Uglies by Scott Westerfeld... A Review

Sometimes Beauty isn't just Skin Deep...

What could be more important to a teenager raging with hormones, acne, and all the awkwardness that the teenage years are filled with?... Fitting in maybe?... Welcome to the world of Tally Youngblood, where at age 16 you are turned pretty and everything is wonderful... or so you would think...

Scott Westerfeld has created a future filled with Hoverboards, Interface rings and crash bracelets... Uglies is a future that is different, but strangely recognizable and believable.

Uglies is set in the future after society picked itself up after almost total annihilation and created a world where the errors of the past would never be part of the future... The world was different back then when the "Rusties" built the cities they lived in from metal, oil was the main source of fuel, and they lived like 'animals' among the trees and open lands. The new society was better... Everyone was beautiful, life was easier, food was plentiful. The children were protected by checkpoints and curfews, invisible barriers and finally by becoming 'Pretty'. In Uglies you're considered 'Ugly' until at the age of 16 EVERYONE goes thru a surgical procedure to conform to what society deems 'Pretty'... acceptable. From a "Littlie", you are taught that you are ugly... because your features are not perfect, your lips might be too thin, your hair might be frizzy, or you might not be curvy enough. Talk about helping a teenager's self esteem! But there is an answer, and that answer happens at age 16, when you are made drop dead gorgeous. There are parties every night, you are accepted by everyone, and life is easy... But what if you like being who you are? What if you don't want to be like everyone else? Is happiness really just a pretty face?

Tally Youngblood is 15 waiting for her birthday to become Pretty. Her best friend Peris, who she has grown up with, already became pretty and she is lonely and desperate to join him in New Pretty Town, where he lives now. As she sneaks over to New Pretty Town to talk to Peris, causes an amazing bit of trouble, and tries to get back over the river to where the Uglies live, she meets Shay... and all Tally knows about life and her future is turned upside down...

Tally is young, adventurous, and full of life. Shay is her equal in all of that, except she looks at becoming a Pretty differently... She questions societies forcing this conformity and looks at the values that the Pretty's have as shallow... But their friendship blossoms with late night adventures and mischief... Until one day Shay tells Tally there is another choice besides becoming Pretty... there is another place... The Smokes...

Friendship & Love, Loyalty & Betrayal, Regret and Redemption are all words I think of in describing this story. What makes a person beautiful? What are the important things in life? What is special about being your own person? This YA story touches on all these important questions and will make you sit back and think. As the story unfolds, Scott Westerfeld creates a history we can follow, shows us how things aren't always quite what they seem on the surface and what an amazing adventure life is, especially when Tally looks outside the box to see a world she could never have imagined and one in which the "authorities" take great measure to try and destroy. The friendship between Tally and Shay is believable & wonderful! There is plenty of action and thrills as Tally makes a journey to find her true self! Scott Westerfeld has created a world you can step inside and explore. You'll be turning those pages to find out what happens next! The characters are rich and the writing is compelling. This is a YA novel, but adults will enjoy reading it as well. I know I really enjoyed reading it! There is a cliff hanger at the end of the story, but the book stands on its own and you will enjoy it even if you don't read any further. The Uglies is a 4 book series... (originally it was suppose to be a trilogy, but there was one more story in Scott!)... I just ordered the rest of the series... and I can't wait! If you were ever went through the angst of being a teenager and had a BFF you will appreciate Uglies!

I read this as part of my DystopYA Reading Challenge. Dystopian fiction is generally fiction about a world that is attempting to be perfect but contains a fatal flaw, and you'll soon find out what that flaw is in Uglies!

Have you read this series yet? What did you think? Do you think being 'Pretty' is the answer to societies problems? Share your thoughts! I'd love to read them! Follow this link to Chapter One! And Scott Westerfeld has written a great selection of discussion questions for Uglies! Here is the Link! The questions illustrate what a thought provoking book this really is...

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner... A Review

You wake up in a lift, can't remember a thing except for your first name... When the doors of the lift finally open you are in The Glade, a large piece of land enclosed by tall stone walls. You wish it were a dream, but you can't seem to wake up... and soon it turns out to be a nightmare.

