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Plot
Uglies is set in an unnamed futuristic city “three hundred years in the future,” in which the government provides for everything, including an operation. On their sixteenth birthday All citizens of the fictional society receive this “pretty” operation which, as its name implies, turns people into the biological standard of beautiful. After the operation, the new pretties cross the river that divides the city’s inhabitants and begin the section of their lives in which they have no responsibilities or obligations. In total, there are three operations; the first transforms people from “uglies” (unchanged teenagers), to “pretties” (young adults over the age of sixteen free to do what ever they want). Another one transforms “pretties” to “middlies” (adults who hold a job), and a third transforms “middlies” to “crumblies” (old people, who are starting to lose their pretty forms).

Tally, the protagonist, is about three months from her sixteenth birthday at the opening of the story. Much like every other ugly in the city, she awaits the operation with great anticipation. “Tally’s best friend, Peris, has already made the transition and motivated by her desire to see him,” she sneaks across the river to New Pretty Town, the home of all new pretties. There she meets the character Shay, another ugly who was also sneaking around in New Pretty Town. They quickly become friends and Shay teaches Tally how to ride a hoverboard. Shay also mentions thoughts of rebellion against the operation. At first, Tally ignores all these ideas, but is forced to deal with the concept as Shay runs away from the city a few days before their shared sixteenth birthday, leaving her friend with cryptic directions to her destination, a “renegade settlement” called the Smoke, where all the city runaways go to escape the operation.

On the day of Tally’s operation, she is taken to Special Circumstances, a branch of her city’s government that is described to be “like gremlins,” and “[blamed] when anything weird happens.” However, the public actually knows little about them, and some even question its existence. The character Dr. Cable is a woman described as “a cruel pretty”  with a “razor voice,” “sharp” teeth, and “non-reflexive gray” eyes. She is the head of Special Circumstances and gives Tally an ultimatum to either help them locate Shay, and more importantly the Smoke, or to never become pretty. After some thought, Tally sides with Special Circumstances. Dr. Cable gives her a hoverboard and all the necessary supplies to survive in the wild, along with a heart shaped locket that is actually a tracking device. Once activated, it will inform Dr. Cable of her location, and thus the location of the Smoke. She then sets off to find her friend.

After a little less than a week of travel, Tally arrives at the Smoke, where she finds Shay, her friend David, and an entire community of runaway uglies. She finds herself reluctant to activate the pendant, and in her time spent stalling it becomes clear that David has a crush on her. One night, David takes her to meet his parents, Maddy and Az, who are the original runaways from the city, and they explain how the operation does more than “cosmetic nipping and tucking.” It actually places lesions in people's brain to make them placid, or “pretty-minded.” Expressing great horror at what her own city has done, Tally cancels any thoughts of giving away the Smoke, and, in a display of loyalty, throws the locket into a fire without telling anyone that it was a tracker. It is damaged in the flames, which causes it to activate, giving away the Smoke’s location.

The following morning, Special Circumstances arrives and Tally narrowly escapes the camp. She flees to an old cave where they cannot track her heat signature. In the cave she finds David, who is also hiding there. Together, they begin to plan a rescue. Since all of their friends have been taken by Special Circumstances, and are currently being prepped to become pretties, Tally and David decide to go and free them. During the week-long journey Tally and David fall in love. Once they arrive at the Special Circumstances complex in Tally’s city, they discover that the Shay has been “turned,” and is now a pretty. After a brief introduction, David knocks out Dr. Cable and takes her work tablet, which has all the information Maddy needs to make a cure for the pretty brain lesions. Then Tally and David free all the Smokies located in the complex. As they are escaping the Special Circumstances head quaters, Maddy tells David that his father is dead.

