- Publisher: Recorded Books
- Published Date: 2006
- Print Copyright: 2005
- Discs: 11
- Duration: 12.5 hours
- ISBN10: 1-4281-1336-3
- ISBN13: 978-1-4281-1336-7
- Author: Scott Westerfeld
- Read by: Carine Montbertrand
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is set about 300 years in the future in a world where everyone is made ‘Pretty’ on their sixteenth birthday. This world seems almost Utopian. Everyone gets to be pretty. Everyone gets to move to a new city where there are parties and fun and entertainment, and seemingly, not a care in the world. You have your place in society. You know your place in society. You don’t have to care about the bigger picture… but can you care if you want to?
Tally Youngblood is anxiously awaiting her birthday when she will be able to undergo the surgery to make her Pretty. As the youngest of her friends, she has to wait out her last three months as an Ugly without their companionship. After sneaking into “New Pretty Town” to try to connect with her previous best friend, Paris, she narrowly escapes. While making her way back to her side of the river, she encounters Shay, another Ugly who happens to share her same birthday. Shay is not so enamored with the thought of becoming Pretty. They spend most of the next three months hanging out and “pulling tricks”. When her birthday finally rolls around, Tally has to make a difficult choice that will affect her entire future.
Uglies is basically a young adult Brave New World. Rather than different groups being bred and genetically engineered for their roles in society, they are surgically enhanced based on their ages. They are made ‘pretty’ and ‘happy’ with surgery to make them ideally attractive, supposedly from an evolutionary and intrinsic perspective. Diversity is reduced and attractiveness is increased. Individuality is not important, and is actively discouraged by social pressure, and other means.
For a YA utopian/dystopian novel, Uglies is better than I expected. There are certain concepts that are over simplified or under developed, but that is not surprising given the target audience. It does a pretty good job at what it is trying to do. Don’t expect the quality of Brave New World (and read that one too), but this one is worth the time, especially as a passive listening exercise.
Note – I listened to this story from older CD’s that I got out of the library. It has been since rerecorded so if you listen to the audiobook, you are likely to hear a different narrator. Carine Montbertrand did a fine job reading the book, but this version does not seem readily available today.
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Books available from Matt Truxaw
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster, which released on 1/12/2026. This urban fantasy, horror, thriller will keep you turning the pages.
He is also the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia/Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
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Monster: A Novel by Matt Truxaw
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