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remulaToday I finished reading Uglies which happens to be the first book to read for the Young Adult Book Club and if I didn't HAVE to read the book, I so wouldn't be reading it on my own. But I digress. This book is the first of a trilogy. I'd say that was fine, but really, it's not. I'm sure people know what I mean when they read something or watch something and they feel compelled to continue on with it until it's over because, hey, you don't want to be a quitter, and yeah.. Can't really think of another reason. But anywayz.. This book? It was okay.
The blurb on the back wasn't all that great and this is definitely not my normal read-for-fun book, but it wasn't horrible. It's about a world where, at the age of 16, you get an operation to turn pretty where all your problems go away and no more jealousy or anger or whatever the fuck causes problems. Now, that's all fine and dandy, if you want to believe in that, but seriously! When I started reading the book, I was like WTF is this?! I mean, come on! The way they described the operation and biology and stuff! Scary, if you ask me. I mean.. They mash your bones, put in plastic cartilages, rub off all your skin so you can grow new skin, suck out your fat, make your eyes bigs and lips full and all this other junk just so you can look "pretty" and look almost exactly like everyone else! WTF! That doesn't sound like an appealing 16th birthday present to me! But I digress... All this is suppose to make the world better because now you can't descriminate against anything appearance related and basically they mess with your brain (that's a spoiler there) so you're basically dumb and use words like "bubbly" (who in their right minds says bubbly?!) and sound white-washed.
What I did like about this book? It makes you think about all this appearance stuff and how all these people want to get things done to "fix" themselves and how that's shaping our ideals of "pretty". With all the types of surgeries you can have now, you can't help but think, "Is this the future? Changing everything about you to be pretty?" and, of course, there will be people who love this idea and people who hate it. I, personally, think we're already headed in that direction, but that's just me.
What didn't I like about this book? I hated how Tally, the heroine of the book, was so into becoming a pretty. It's kinda disgusting, IMO. She risked her life going to look for new friend Shay and bringing her back because of the threat of not being able to turn pretty until she did. I hate how she's so brainwashed to think that anyone who didn't go under the knife is ugly. I hate how Shay, at the beginning, seemed so intelligent and rebellious about the operation and ran away to the Smokies, but in the end, she wasn't that serious at all about it and thought of the Smokies as just a big "trick". She had the potential to be someone strong and serious about wrongness of the operations and stuff, but it seemed, to me, she was just trying to impress David.. Because she liked him, because she wanted to be noticed, she ran away. I hated how, until the end, Tally didn't own up to what her intentions were, especially to David. There was so much wrong there.. she continued to lie, when there was no point. She could have said something.. If she did, then things wouldn't have turned out the way they had. I also hate how she threw the pendant in the fire. That was so dumb because of COURSE it would have alerted the Specials to her like a moth to a flame! So dumb.. *sigh*
Anywayz.. I'll stop ranting for now. Laters.
~Remula
The blurb on the back wasn't all that great and this is definitely not my normal read-for-fun book, but it wasn't horrible. It's about a world where, at the age of 16, you get an operation to turn pretty where all your problems go away and no more jealousy or anger or whatever the fuck causes problems. Now, that's all fine and dandy, if you want to believe in that, but seriously! When I started reading the book, I was like WTF is this?! I mean, come on! The way they described the operation and biology and stuff! Scary, if you ask me. I mean.. They mash your bones, put in plastic cartilages, rub off all your skin so you can grow new skin, suck out your fat, make your eyes bigs and lips full and all this other junk just so you can look "pretty" and look almost exactly like everyone else! WTF! That doesn't sound like an appealing 16th birthday present to me! But I digress... All this is suppose to make the world better because now you can't descriminate against anything appearance related and basically they mess with your brain (that's a spoiler there) so you're basically dumb and use words like "bubbly" (who in their right minds says bubbly?!) and sound white-washed.
What I did like about this book? It makes you think about all this appearance stuff and how all these people want to get things done to "fix" themselves and how that's shaping our ideals of "pretty". With all the types of surgeries you can have now, you can't help but think, "Is this the future? Changing everything about you to be pretty?" and, of course, there will be people who love this idea and people who hate it. I, personally, think we're already headed in that direction, but that's just me.
What didn't I like about this book? I hated how Tally, the heroine of the book, was so into becoming a pretty. It's kinda disgusting, IMO. She risked her life going to look for new friend Shay and bringing her back because of the threat of not being able to turn pretty until she did. I hate how she's so brainwashed to think that anyone who didn't go under the knife is ugly. I hate how Shay, at the beginning, seemed so intelligent and rebellious about the operation and ran away to the Smokies, but in the end, she wasn't that serious at all about it and thought of the Smokies as just a big "trick". She had the potential to be someone strong and serious about wrongness of the operations and stuff, but it seemed, to me, she was just trying to impress David.. Because she liked him, because she wanted to be noticed, she ran away. I hated how, until the end, Tally didn't own up to what her intentions were, especially to David. There was so much wrong there.. she continued to lie, when there was no point. She could have said something.. If she did, then things wouldn't have turned out the way they had. I also hate how she threw the pendant in the fire. That was so dumb because of COURSE it would have alerted the Specials to her like a moth to a flame! So dumb.. *sigh*
Anywayz.. I'll stop ranting for now. Laters.
~Remula
