Despite the encouraging peer recommendations to read Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, I was left feeling disappointed. The story surrounds trickster Tally Youngblood who can’t wait until she turns 16, the age when teens living in ‘Uglyville’ undergo a surgical procedure to erase their flaws and become supermodel-perfect. Following the surgery, the beautiful teenagers grow up in ‘New Pretty Town’ with the other pretties, partying every night while free of any responsibilities. Tally is incredibly ecstatic to undergo the transformation, but a sudden occurrence is restricting her from doing so—her best friend Shay disappears, and the only person who she leaves her coded whereabouts with is Tally.

Although the plot of Uglies is impressive, the story progresses relatively slow. The beginning of the novel snatched my attention and made me want to learn more about the story, as it should. However, as the plot continued, I found myself impatiently wanting to know information that was being withheld for extensive amounts of time. Furthermore, this novel doesn’t contain an abundance of clever, complex writing. Page after page, ordinary vocabulary and boring sentences recur. The bland chapters caused me to skim each page rather than thoroughly read the story. The writing flat out failed to entice me to keep reading. There is incredible potential for this book, but Westerfeld failed to reach my high expectations partly set by the exceptionally positive, compelling media reviews.

A review on The Guardian explains how Uglies amplifies the idea that everyone is expected to appear flawless in today’s society with the statement, “Uglies gives the audience an insight into what the world might come to, with the Media driving everyone to become thinner, taller, muscular and tanned, and the many different plastic surgeries you can undergo.” The novel succeeds in addressing this insightful idea, but the story isn’t nearly as literary creative as it could be. A writer for the New York Public Library also praises the book for its “simultaneously funny and frightening” events and messages. I clearly seem to be in the minority of people who didn’t enjoy Westerfeld’s Uglies. Although I appreciate my friends’ efforts to help me find a fantastic book, this was not worth the read.