover says "Before The Hunger Games there was Uglies" and if you like The Hunger Games then you'll like Uglies!

Being a huge fan of The Hunger Games, and other series of books, when I heard about this quartet I had to read it!

 

The story seems a bit silly but it's really good! It's interesting to see how that kind of world is different to The Hunger Games.

Throughout the book there isn't any hanging around! The story gets straight into it and the relationship of the characters. It moves along quite quickly which can be annoying at times as you kind of want to see something develop a bit more and the responses to things. Hence there are a lot of things that happen in the story. It can be a bit hard to keep up with sometimes but I guess it stops you from getting bored of waiting for things to happen and it definitely doesn't drag. I do like how it's paced though; it's a different style of writing and it keeps you wanting to read on.

 

The character's relationships are really well explained and you can connect with them through their feelings for each other. We can empathise with Tally's longing to be pretty as it's something which we envy in every day life anyway. You'd think that in a story like this the characters would be really unbelievable and surreal, a bit like The Hunger Games, but they're not. The characters are really 'real' and you can imagine then being actual people, not just characters in a book.

 

As I do with every book, I read the last page (I just can't help ) so I knew how the story was going to end. The thing is, I didn't expect it to happen like it did. I'm not trying to give anything away, but usually with a story, you can guess how it's going to end. Not with Uglies. I think it's because so much does happen and with every event, your imagination changes in how the story is going to end. The ending was really good and as soon I finished reading it, I bought the second book and started reading that. (I have a kindle so this is quick moving!)

 

I don't know what else to say really. I did enjoy the book, a lot, and I think that anyone who loves The Hunger Games should definitely read Uglies. The Hunger Games are ridiculously easy to read and so Uglies is more of a 'challenge'/interesting read. I don't want to keep comparing it to The Hunger Games but they are very similar stories and definitely attract the same audience.

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