That is what happens to Thomas. He wakes up in a lift. He can only remember his first name. Images flash in his mind, but he can't put names to faces, and he can't even remember his parents. When the lift finally stops and the doors open, he is surrounded by a group of boys, all teenagers, all young kids. He is welcomed into The Glade, where there are rules to be followed and a hierarchy that he'd soon learn. How he got there he didn't know, but none of the Gladers knew. All they knew was that every month for the past 2 years a "Newbie" would arrive in the lift. Supplies mysteriously arrived in the lift as well. And in order to survive, the boys created a society, with jobs and industry such as farming that gave them purpose as well as sustenance.

The Glade itself had a rickety building where the boys could sleep, although most of them slept outside. There was a kitchen and a boy assigned to cook. There were farm animals and a slaughter house. A vegetable garden and a graveyard. The Glade was surrounded by tall stone walls that mysteriously opened during the day and shut by themselves at night. Outside the walls was a mysterious maze, and in that maze roam horrible bloodthirsty creatures that are a combination of animal and machine. No one was allowed outside of the walls except for The Runners. The Runners run thru the maze during the day, taking notes about where paths ended and turns continued. They would run the maze all day and before the walls close they come back and record their findings on maps. The paths in the maze changed every day, and for 2 years they still could not find the clue to escaping... until Thomas came... and then "the girl". Who were The Creators? Why were they there? How could they get back to their real homes?

The story is YA fiction, but was so well written I couldn't put it down. The futuristic world James Dashner has created is fascinating. The boys quickly adapted to their circumstances, formed friendships, created their own language, and learned to work together to survive. Things aren't so perfect in The Glade... There are conflicts, and suspicions. And there are glimpses of how young these boys actually are... how frightened they are as things start to fall apart. I kept turning those pages to find out what happened next and totally immersed myself in surviving that world along with the other Gladers, and trying to figure out how to get out of the maze once and for all. It was intense, gripping, suspenseful with bits of humor thrown in. I loved The Maze Runner until the very end... until the epilogue...

This book is the first book in a trilogy, and I though the book could have happily ended just before the epilogue and still be ready for book 2. The epilogue is a page and a half that sets up the next book, but I would have preferred to have discovered what is in the epilogue in the next book. But even with that minor difference in opinion I can't wait for book 2!

Have you read The Maze Runner yet? Since starting the Dystopian YA Fiction Challenge I've found some great books! Have any other suggestions for dystopian reading? Share them here and let me know what you thought about The Maze Runner if you've read it!

This book is part of the DystopYA Reading Challenge! Dystopian fiction is generally fiction about a world that is attempting to be perfect but contains a fatal flaw. It's the opposite of a utopia. This can take the form of a fascist government, a failing environment, corporate rule - anything. In it, life is miserable and people have to strive to rise above.

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

The Giver by Lois Lowry... A Review

In a World of Sameness, there is Hope to be found in the Memories of Our Past...

Imagine a “perfect” world... perfect because it is filled with sameness... There is no sunshine, no cold, no color... each family has 2 children, a boy and a girl, and everything, and I mean everything, is planned out and accounted for. Who you marry, what your profession shall be, what clothes you can wear growing up... There is no fear or pain, or feelings what so ever...

Set in a futuristic world, the story centers around Jonas, who at age 12 is singled out to train to become the new Receiver of Memory. There is only one Receiver, and this person holds all the memories of the pain and pleasures of life from way way back, before there was sameness. And so, Jonas is to receive all the memories one at a time from The Giver...

Up to the point where Jonas is named the new Receiver we learn about the community where Jonas lives... Everyone is extremely polite, no one is ostracized or highly praised, people can apply for a spouse and are assigned a person deemed compatible by a panel. Then the couple is assigned a boy and a girl from a pool of "newchildren", born from birthmothers who have exactly 3 births, never see their birth children and then are assigned heavy labor for the rest of their lives. Children at the age of 12 are assigned a job in the community based on their skills and interests that have been carefully observed as they volunteer in different community areas.

When the children are grown, the family unit dissolves and the adults live out there lives with other childless adults until they are too old to function in society and then go to "The House of Old". From there they are eventually "released" from society.

Of course none of this sounds too bad, until you see the glimpses of the rules in black & white. When people (children included) don't measure up to the rest of society, such as not learning proper behavior, they are given a few chances to correct their ways, but if they don't conform they are "released". Babies that don't develop at a measured rate are "released". If twins are born, one is "released" based on weight, because you simply can't have 2 of the same people walking around. The community seems pretty normal until some of these quirks start popping up. But this is all the community has known, until Jonas starts receiving the memories...

