Back cover book blurb:Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can’t wait. Not for her license—for turning pretty. In Tally’s world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you 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’s 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 worst 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.
Imagine what would happen if everybody in the world were beautiful. What would it be like? In Scott Westerfeld's book that's basically what happens. At the age of 16, everybody gets their body surgically enhanced so that they are a perfect "10". In fact, people can choose how they would like to look. Then, they go off to a city where all they do is party and have fun. Imagine.
Now, what would happen if you didn't want to become pretty? What if you liked yourself the way you were?
That's the idea in the Uglies Trilogy. The stories are very interesting and fun. I really enjoyed all three books and, at times, I couldn't put them down. I donated my copies to the Reading Room so you should get a chance to read them. Please, do yourself a favour and read Uglies first. There are plenty of copies floating around the country and you can usually find a copy in Best Eastern.
You'll think I'm a bit weird (like you don't already), but the last time I visited Best Eastern I noticed that Uglies was hidden behind some other teen novel. While the sales attendant wasn't looking, I moved it to the front of the shelf where people buying a copy of Twilight would likely see it! Yes, Mr. Jason is a bit of a nut.
I'd love to read your comments on this book and/or comments on the nature of beauty. After reading this book I started thinking about how we react to beautiful people. It is weird, isn't it? It really is just dumb luck that makes some people more beautiful than others. I mean, congratulations, your parents were attractive and so are you. So what. Anybody can be born beautiful. It doesn't take any special talent. Actually, I should mention here that I like beautiful people. Don't get me wrong. I just like them a whole lot more when they have other things going for them also.
It is sad really. If you are born beautiful and all you ever hear is, "Wow, you are beautiful" then you start to think that being attractive is your thing. That's who you are. That's what you do well. I really hope that doesn't happen to you. Don't let your beauty be everything. You've got more to offer the world.
I don't want to get too personal here, but as a teenager I wasn't very happy with the way I looked. I was so tall and thin. Besides, my family didn't have the money to buy me fashionable clothes. Being attractive definitely wasn't my thing. I was good at English. I was okay at a lot of stuff. I had convinced myself that looking attractive wasn't important. It's what is inside that counts, right? Well, of course that's true, but now I think that it's okay to do the best with what you have.
Anyway, enough about that. The Uglies Trilogy is a lot of fun. I hope you get a chance to read it!
By the way, I first heard about this book when I was looking at the New York Times Best Seller list. I stumbled on this article and it sounded like an interesting book.
5/5 Stars
3 comments:
Asiyah, 4B
Hello Mr Jason, hope you are enjoying the school holiday. I'm busy studying though. I was surprised to see your blog. Its full of pictures of various books. It look a lot more neat than my blog.
Anyway when I read your post, I was listening to my favorite all girls singing group called Girls' Generation. The group consist of nine talented pretty girls. Though the group have amazing vocals, they are hated by thousands of girls. One of the reasons why the group is loathe is because there was a rumor that all nine of them had plastic surgery.
It's just a rumor though and I don't believe it. The nine of them are just natural beauty. You wrote in your post that beautiful and pretty people have an advantage, but not these girls. They are naturally attractive and talented but they have so many anti-fans. This made me thought not every good-looking person in the world have an advantage just with their looks.
I think the anti-fans are just jealous. I remembered Mizah complained about this anti-fans problems. She said if the singer is too pretty or handsome, the people dislike him or her guessing it was plastic surgery but if the singer is average, the people still dislike the singer because he or her is too normal or average. I laughed at her comment but it is true. People these days only notice the looks, not talent.
Also not all beautiful people were born attractive but they can also be beautiful by plactic surgery. However then that person would be fake.
I'm going to stop now. I think I wrote too much. Have a good day then Mr Jason, see you when school reopen.
Yay!!! My first comment! Thanks Asiyah. I'm so happy to know that I'm not just talking to myself.
Your post was excellent. You have so many great ideas to share. I think you're right. There are some serious disadvantages to being pretty.
I wonder why people react the way they do when they think somebody else has had plastic surgery.
BTW, I remember some of my Korean and Japanese university students didn't like the fact that some girls went in for eye lid surgery. Some girls want their eyes made bigger and rounder. I have to admit, that kinda freaks me out too.
Hello Mr Jason. You really have a neat and simple yet lovely blog here!
Well about the Asiyah's comment. I think that only goes for the Koreans and the Japanese, I don't think other western and Asian (and muslims I guess.) countries really mind that much about plastic surgeries. And the anti fans part, they are just jealous that the girls get to be closer to the boy bands that they like because they are in the same company =p.
My opinion, being beautiful doesn't really matter. What is the use of being beautiful when you don't even have education and wealth? Yeah they can marry rich guys but what about pride and their talents? it shouldn't be wasted. Even un- goodlooking people succeed in life. So being beautiful isn't a must to succeed in life. Oh what am I talking about. I should stop XD. Anyway, don't forget to drop by my messy blogspot! and yeah >.> There might be grammatical errors and stuff XD. Cause I write in a hurry these days that I didn't even bothered to check -runs-
Oh well~ Have a nice holiday!
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