Pub. Date: February 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
In Tally’s world fitting in is not an option. At 12 everyone goes to live in ‘Uglyville’, they live in dorms until they are 16, then they have the operation that turns them pretty so they can live in ‘New Pretty Town’. In New Pretty Town everyone is pretty and the only thing they have to do is have a good time. In three weeks Tally will be sixteen. Her best friend just became pretty and while waiting, Tally meets a new ugly, Shay, and they become friends.
Shay isn’t sure she wants to become pretty. Since she doesn’t have a choice, she runs away to the outside to a place with others who didn’t turn pretty. Tally stays behind, on the day of her sixteenth birthday, she learns just how serious the authorities are about everyone turning pretty. She is given a choice, track down Shay and the others to turn them in, or stay ugly forever.
This world Tally lives in is set hundreds of years in the future, everyone wears a tracking devise, there are hover boards and hover cars, electronic sensors on everything. Everything is closely regulated, the current rulers don’t want humanity to destroy the world, which is what almost happened in the past. But as in every civilization, there are those that rebel, and those that want to squash the rebellion. It is the age old battle of the little man against impossible odds. It is also a story of manipulation and treachery and a teenager faced with an impossible choice, a decision that could change her and her world forever.
I would put this book in the category of fantasy, the characters were well developed and the story moved along at a good pace, it kept my attention from start to finish. The twists in the story line were not unbelievable and at times expected. While not quite a 4-star book it was definitely better then 3 and I would recommend it.
city girl drinking craft beer 