She gives Tally an ultimatum to either help locate Shay and the Smoke, or never become a pretty. Cable, a woman who is described as 'a cruel pretty', is the head of Special Circumstances. On the day of Tally's operation, she is taken to Special Circumstances, a division that is likened to 'gremlins' and, ' when anything weird happens.' Dr. At first, Tally ignores the idea, but is forced to deal with it when Shay runs away a few days before their shared sixteenth birthday, leaving behind cryptic directions to her destination, a 'renegade settlement' called the Smoke, where city runaways go to escape the operation. Shay also mentions rebelling against the operation. They become friends and Shay teaches Tally how to ride a hoverboard. Her best friend, Peris, has already had the operation and, motivated by her desire to see him, Tally sneaks across the river to New Pretty Town. Like every other Ugly, she awaits the operation with great anticipation. People who lived before this catastrophe are called 'Rusties.' The old society, so dependent on oil, fell apart when cars and oil fields exploded and food could no longer be transported. There are two other operations available, one to transform Pretties into 'Middle-Pretties' (adults with a job), and another to transform Middle-Pretties into 'Crumblies'.įormer cities have decayed after bacteria infected the world's petroleum, making it unstable. After the operation, new Pretties cross the river that divides the city and lead a new life with no responsibilities or obligations. Everyone on their sixteenth birthday receives the 'pretty' operation which transforms them into the society's standard of beautiful. Three hundred years in the future, the government provides for everything, including plastic surgery operations.

In 2018, four new installments were announced, collectively titled the Imposters Series. The book is the first installment in what was originally a trilogy, the Uglies series, which also includes the books Pretties, Specials, and Extras.

Written for young adults, Uglies deals with themes of change, both emotional and physical. It tells the story of teenager Tally Youngblood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a 'Pretty,'. It is set in a future post scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is considered an 'ugly,' but then turned 'Pretty' by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age of 16. Uglies is a 2005 science fiction novel by Scott Westerfeld.

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