Uglies

As most of you by now know, I am an avid reader of young adult fiction.  I gobble up these books like I used to gobble... well everything.  I think the appeal of these books is that you can fully escape into them.  It's like boarding a plane to a new place (without the pricey plane ticket).  People often dismiss these books as trivial, and it's true that some of them are.  Admittedly there was not a whole lot to the Pretty Little Liars series, what you read was what you got.  The truth is, though, that most of these young adult novels are quite thought provoking.  They ask you to question things that you have always believed, to look at the world through a different set of eyes.  I think this quality is especially important for the intended audience, teenagers so often merely skim the surface of life without bothering to think any deeper.  The Twilight series, the books people not the movies, encourages girls to find strength in themselves.  Not physical strength like what is so obvious in the vampires, but mental and emotional strength is what makes Bella special and in the end saves everyone.  The Host makes us question what it means to really be human, and look at the dangers of thinking you can fix all the problems of the planet.  The Heist Society books highlight the importance of family and not giving in to what seems like impossible situations.  The Uglies series raises a bunch of similar questions.

Uglies is yet another dystopic society book.  Years in the future, the Rusties (us) have all died out and civilazation has "evolved" and learned from it's "mistakes."  Realizing that people were treated differently based on their looks, the government gives everyone an operation at the age of 16 to make them pretty.  This way everyone is treated equally, no one is picked on for their looks, and problems essentially disappear.  Everyone is sorted into groups.  You start as a Littlie, living with your parents who are "Middle Pretties." When you are 12, and thus reaching your awkward years, you move into Uglytown and you are considered to be an "ugly".  When you are 16 you are turned surgically into a "New Pretty."  The surgery not only changes your appearance to what is considered classically beautiful (big eyes, smooth skin, full lips, medium height, medium build, silky hair, etc.) it also fixes your vision, strengthens your immune system and tones your muscles.  The theory is that when everyone is pretty, no one really stands out anymore.  The Uglies all tease each other and point out their worst features, but it doesn't bother them because they know when they reach 16 they will be pretty.  Anorexia is a disease of the past, so is obesity.

The questions this book raises are very interesting.  I can see the appeal of taking appearance out of the equation, but is their solution the best one?  Would it not be better if people could start seeing the pretty inside of people instead of having to have people look just so before they are valued.  I like the way it highlights the dangers of judging people based on their looks, their skin tone, their clothes.  Yes, the solution in this book was extreme, but was it warranted.  How far will we go in our hatred?  Not that long ago we enslaved people based purely on their skin.  We thought of them as inhuman, and why? Because they looked a little different?  Ridiculous.  The effects of that stupidity are still haunting us today.  Now we have somehow decided that people that practice different religions than us are dangerous.  We have based our beliefs of a whole group of people based on the actions of a few.  Ironically it is exactly that thought process that spurred the extremists to attack our nation.  If you could fix these things, would you?  Where would you draw the line if you thought you could help the world?  This book has definitely got me thinking, and I am hoping that it has the minds of the younger generation churning as well.

While I definitely enjoyed the story of Uglies, I found the writing to be a little immature.  It is definitely aimed at a younger group than I usually read.  The descriptions of situations were a little simpler than I would like, and the book reads very quickly.  Despite this simplification of wording the book still resonates and makes the reader question who they are and what they really believe about beauty.  I definitely recommend the story.  I am going to read the rest of the series as well, I hope that the thought provoking questions still ring out from the concurring pages.  I will definitely let you know.  :)

Happy Reading.