User:Stand So High/sandbox

Plot
On your 16th birthday, in Uglyville, you receive an operation called "the Surge." Then, you finally meet society's standard of beauty. The newest pretties leave their old town of Uglyville and move over to New Pretty Town where they have no worries or responsibilities. While there, they grow older, like they normally would. They progress from "new pretties" to "middle pretties" then, finally, to "crumblies." This society built off of a society that went through an apocalypse. The "Rusties" society decayed after bacteria infected the oil they used to power their machines and cars. Tally Youngblood is an Ugly. She's fifteen years old and about three months away from getting her operation. She is on the rebellious side. She sneaks out, crosses over the bridge to New Pretty Town, and leaves the city to the Rusties ruins. Her old best friend, Peris, is a resident over in New Pretty Town. Tally decides that she's going to sneak over to one of the Pretties parties and see Peris. She has to avoid Special Circumstances, basically the cops of the books. So, she grabs a mask tossed aside from an earlier celebration and heads over to one of the party towers. She sneaks in and sees Peris in the elevator. People are suspicious due to her mask. Someone called Special Circumstances and Tally escapes by jumping off of the building in something like a bungie cord. She rides away on her hoverboard but, on the way back she has to hide from what she thinks is a warden. Soon, she finds that it's just another rebellious ugly. Her name is Shay. Tally and Shay talk and get to know each other and almost instantly become best friends. Shay teaches Tally how to hoverboard. Shay mentions how she's completely against the operation and that she's going to run away to a place called the Smoke. Tally tries to talk her into staying but Shay doesn't listen. So, Tally ignores it and thinks that Shay is going to stay. But, the next day, Tally wakes up to Shay being gone. Tally's chance of turning pretty is jeopardized when Shay leaves. Special Circumstances tells Tally that if she doesn't get her friend back and give away the location of the smoke, Tally won't become a pretty. Tally isn't prepared to let anyone stand in her way of becoming something that she had always dreamed about. Tally sets off into a long adventure. After a few weeks and a couple near death experiences, Tally finally makes it by decoding a note left by Shay. Shay is glad to see Tally. Tally meets David, the leader of the Smoke. Tally settles in and sets off into work for a while. She gets comfortable there. The pendant given to her to give away the location is still around her neck. She starts to fall for David and destroys it in a fire. Little did she know that destroying it would send off a signal as to where she was. Special Circumstances shows up and captures everyone, except Tally. She runs into a cave for hiding so Special Circumstances can't find her by tracking her heat signature. There she finds David and they start to plan to rescue everyone. They go back to the city to find their friends and sneak into the Special Circumstances building. They find that Shay was already turned and David takes out Dr. Cable to find a reverse to the brain lesions that erase all of your Ugly memories. As they all escape, David has to tell his mother, Maddy, that his father, Az, had died. Maddy starts to work on the cure for the lesions and figures it out. She offers it to Shay but Shay refuses, not wanting to become a "vegetable." Tally feels responsible for the betrayal of the Smoke and Shay, so she steps forward and says that she will become pretty and return to take the cure. Tally tells David about her involvement in the give away of the Smoke. While David is absorbing the shock, Maddy tells Tally that she might want to leave. She returns to the city, enters the hospital and says to a doctor "I'm Tally Youngblood, make me pretty," to end the book. One of the more commonly know references is an essay called The Baroque Body.

Background
Scott Westerfeld explains how he got some influence from watching one of his film-maker friends and his sister-in-law who did special/visual effects make a boil on a man's hand go away because "He Can Have No Flaws!" He also states how it was more about photography and film rather than about plastic surgery. Westerfeld also states that he is influenced by another writers trilogy called Tripods which was written by John Christopher. Some role playing games may have also wiggled their way into the Uglies.

Publication History and Reception
Uglies was published in 2005 by Scott Westerfeld, a YA writer. Then it was republished in 2011 with a new cover. Westerfeld explains “Tally, the heroine, lives in a world that is truly post-feminist, and in which other issues such as race and class have been got rid of. What interested me was, initially, writing about the way we see pretty people as better. We all agree it’s bad to judge people on skin colour, but we’re unapologetic about admiring beauty, with the result that pretty people get better jobs, grades and are even arrested less,” showing his opinion about cosmetic surgery. The NY times praised the book by stating "Every plot twist means lots of jaw-dropping action," and "With its combination of high-stakes melodrama, cinematic action and thought-provoking insight into some really thorny questions of human nature, the new novel, like its predecessors, is a superb piece of popular art, reminiscent less of other young adult books than of another pop masterpiece, the revived “Battlestar Galactica.” Also, an essay titled The Baroque Body says that Westerfeld's novel uses “creative slang, unique technical gadgets, and defining characteristics of personhood." But, there were some negative reviews from Publishers Weekly stating "They may also feel cheated when, after 400-plus pages, the ending leaves loose ends to be tied up in the next installment, Pretties . Ages 12-up. (Mar.)"

Awards and Nominations
Scott Westerfeld has won numerous awards. One of the multiple is the "Best Books for Young Adults 2006" by the American Library Association. Also, others such as: Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best for Teens, 2005 Kirkus Editor's Choice, 2005 New York Public Library's "Books for the Teen Age", 2005 School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2005 Texas Lone Star Reading List, 2006-2007 VOYA's Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers, 2005 YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2006 YALSA Quick Picks Nominee, 2006

Major Themes
Some major themes are: Beauty: The whole idea behind the book is turning from ugly to beautiful. Most of it is to meet society's standards. All the people in the book who are ugly can't wait to turn sixteen and be like everyone else. To be normal and fit in. But most of all, to love themselves and the way they look. Conformity: All of the people in Uglies are conforming to the rules of society, which in this case, seems to be Special Circumstances. Once you're pretty, there's no turning back. They use lesions so that you can't remember how your original self used to be. You have to do whatever the government says. Future/Utopia/Distopia: This novel is placed in the future. There are hoverboards, flying machines, and advanced technology to look at whatever you want or create the face you want for the operation. This place seems like a dream world because no one would be judged, no one would think one person was ugly or not because they would all be separated. But, you are just under the government.

Adaptations
A producer by the name of John Davis, from 20th Century Fox, bought film rights to the book. davis and his wife, a co-producer, were introduced to the book by their daughter. The film adaptaion was scheduled to release in 2011 but the date got pushed back. A manga drawer, Steve Cummings, drew the novel in black and white. Also, he drew another interpretation from the author,Devin K. Grayson, called Shay's Story which is a story froms Shay's prospective instead of Tally's. There are also audio tapes and CD's availible to purchase.

Style
The normal style of Westerfeld's book is dystopian and for young adults. He mixes in a little bit of science fiction as well. Westerfeld talks about how he uses the dystopian world as some of his main influence on the style of writing he does. He also used to do things with TV shows for kids so he threw in the imagination. Also, some people like the slang that he uses throughout the book. "...but the slang in these books is also really awesome. It's a mix of Australian slang and slang that Scott Westerfeld made up. After you read these books, you will be using the slang for weeks afterward."