Science Fiction gave a great review of this book. With a beginning and ending that pack hefty punches, this introduction to a dystopic future promises an exciting series. Tally is almost 16 and breathlessly eager: On her birthday, like everyone else, she'll undergo extensive surgery to become a Pretty. She's only known life as an Ugly (everyone's considered hideous before surgery), whereas after she "turns," she'll have the huge eyes, perfect skin, and new bone structure that biology and evolution have determined to be objectively beautiful. New Pretties party all day long. But when friend Shay escapes to join a possibly mythical band of outsiders avoiding surgery, Tally follows-not from choice but because the secret police force her. Tally inflicts betrayal after betrayal, which dominates the theme for the midsection; by the end, the nature of this dystopia is front and center and Tally-trying to set things right-takes a stunning leap of faith. Some heavy-handedness, but the awesome ending thrills with potential.Here is a great link on Scott Westerfeld and his trilogy. Trust me, you will want to finish the series!
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Ok, if you haven't read the series, DON'T READ THIS! Although I did find them entertaining to read and I read the entire series in a week, I thought the books were ok. I thought the general writing was ok but definitely feels like a tween-type of book (which isn't always bad b/c it's nice to escape sometimes)
ReplyDeleteI guess I felt like the author was trying to send out a message that you should be ok with yourself and your own uniqueness but yet, the heroine ended up being pretty (even if it was to save all of humanity). She was pretty which only underlines the message that good things only happen to beautiful people. It's true. Even after it was all said and done, she was still her version of beautiful but it was fake. She never came to terms with being ok with herself.
I also felt like the books were the exact same... Tally has succumbed to the system, has her eyes opened, decides she would never go back to the "city" way of thinking, some random adventure and then in the end, she has to go back to save humanity.
Elise, you said the fourth book just ruined it for you and for me, it was the third book. And actually, I thought it was great until the last 2 chapters. First of all, she picks Zane as her one true love, then he dies, so she goes to David (and for me, the fourth book cleared that up but I was so mad when I first read it) and then the last chapter was like, the worst, cheesiest, trying-too-hard chapter I've ever read. It sounded like a cheesy 60's hippie superhero thing. It was awful. We will come for you? What? Yeah.
Like I said, it was entertaining and I always enjoy reading other people's ideas for how the future will be or future technologies but all in all, I'd probably give it a 6. Well a 6.5 b/c I liked the closet that gave them whatever they wanted :) What about the 4th book did you just hate?