The Uglies trilogy can be found in the Teen section of the bookstore or the library. However, i found them extremely entertaining.
The setting is a few hundred years into the future, and society has evolved into a sort of utopia. There are distinct phases in your life. You are a littlie from age 0-11. At age 12 you go to a type of boarding school for four years, and these are known as your ugly years. At age 16 you get to undergo an operation where you are turned pretty. When you’re pretty, you get to party for a few years. There is another operation as you enter middle age, and you become a middle pretty. A third and final operation occurs before old age, and you become a crumblie.
Technology and government has evolved to a point where the society is completely self-contained. Everything that is used is recycled. Nothing costs money. Everyone pitches in during their middle pretty days and is a functioning member of society.
But of course, there is a problem with how this all works. It turns out the government is also doing a little brain surgery while doing the cosmetic surgery. There are a few rebels who live in the woods, refusing to undergo the operation to become pretty, and struggling against the big government entity.
Our heroine is Tally, a teenager who has spent years wanting nothing other than to finally be pretty. She gets caught up with the rebels, and after a series of hoverboarding and bungee-jumping stunts, she discovers the secret of the surgery. And now she has to find a way to save herself, and her friends.
I think these books have a lot of good stuff in them, and not just for teens.
January 25th, 2009 1:59 pm
I’m glad that you enjoyed the series. I thought that they were quick, entertaining reads. I’m curious to see what you will think about The Midnighters. I’d also recommend the kids’ books by Lois Lowry (they aren’t exactly a trilogy but are related: The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger). They are different from The Uglies, but similar in that they are about dystopian societies.