Recently, I picked up the popular dystopian novel which was recently adapted into a film: The Uglies, by Scott Westerfield. I tried reading the book but had to stop halfway through because of two main things: the dystopian world itself and the stupidity of the main character.
First of all, the dystopian world. The world consisted of Uglies and Pretties. Pretties were people who had undergone extreme cosmetic surgery to make them conventionally attractive, which their society claimed to bring peace and happiness to all individuals. Uglies were the people who hadn’t undergone the cosmetic surgery yet. These two groups of people were separated into different cities. I hated this concept from the start. Would making everyone conventionally attractive solve anything? Conventionally attractive people could still feel emotions, could still get into fights or cause trouble. Being “pretty” wouldn’t stop a person from doing terrible things, and the author never hinted at anything else that went on during the surgery that stopped them from doing so, just the forced ideals of their society. This seemed very stupid to me from the start and caused me to have a negative bias towards the book from the beginning.
My second dislike about the book was the stupidity of the main character, Tally. The opening scene of the book shoves the reader right into the action pack scene of Tally, an Ugly (of course), breaking into the city where the Pretties lived, called Pretty Town. Tally breaks into a party to find her former childhood friend, Peris, who makes it more than clear that he doesn’t want her there, while she continuously nags him to visit her and remember her. I was getting more annoyed by the second as her escape from the city got risker by the second. Somehow, she escaped without getting caught, but only due to a girl called Shay (another Ugly), and they strike up a friendship. Tally, who apparently can’t read the room, kept pestering Shay about the cosmetic surgery to become Pretty, which she clearly didn’t want to talk about/wasn’t interested in. Tally continued to piss me off through the portion of the book I read, and made the book almost unbearable.
Overall, even though The Uglies has an interesting concept, I believe the storyline wasn’t executed to its full potential, with a terrible main character who could have had so much more depth. While I understand part of her stupidity comes from the ideals pressed onto her from society, that doesn’t keep her from learning social skills, and in fact should have sent her the opposite way. The dystopian world could have had more reasoning behind the concept of Pretties and Uglies. Although I didn’t enjoy this dystopian novel, I recommend you read it for yourself before you decide on how good it is!
Sarah Bijoy
Scott Westerfield tried really hard to name some of the cities with descriptive names such as Pretty Town, and seems to have put just as much effort into his main character and her development over the course of the story.
ReplyDeleteseems cool. I think someone on my blog also did the uglies. Nice blog!
ReplyDeleteI agree, it was painful to read the book with the nonsense that was going on on the book.
DeleteI read this book a couple of years ago, and I agree that the concept that being pretty immediately makes you a good person is wrong and upsetting. I think I may have forgotten some of the details, but it seems that the author was trying to convey a good message to the reader. But from your post, it seems likely for the reader to misinterpret what the author was saying. I may reread the book to see for myself!
ReplyDeleteNice post! It's often frustrating to have a good concept thrown away by unrelatable characters or a hole-riddled plot.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! This post is really good! While I haven't read the book myself, I know there have been many mixed feelings on the book (and more recently, the movie adaptation). From what I've heard, I agree completely with you! Depending on how long it is, I may or may not end up reading it right now but this definitely raised it on my TBR list!
ReplyDeleteI also read this book, and i agree. The "pretties" still can have arguments and honestly from the way the author described it their life seems really boring after they have the surgery. Tally was also very annoying, and it seemed like her only purpose throughout the entire book was to become pretty (that is one of the only things i remember about her character) honestly, I'm kind of surprised Shay kept being friends with her. Nice blogpost!
ReplyDeleteI've never read this book, but that section about Tally being annoying kind of reminded me of Akata Witch. It's a shame that it doesn't live up to its potential because of the plot and characters. Nice post though!
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah, great blog but even though I've never read the book, from what you've detailed I'd have to disagree. I think the dystopian world the book is set in is meant to reflect the real world. Where being conventionally attractive (with or without plastic surgery or other bodily changes) does get you places. It can get you into work, into relationships, a whole lot of places. This happens a lot of the time in the school environment where, as hundreds of media pieces have detailed, being pretty can get you to the top of the social hierarchy. Meanwhile, for the protagonist, I kind of agree with you here. I don't have much information from what you've given me. But it seems that Tally must've had a reason for pestering Shay. Maybe it was to help her newfound friend get higher in the social status. Maybe it was to not be down in the lower ranks. I don't know. But, what I see a lot of authors fall into is the pit of making their protagonist too unrelatable. See, to make a character relatable, an author must incorporate some 'need' into them. You can look at Maslow's hierarchy of need for more information on this. Anyways, great blog!
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