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!

Jennifer Government

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

It’s the not-too-distant future and the ideals of a small government, capitalist society have gone to their most extreme. Corporations run mostly unchecked by a government that has little authority to enforce the laws. John Nike has just executed a marketing campaign to generate demand for a new line of shoes. The campaign centers around the murder of several customers, but “that’s just good business” according to John Nike, whose name, like all other characters, reflects the name of the place he works.

Agent Jennifer Government wants to bring John Nike to justice, but her reasons for doing so might go deeper than a simple respect for the law. She and John have something in common. Before she can chase John around the globe, though, Jennifer Government needs to secure funding. In this society law enforcement lacks public support and Jennifer has to ask the family of one of the murder victims to sell their home for money to put together an investigation. At such times it is difficult to like even the “good” characters in the story as they set aside morality to get ahead, but the reader can’t help but cheer them on because the bad guys are so much worse.

In many respects Jennifer Government fits well within the dystopian novel tradition of 1984 and Brave New World. The future is bleak, but bears enough resemblance to current society to make the story believable. Some readers may find the political overtones a bit heavy-handed, but it is those political views that set up Max Barry’s vision of the future and tie the story to our own present. It is how the characters weave themselves in and around the rules of this future that compels the reader along to the end. Just how far will John Nike go to get ahead in his company? Can Jennifer stop him, or is the law too weak to stand in the way of a large corporation? Check it out from the library to see for yourself.