What I love about Uglies… Well, what I love about the whole Uglies Trilogy and Peeps is that they were so short! Or, rather, each one was technically at least 200 pages long, I think, but they were so fast-paced that I finished each in less than two days. Peeps, especially, I blasted through on the train ride back from work.

The Uglies Trilogy (Uglies, Pretties, Specials – UPS) discusses a future utopia that is really a dystopia but still feels like a utopia no matter how much crap you read about it. In the future, our civilization has been destroyed because a bacteria has destroyed our oil sources. A new civilization has arisen. Much more technologically advanced and environmentally conscious – they don’t each meat, only fish as far as I could tell, practically everything is recyclable, they don’t cut down trees… And, until you’re 16, you are an “ugly,” an average person by our standards. But at age 16, you undergo an operation to become super-model pretty. Taller, thinner, with large gorgeous eyes and flawless skin. The reasons are biological/evolutionary – and true, of course, since my psych class covered the same things. There are certain features that all people look for in others, such as facial symmetry, when it comes to attraction. Because in the past, according to this society, ugly people never had it as good as pretty people, in the future, everyone gets to be pretty! Which is so awesome.

The main character is Tally. Her best friend Peris turns 16 before she does and leaves for New Pretty Town, which is across the river, without her. While waiting for her birthday, Tally befriends Shay, who has a plan to escape Uglytown and go live in the Smoke – a colony of rebels who have escaped the cities and choose to live in the wild – hunting and cutting down trees of course, which Tally thinks is crazy. She and Shay share the same birthday, so Shay runs off to the Smoke before she can turn pretty, having unsuccessfully tried to convince Tally to join her. Tally thinks she’s going to get the pretty operation, but Special Circumstances steps in. The Specials are like the shadowy law enforcement for the city – like super CIA/FBI. Dr. Cable, a special (who are not pretty but are referred to as cruel-pretty), gives Tally a “choice.” Either she follows Shay’s code directions to the Smoke and betrays Shay by leading Special Circumstances, which has been trying to find the smoke for years, there – or she can never become pretty. Even for the reader, I’d assume, this would be a tough choice – after all, how hard would it be to be average/ugly when everyone else your age is drop-dead gorgeous? It’s pretty obvious what choice Tally makes, although once she reaches the Smoke, she falls for the “ugly” David, a young rebel leader, and decides not to betray the Smoke – only her tracking device still brings the Specials down upon the tiny town.

The Uglies trilogy is full of betrayals like this, and a bitter relationship develops between Shay and Tally, formerly practically best friends. Shay never wanted to be pretty, but because of Tally, she becomes pretty once the specials capture her. Then she loses her boyfriend David to Tally. The later books examine their relationship again and again – Tally loves Shay and wants her forgiveness, but it seems that everything she does only makes things worse, and Shay eventually seeks revenge in the second book – a brutal, brutal revenge.

Plus, Tally discovers that the pretty operation is part brain-washing. Pretties are brain damaged and hate arguing, so they can’t rebel against the city or think for themselves much. They’re sheep. Kind of funny if you relate it to our world (pretty people as airheads) but the point is that there are real people behind that brain damage.

Manipulation by the baddies is also really big. Tally is forever a tool of the city and Dr. Cable. Cable is a deceitful genius, always knowing just what to do to get Tally to follow her sinister wishes against Tally’s will. For example, Tally tries to not betray the Smoke by destroying the tracking device Dr. Cable gave her, which only activates the tracking device and brings the specials to her. How crazy is that? The worst (best?) part is, this keeps happening in the books. I thought the Uglies Trilogy would be set up much like the Star Wars trilogy and other trilogies I’ve seen – that is, in the first book, the good guys win; in the second book, the bad guys have the upper hand; and in the third book, the good guys turn things around. But the Uglies Trilogy presents a much more complicated situation, where Tally is forced to sacrifice her body over and over – becoming a pretty and then a special – for others’ purposes. It seems the bad guys are always winning (and I always wonder if they are that bad, since it’s because of them that the world is at peace).

Love and heartbreak is another huge thing, since Tally eventually falls for the pretty Zane, leaving ugly David behind. The third book Specials presents a heartbreaking finale to the struggle in Tally’s heart – her wanting to be with Zane but, as a special, hating that he’s a plain ol’ pretty – and reintroduces David and what he represents – accepting people just the way they are, regardless of their outward appearances.

I’m not sure what the message is in Uglies, since it’s not clear-cut. At first I thought it would be that people are fine just the way they are appearance-wise, but I can’t argue with the cities’ opinion that pretties have more advantages than uglies. And yet, that does seem to be the message, since after all the mind-manipulation and all her physical transformations, Tally ends up being just Tally. The message may be that we have to strive to remain ourselves in an image-conscious world. And also, that we should recycle and not rely on oil. The future presented in the Uglies books doesn’t really seem so dire environmentally, anyway. A tree-hugger’s dream, lol.

Okay, since I’m not very good at reviewing, I’d just like to point out what I liked about this as a writer:
1. The happy ending that wasn’t so happy.
2. The betrayals and manipulations, and the way Tally “triumphs” over them but really doesn’t yet does. Very cool and must read that… Ingenious.
3. The descriptions of New Pretty Town.
4. How the technology introduced in Uglies (hoverboards and bungie jackets) reappears in each book and gets tweaks on its uses and capabilities. A good base to start from, and who wouldn’t love the idea of being able to surf on air and bungie with just a jacket and no rope??
5. The cool descriptions of the pretties – and the all-too-accurate descriptions of what pretty sheep might do when given alcohol and parties… (hint: reminds me of college)
6. The way almost every question is answered and this world is almost fully explored. The one question I wanted answered was – why do we never learn who caused the collapse of our civilization? And where did the cities come from? That seemed very important but I don’t think we ever got an answer for that…
7. The language and how it changed from book to book depending on the kind of slang that the characters would use. Although it was overdone at times. (I got sick of the comparisons to champagne after a while, although it is oh-so-bubbly…)

And, yeah, Specials does have a killer cover. What I love especially is how dark the woman’s iris is, not to mention the completely appropriate condescending look, and the cool tattooes (not exactly how I imagined them, but still awesome):

Specials

Now I’ll move on to Peeps, which I picked up shortly after blasting through Specials. Peeps I liked, though I don’t think it was as finely crafted as the Uglies books. It’s basically a vampire story, although there is a scientific explanation for vampires (a parasite in your body causes vampire symptoms). The chapters about parasites were incredibly interesting. The book was fast-paced and fun, but I didn’t think it had enough emotional heft at times, and eventually I just didn’t understand how the whole parasite thing applied to the vampires and the enemy living under NYC (oh, but since it took place in NYC, I liked the references to real places, and to Hoboken, lol). I feel like the book needs a sequel, since the zombie apocalypse was only foretold at the end and the climactic battle wasn’t so climactic. Plus I still felt like some things weren’t resolved at the end. Maybe the book was erroneously geared toward a young adult audience when its theme of sexual frustration could have used more consideration (and would have in an adult novel).

EDIT 1/2/2008: Damn, I’m stupid. Last Days is the sequel to Peeps. Hopefully I’ll read it soon!

Peeps

Anyway, I thought it was interesting to read Peeps shortly after reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. Both books heavily involved rats and mentioned rat kings, yet it was enlightening to see what use the rat king served in each book (a major plot point in one, a passing reference in another) and how the information about rats was presented in each. A nice educational experience on all accounts. I love learning in a fun way =D And it’s cool to burn some time before Harry Potter comes out…

Update: Here’s a link to my Extras review.

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