Uglies

by Scott Westerfeld

In Kurt Vonnegut’s classic short story “Harrison Bergeron,” society attempts to balance out the inherent inequalities of its population by handicapping those born with above average features, skills, or intelligence. If everybody is “equal” then nobody will feel inferior. That’s the theory, anyway.

Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies takes Vonnegut’s story and turns it upside down. Instead of making everybody average through handicaps, he makes everybody pretty through surgery. Tally Youngblood can’t wait to be pretty, but she’s not quite 16. Her best friend, Peris, was already made pretty and now Tally is alone with little to do but wait the few remaining months until it’s her turn. But she can’t wait. She’s afraid Peris will forget about her. After all, the Pretties are allowed to come and go as they please and Peris hasn’t been back to visit once since the surgery. Tally really can’t blame him, though. After all, she is still just an Ugly.

Before her birthday, Tally becomes friends with Shay, another Ugly who, like Tally, enjoys pulling pranks and other tricks. On one of their adventures, Shay takes Tally outside of town on their hoverboards to the ruins of an older civilization, the Rusties. Shay hopes to run into somebody out in the ruins, but nobody lives out there, do they? Why would anybody want to live out there when they could live in New Pretty Town and go to “bubbly” parties every night? But that’s exactly what Shay has in mind and she wants to take Tally with her. Is she crazy? Why would anybody choose to stay Ugly? Check out Uglies from the LFHS library to find out!