Tally Youngblood just wants to be pretty. That wish is about to come true on her sixteenth birthday, when she can undergo surgery to make her look perfect and then she can finally join her other pretty friends who have moved on. Until then, she’s lonely and “ugly”. While getting into a bit of mischief, she meets another lonely “ugly” who quickly becomes her friend and introduces her to all sorts of things she never imagined.

At first glance Uglies seems like a shallow book with no substance. However, despite the first impression, it’s a pretty deep, involved book. Similar to reading The Hunger Games, when you’re sucked into the dystopian society, Uglies has the same effect and you just don’t want the story to end. This is a book you’ll want to read again and recommend to your friends. It is also a completed four-book series, so you can immerse yourself some more in the three remaining excellent books!

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: Few (2) mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore: Several (12) brief incidents including a verbal threat; buildings burned down; house destroyed by explosion; second hand reports of people getting killed. One extended incident with very little detail of characters being attacked and some killed; Brief reference to wars; reference to people being killed due to appearance; second hand report or people being burned to death; character’s father killed.

Sex/Nudity: Many (30) brief incidents including kissing, hugging,  hand holding, touching face; sexual innuendo; non-sexual depiction of nudity.

Mature Subject Matter:

War, Anorexia, Death of a Family Member, Stealing

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Characters drinking alcohol at parties; reference to someone acting drunk.