The latest three books that I read was the Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. Now, some of you might be thinking, "But there are four books from that series!" Well, as I get into my review you will understand why I read only the three books instead of the four. For this review, I am going to grade each book separately, and then give an overall grade for the entire series. In the future, when I read a series, I will do the same.
Novel #6
Title: Uglies
Grade: B
Brief Summary: In the first book of this series, readers are introduced to the protagonist, Tally Youngblood. Tally lives in a futuristic, dystopian society that has taken our fixation on beauty and fame and taken it to the next level. This world is about 300-400 years since our supposed apocalypse. Children are raised to believe that they are ugly, up until they reach the age of sixteen, when they undergo a surgery that makes them pretty. No one is left out of the operation, making it so that everybody is pretty. At the beginning of the first novel, Tally is months away from her sixteenth birthday, and is anxious to become a Pretty and join her friends across the river from Uglytown. One night, Tally meets Shay, a reluctant ugly who is dreading the day of her operation. Shay introduces Tally to many new and exciting things, and then she tells Tally about David, a young man who lives outside the city in a place called the Smoke. The Smoke defies the city's idea of beauty and perfection, and Shay decides to runaway to the Smoke instead of undergoing the operation. Because of Tally's new friendship with Shay, she is believed to be involved with the Smoke. She is manipulated into traveling to the Smoke so that Special Circumstances, the city's CIA of sorts, can take down the Smoke and get the runaways back. Tally goes on a journey, physical and emotional, and sees what the world has to offer besides the operation, and what having the pretty operation actually means.
Review: I first read this book about two years ago, and I enjoyed it because I love stories about dystopian societies. The society presented in Uglies is fresh and is relevant to teens today, as our media is so focused on beauty. It really is possible that in 400 years, this could be our world. This story does focus more on plot development then character development, and so it does produce pretty flat characters. Especially the character of Tally. She always seems to just go along with the latest idea, instead of producing beliefs of her own. At first Shay seems to be a pretty good character with a mind of her own, but this actually makes her a bit moody, and whiny. The ending is cliffhanging, and it does leave the reader wanting to know what happens to Tally next.
Title: Uglies
Grade: B
Brief Summary: In the first book of this series, readers are introduced to the protagonist, Tally Youngblood. Tally lives in a futuristic, dystopian society that has taken our fixation on beauty and fame and taken it to the next level. This world is about 300-400 years since our supposed apocalypse. Children are raised to believe that they are ugly, up until they reach the age of sixteen, when they undergo a surgery that makes them pretty. No one is left out of the operation, making it so that everybody is pretty. At the beginning of the first novel, Tally is months away from her sixteenth birthday, and is anxious to become a Pretty and join her friends across the river from Uglytown. One night, Tally meets Shay, a reluctant ugly who is dreading the day of her operation. Shay introduces Tally to many new and exciting things, and then she tells Tally about David, a young man who lives outside the city in a place called the Smoke. The Smoke defies the city's idea of beauty and perfection, and Shay decides to runaway to the Smoke instead of undergoing the operation. Because of Tally's new friendship with Shay, she is believed to be involved with the Smoke. She is manipulated into traveling to the Smoke so that Special Circumstances, the city's CIA of sorts, can take down the Smoke and get the runaways back. Tally goes on a journey, physical and emotional, and sees what the world has to offer besides the operation, and what having the pretty operation actually means.
Review: I first read this book about two years ago, and I enjoyed it because I love stories about dystopian societies. The society presented in Uglies is fresh and is relevant to teens today, as our media is so focused on beauty. It really is possible that in 400 years, this could be our world. This story does focus more on plot development then character development, and so it does produce pretty flat characters. Especially the character of Tally. She always seems to just go along with the latest idea, instead of producing beliefs of her own. At first Shay seems to be a pretty good character with a mind of her own, but this actually makes her a bit moody, and whiny. The ending is cliffhanging, and it does leave the reader wanting to know what happens to Tally next.
Novel #7
Title: Pretties
Grade: B-
Brief Summary: Tally has returned to the city and has had the pretty operation. She is having a fun time with Shay, who has also turned pretty, and is even about to become a member of a popular clique, The Crims, a group of pretties who were particularly mischevious when they were Uglies. Head of this clique is Zane, an attractive pretty who is always looking for ways to become "bubbly," or in other words, clear headed. Tally and Zane stumble upon a bit of Tally's past and realize what the operation has done to them, and they decide that they need to escape the city and return to the Smoke. Tally's past with Shay also comes to light, and Shay becomes angered by Tally and finds her own way of becoming bubbly.
