A fun book but a bit mixed on the metaphors.
My only dear god not again moment. The Smoke people just drink from the stream! The book keeps mentioning animals, so I assume there’s animals…therefore: STREAMS NOT SAFE.
Apparently you have to get giardia few times to get this.
But otherwise the actual story was kind of fun. Tally, an ugly in a world where everyone gets surgery to become pretty when their 16, is counting down the days till her 16th birthday. She wants to be pretty. It’s all she’s ever wanted.
But things never stay simple. Tally meets Shay, an ugly who wants to stay that way, at all costs.
What follows is a look at utopia vs. dystopia. We’re told how the city they are the bad guys for making everyone the same…but then you find out that they kept humans alive and saved the planet. When when get to the Smoke, they talk about freedom and individualism and how they have to live off the land, cut down trees but replenish. The characters are eventually convinced which side they want to be on (kind of) but it’s never really clear who really is bad. Or why smoke is bad. The themes of control vs freedom clash against humans vs planet in a way the leaves the reader muddled. The humans as free & destructive = true beauty is common in SciFi. But Uglies makes you feel guilty about it.
It’s a good book though. Filled with fun chases, daring tricks, and a little romance.
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