Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld
I chose this book because it had a graphic novel version and I love comic books and such things. I, of course, read the novel version after.
The book is set three hundred years in the future, the government provides plastic surgery operations that everyone on their sixteenth birthday receives. One's who haven't been given the operation are referred to Uglies.
The operation transforms them into society's standard of beautiful, called pretties. After the operation, new Pretties cross a river that divides the city and leads a new life with no responsibilities or obligations. 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". Crumblies are the elderly of this world.
Tally Youngblood is the main character of the novel. She's almost sixteen and she's pretty excited about the operation. Her best friend, Peris, had already had the operation and she really wanted to see him so Tally sneaked across the river to New Pretty Town. While she's there she meets Shay, another Ugly. They become friends and Shay teaches Tally how to ride a hoverboard. Shay tells Tally about rebelling against the operation. At first, Tally is against 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.