Once everyone reaches safety, Maddy starts to work on the cure using Dr. Cable’s tablet and materials “brought by city uglies”. Once Maddy finishes the cure, she offers it to Shay who refuses, not wanting to risk becoming a “vegetable.” Since Tally feels responsible for her initial betrayal, she decides to become a pretty and take the cure as a “willing subject”. In order to convince David to let her go she tells him about her interaction with Special Circumstances and turning in the Smoke. While David was busy taking in what Tally had just said to him, Maddy tells her to go back to the city with Shay before she changes her mind. Once there, Tally allows a middle pretty to find her. “I’m Tally Youngblood. Make me pretty,” is the final phrase of the novel.

Uglies
Tally Youngblood, the protagonist, also known as Squint, comes off as less rebellious than Shay. However, Tally would be the one to meet Dr. Cable, and be forced to betray the smoke, and Shay. As the story progresses, she begins to stray more and more from the rules of her city, and her assignment. She falls in love with David at the Smoke, much to the irritation of Shay. With him she rescues the Smokies after they are captured by Special Circumstances, and in the end she gives herself up to be pretty, so that she could test the cure.

Shay, also known as Skinny, is Tally’s best friend and the one to originally suggest that they should run away from the city. She teaches Tally to ride a hoverboard, and also has a crush on David. When she finds out about them, she is infuriated until the operation takes away her ability to be angry. The operation changes her to be far more placid.

Dex, Sussy, and An, all uglies a few years younger than Tally and Shay, help rescue the Smokies from Special Circumstances by creating a distraction in New Pretty Town.

Smokies
David, the son of the founders of the Smoke, falls in love with Tally. Originally he liked Shay, but after Shay brought Tally to the runaway camp called the Smoke, his love for Shay was forgotten, as he found a new interest in Tally. David helps to change Tally’s feeling towards her city. He wears hand sewn clothing, made from animal skins, and has a lot of survival skills which he passes on to Tally.

Maddy is David’s mother. She tells Tally about the brain lesions caused by the pretty surgery, and later in the book develops a cure for the lesions.

Az is David’s father, and dies in an operation later in the story. He also helps to tell Tally about the brain lesions the pretty surgery causes.

Croy is another Smoky and a friend of Tally’s. He was originally suspicious of her, but he grew to trust her.

Specials
Dr. Cable is the head of Special Circumstances, and the one who denies Tally the operation until she finds Shay. She is the one who sends Specials to destroy the Smoke. She is described to have an aquiline nose, non-reflective gray eyes, a razor-like voice, and sharp teeth.

Pretties
Peris, Tally’s best friend, who was already pretty at the beginning of the book. He helps Tally decide to betray Shay.

Ellie Youngblood is Tally’s pretty mother who helps Tally to decide to turn in Shay. She is a middlie.

Sol Youngblood is Tally’s pretty father who helps Tally to decide to turn in Shay. He is a middlie.

Identity
According to critics Uglies, contains themes of identity, particularly in the cases of teenagers. Phillip Gough said the government of Tally’s city, which controls what happens within the operation, “removes responsibility for identity,” thus creating sameness and uniformity. By placing heavy emphasis on the role of individualism, the novel shows the importance of teen’s self-concept, according to Gough. Because identity is formed by “displacement,” and all citizens are carefully sheltered, there is no chance for them to branch out into independence. “Physical identity is determined by committees,” noted Gough in his essay discussing Westerfeld’s novel. Due to the lack of choice, all “markers of physical identity” are destroyed by their government.

Beauty
Kristi N. Scott and M. Heather Dragoo note in their collaborative essay on Uglies, that another recurring theme in the “image-obsessed society,” was beauty, and its recurring relationship with individuality. Gough agreed, commenting that “when everyone is equal, beauty loses its meaning.” As depicted in his essay, beauty went hand in hand with identity. Uglies were taught to think of their bodies and faces as “temporary,” something that would be replaced later with cosmetic surgery. A strong line was drawn to connect features with personality, and one critic stated that they developed “ugly” and “pretty” personalities with each stage of their operations.