The red of an apple, the blue of the sky, the coldness of a snowflake against your face, the feeling of love... these are the memories Jonas starts to receive and it changes his world forever. What follows is heartbreaking at times, such as when Jonas asks his father "Do you love me?", and is given a lecture on a love being a generalized and meaningless word. But Jonas is changed by these new feelings and in a final act of desperation and love breaks out of his "mold" and becomes a loving, caring, individual...

The Giver is haunting... Even 15 years later, the writing is fresh and contemporary. Words used such as newchildren instead of newborns, "releasing" versus murdering, Assignments, Precision of Language, The House of Old, are subtle phrasing with very serious connotations. The Giver has been on the banned books list almost since it's publication in 1993. Some of the themes found objectionable are suicide, sexuality, and euthanasia. The theme of euthanasia was disturbing... But watching Jonas bloom as an individual was wonderful. It is a powerful novel, deceptively wrapped in a small 179 page package with simple language, but sometimes good things come in small packages and this is one of those times....

Have you read The Giver yet? I'd love to hear what you thought about the book! Instead of banning this book, why not take the opportunity to discuss the topic of suicide or euthanasia? How about the value of individuality? Dealing with peer pressures? Let me know how you feel!

This book is part of the DystopYA Reading Challenge! Dystopian fiction is generally fiction about a world that is attempting to be perfect but contains a fatal flaw. It's the opposite of a utopia. This can take the form of a fascist government, a failing environment, corporate rule - anything. In it, life is miserable and people have to strive to rise above. This book certainly fits that bill!

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

DystopYA Reading Challenge... and Everything I Know about Dystopian Fiction!

Books on the Nightstand challenges us to read Dystopian YA Fiction!

Are you up for the challenge?

You may wonder what Dystopian Fiction is... "Dystopian fiction is generally fiction about a world that is attempting to be perfect but contains a fatal flaw. It's the opposite of a utopia. This can take the form of a fascist government, a failing environment, corporate rule - anything. In it, life is miserable and people have to strive to rise above."

There have been quite a few YA (Young Adult) books published lately that deal with Dystopia Fiction including The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. One of the best known YA Dystopian novels is probably The Giver by Lois Lowry, a novel in which a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy... almost! The Giver won the Newberry Medal in 1994, which is presented to the author of "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." It also made the banned book almost immediately for it's "inappropriate material" for children. The American Library Association says that Dystopian fiction "not only offer teens excellent escapist fare rife with surv

ivalist adventure and grim imaginings of future worlds but also an opportunity to reflect on how the issues in their own lives and societies are mirrored in these worlds gone horribly wrong."

So when Ann & Michael of Books on the Nightstand posted the DystopYA (that stands for Dystopic Young Adult) challenge I thought I would join in on the fun! Would you like to enter the world of DystopYA with me? Here are two of the "rules"... (yes, there are always rules in a Dystopic world...)

* You must do as you are told. You are hereby commanded to read 3 works of dystopic fiction that were written or published primarily for young adults. Books must be read between October 5, 2009 and December 31, 2009 in order to count for the challenge.

* Secret activities are forbidden in dystopic societies. You must post your reading list and/or your review(s) of the books that you've read... either on your blog or on the special thread set up at Goodreads.

There will be a random drawing at the end of the challenge for prizes for all participants who complete the challenge too! Go to Books on the Nightstand DystopYA Reading Challenge for all the details!

Here is My reading list for the "Challenge"... AND links for the Reviews!

The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld... The Uglies is the first book in a trilogy. It's about a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. This seems like a good thing, but it's not. Especially if you're

one of the uglies, a bunch of radical teens who've decided they want to keep their own faces... Here's My Review!

The Giver by Lois Lowry... Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy, tells the story of living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society has also eliminated choice... Here's My Review!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner... When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls. Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift. Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind. Here's my Review!

As I meet my Challenge of reading these three Dystopic books, I'll post a link to my reviews here! So check back to see how I'm doing! Oh and BTW, Dystopian Fiction isn't limited to YA, there are plenty of choices for adult fiction too! The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and 1984 by George Orwell are just a few adult dystopic novels to choose from.

Have you read any Dystopian fiction novels? Any recommendations? Do you like Dystopian fiction? Let me know what's on your shelf!

Happy reading...

Suzanne