Review: This book, again, focuses more on plot development than on character development. The character of Zane is a bit more refreshing, as he seems to be the only character with a mind of his own. The repetitiveness of Tally and Shay's friendship on the fritz is like deja vu. There are some new developments about the society at this time, but some of these are starting to get a bit unrealistic. Which is funny considering this is a science fiction novel. But I believe that readers are able to accept certain parts of any sci-fi, fantasy, or supernatural book before it starts to get a bit unbelievable. Such is the case with Shay's idea for becoming bubbly, which feeds into the next book. But there are still parts of this development that are fascinating, specifically with Tally's discovery of the reservation (and no, I'm not going to tell you more, in case you want to read it for yourself!)
Title: Pretties
Grade: B-
Brief Summary: Tally has returned to the city and has had the pretty operation. She is having a fun time with Shay, who has also turned pretty, and is even about to become a member of a popular clique, The Crims, a group of pretties who were particularly mischevious when they were Uglies. Head of this clique is Zane, an attractive pretty who is always looking for ways to become "bubbly," or in other words, clear headed. Tally and Zane stumble upon a bit of Tally's past and realize what the operation has done to them, and they decide that they need to escape the city and return to the Smoke. Tally's past with Shay also comes to light, and Shay becomes angered by Tally and finds her own way of becoming bubbly.
Review: This book, again, focuses more on plot development than on character development. The character of Zane is a bit more refreshing, as he seems to be the only character with a mind of his own. The repetitiveness of Tally and Shay's friendship on the fritz is like deja vu. There are some new developments about the society at this time, but some of these are starting to get a bit unrealistic. Which is funny considering this is a science fiction novel. But I believe that readers are able to accept certain parts of any sci-fi, fantasy, or supernatural book before it starts to get a bit unbelievable. Such is the case with Shay's idea for becoming bubbly, which feeds into the next book. But there are still parts of this development that are fascinating, specifically with Tally's discovery of the reservation (and no, I'm not going to tell you more, in case you want to read it for yourself!)
Novel #8
Title: Specials
Grade: C
Brief Summary: Tally has returned to the city one more time, and this time has undergone surgery to become a Special, one of the city's secret security team. She has become one of Shay's Cutters, which is a group of special Specials, who purposely cut themselves in order to keep their minds icy clear. Tally has become hell-bent on seeking revenge on the Smoke and David, for what they have done to Zane. She and Shay come up with an idea to help Zane, but inadvertently start a war between their city and another city. Will Tally be able to help Zane, take down the New Smoke and fix her mistakes as well?
Review: This book is when Westerfeld takes his dystopian society from the believable future in Uglies and the slightly less believable Pretties society, into a completely unbelievable story. The novel starts to delve into the absurd within the first couple of chapters, and keeps going until near the end, I about gave up. However, the last about 100 pages started to pick up, and I finally got the protagonist that I have been waiting for throughout this entire series. Tally steps up to the plate and becomes her own person, and it is a breath of fresh air to finally see that within the story. However, it isn't able to save the rest of the novel.
Overall Grade: C+
Why?: This series started off weak, and it ended weak. There wasn't enough character development throughout the series to keep the reader interested. When I read a series, I expect the author to get better and better with each book, plot wise, character wise, and writing style wise. Westerfeld falls flat on every single one of these. He takes his believable story and turns it into a typical, bad Sci-Fi movie plot line. It was because of my dissatisfaction with the last book that I did not even want to attempt to read the fourth book in the series. I had had enough of the ridiculous storyline and characters and couldn't stomach another book like the others.
Title: Specials
Grade: C
Brief Summary: Tally has returned to the city one more time, and this time has undergone surgery to become a Special, one of the city's secret security team. She has become one of Shay's Cutters, which is a group of special Specials, who purposely cut themselves in order to keep their minds icy clear. Tally has become hell-bent on seeking revenge on the Smoke and David, for what they have done to Zane. She and Shay come up with an idea to help Zane, but inadvertently start a war between their city and another city. Will Tally be able to help Zane, take down the New Smoke and fix her mistakes as well?
Review: This book is when Westerfeld takes his dystopian society from the believable future in Uglies and the slightly less believable Pretties society, into a completely unbelievable story. The novel starts to delve into the absurd within the first couple of chapters, and keeps going until near the end, I about gave up. However, the last about 100 pages started to pick up, and I finally got the protagonist that I have been waiting for throughout this entire series. Tally steps up to the plate and becomes her own person, and it is a breath of fresh air to finally see that within the story. However, it isn't able to save the rest of the novel.
Overall Grade: C+
Why?: This series started off weak, and it ended weak. There wasn't enough character development throughout the series to keep the reader interested. When I read a series, I expect the author to get better and better with each book, plot wise, character wise, and writing style wise. Westerfeld falls flat on every single one of these. He takes his believable story and turns it into a typical, bad Sci-Fi movie plot line. It was because of my dissatisfaction with the last book that I did not even want to attempt to read the fourth book in the series. I had had enough of the ridiculous storyline and characters and couldn't stomach another book like the others.
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