Dystopian Society
A “utopia resting on ruthless suppression of individual freedom” was Amanda Craig of The Times’s description of Tally’s city. Many critics identified the trend of a controlling government in the novel, with descriptions akin to Craig’s from many. People in the protagonist’s world are “programmed and designed by the Pretty committee,” with no say-so in their operation, and identity is placed firmly “in the hands of the state.” In the essay The Baroque Body: A Social Commentary on the Role of Body Modification in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies Trilogy, Dragoo and Scott pointed out how segregated the city was, with pretties, uglies, middlies, and crumblies neatly divided into different sections. Many reviewers commented on the way in which the city manipulated its inhabitants, including the supposedly rebellious uglies, who were nothing more than “docile bodies.”

Humanity
Various critics also found a theme of humanity within Uglies. Phillip Gough commented heavily on how pretties and specials, those who worked for Special Circumstances, were “posthuman” because of their operations. Others, such as Scott and Dragoo, argued against it, claiming “the human body provides an artistic and political canvas for intentional manipulation,” and that this physical transformation can be an “outlet for humanity.” The novel Uglies seems to take no definite stance on it, though clearer points are shown in Pretties and Specials, the books after Uglies in the trilogy.

Reception
The novel has received mostly positive reviews. The Baroque Body praised the novel as having “creative slang, unique technical gadgets, and defining characteristics of personhood.” Corey Doctorow complimented its “perfect parables of adolescent life,” and stated that it is “fine science fiction for youth.” Jennifer Mattson claimed it to be “ingenious.” Reed Buisness Information praised the “convincing plot” and noted that it is “highly readable.” Simon Pulse acclaimed the “great gadgetry,” “plausible problems,” and “thought provoking issues.” However, Simon Pulse also complained that readers “[m]ay lose track of the plot while trying to figure out what happened to the Rusties” and that after “four hundred plus pages, readers may feel cheated since loose ends still need to be tied up.” Readers would then have to get the sequel Pretties. Publishers Weekly commented that Tally was a “rather passive protagonist.” The United Kingdom Times complained that “Tally herself is a bit too vague as a character.” Critic Jennifer Mattson commented on the brisk pace of the novel as being “bad for convincing relationships.” The novel Uglies has also sparked controversy over the use of plastic surgery to improve one's looks. The author said he has “received many letters from girls who have decided against having surgery since reading Uglies,” and others, sparked by Uglies, have started to ponder the ethics of changing your body’s appearance. Scott Westerfeld and others have theorized that “having extreme cosmetic surgery will be like buying a $1,000 Gucci bag, an indication that you are a member of the privileged class." Many other critics echo his opinion. However, Scott Westerfeld has also stated he “wouldn’t hesitate [to use plastic surgery] if he had a kid with port-wine stain. We have all been altering our appearances ever since clothing was invented." Other critics have also stated that while altering one's appearance with plastic surgery can be ethically debatable, the benefits of it to people who are in need for it are tremendous.

There is also some moderate debate sparked by Uglies over the issue of monitoring teens. The state has started to track teens through their cell phones and on occasion through dental implants. Scott Westerfeld feels that this will “result in a total loss of privacy.” However, others feel that this technology is necessary to properly supervise teens.

Slang
The slang and phrases used through Uglies came from a number of sources. Among those Westerfeld has listed are Australian slang and idiomatic phrases, British slang, and plastic surgery terms. Some he says were his own friends’ phrases, with a good deal also just made up for the Uglies universe.

Publication History
The novel Uglies was first published in 2006 by the company Simon Pulse, and was re-released in 2011 with a new cover. It is the first part of a trilogy, with the sequels being Pretties, and Specials, and with another add-on book Extras. The trilogy sold well, so much so that it was featured on the New York Times bestseller list for a significant amount of time.

Adaptations
Steve Cunnings adapted  Uglies  into a manga-style graphic novel made called Shay’s Story, it tells the story from the perspective of Shay. There has also been an audio recording made of the book (published in 2006), available on both CD and cassette.