Uglies
Uglies, Book 1
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Uglies
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Narrated by:
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Emily Tremaine
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Written by:
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Scott Westerfeld
About this listen
Tally lives in a world where your 16th birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation that erases all your flaws, transforming you from an "Ugly" into a "Pretty". She is on the eve of this important event and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time. But then she meets Shay, who is also 15 - but with a very different outlook on life. Shay isn't sure she wants to be Pretty and plans to escape to a community in the forest - the Rusty Ruins - where Uglies go to escape "turning". Tally won't be persuaded to join her, as this would involve sacrificing everything she's ever wanted for a lot of uncertainty. When she is taken in for questioning on her birthday, however, Tally gets sent to the Ruins anyway - against her will. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she could ever imagine: Find her friend, Shay, and turn her in or never turn Pretty at all. What she discovers in the Ruins reveals that there is nothing "pretty" about the transformations...and the choice Tally makes will change her world forever.
©2005 Scott Westerfeld. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Editorial Review
Like many teenagers, Tally Youngblood dreams of her future. She can’t wait to turn 16, the day she can start her new life by undergoing surgery to transform from a common “Ugly” into a privileged and special “Pretty.” Tally is excited to leave the world of the Uglies behind and finally experience life as a beautiful person. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she meets Shay, a teenager who views life differently than Tally. Shay isn’t sure she wants to be Pretty and plans to escape to the Rusty Ruins, a dreaded place where Uglies go to escape turning Pretty. Tally refuses to join her new friend on her dangerous journey. After dreaming and waiting so long to leave the world of the Uglies behind, she would never compromise her chance at a life filled with beauty and advantages. However, she is taken in for questioning on her birthday and gets sent to the Ruins against her will. The authorities tell Tally she has one option: find her friend Shay and turn her in or never turn pretty. Before long, Tally begins to suspect that turning Pretty comes at a terrible price.
A gripping science fiction entry in the young adult dystopian world, Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies audiobook offers a stunning portrait of young adult identity, body image issues, and rigid social divisions sure to keep the listener engaged and leave them thinking. Perfect for book clubs or casual listening, Uglies is the first dystopian fiction audiobook in the Uglies series and is narrated with emotion by Emily Tremaine.
What listeners say about Uglies
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sabrina Devereux
- 2018-10-01
phenomenal
This is such an amazing book. I could listen to it for the rest of my life.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- LeClaire Fam
- 2020-07-05
love the book!
loved the story, not a super fan of the narration. It's not bad, just not how I read the story in my head.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jeannie Renee lippert
- 2018-09-17
A great book for teens and young adults!
It is hard to find a teen based science fiction book quite like this series. You will be interested in the world that might be one day and how they may view today's society. Is it superficial to make everyone equally beautiful or a way to stop War ? Furthermore this may not be that far from the truth with modern science working on ideas like CRISPER.
The second book is my favorite with the fourth and final being quite skippable. #Audible1
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Christian
- 2022-06-30
Good book
Loved this book as a teen and still love it as an adult. Good east listen :)
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Maude F.
- 2021-04-05
Très bon livre
Je n'aime habituellement pas ce qui est science fiction, mais ce livre m'a beaucoup plu.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2021-08-31
great
absolutely loved this book it is so good. read it first in high school I'll always come back to it
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Npuppo
- 2021-11-28
Not my type of dystopian
Within this dystopian novel, the people - (boys and girls) get surgeries when they turn 16 years old to become "pretty". The pretty people have higher social standing than the uglies. The protagonist (Tally) meets a friend (Shay) who convinces Tally to reject the surgery.
Like most dystopian novels or satire, it seems to be some social commentary on our culture's beauty standards which is a message I could get behind. I think the beauty industry can be incredibly harmful to young girls. From teen girls feeling shame at having an actual skin texture and editing their selfies on social media to eating disorders to plastic surgery gone wrong to foot binding. The ways in which culture harms girls with beauty standards are numerous.
However I didn't find that this novel was a compelling read for me. Maybe it is because I prefer non-fiction to fiction books. Maybe it's because as a 30 year old woman I'm not the target demographic - a teen. Maybe it's because the author is male and there was something lacking from the female perspective. Maybe it's because I have seen so many misogynistic horrors in the real world that I think this book lacks imagination. I think Handmaid's Tale or The Scarlet Letter is something I'd recommend reading over this book.
I also I didn't think it was realistic for all the pretty surgeries depicted in this book don't end up becoming botched surgeries? The dystopian in this book is that this society is vain and systematically practices surgery on people when they turn a certain age to become "pretty" and that pretty people are higher on the social hierarchy than uglies. What I think is weird is how plastic surgery is depicted as this perfected craft. Part of the horror of modern day plastic surgery is the surgeries gone wrong and the beauty industry covering up the harm because their bottom line is making money off women's insecurity.
All and all I didn't think this book made much of a statement. It didn't really play off real societial fears because it portrays beauty standards as affecting both boys and girls equally. In this society, even boys are expected to become a "pretty" - which doesn't reflect the misogyny of beauty standards in the real world. Instead this book goes in weird directions like a futuristic society with hover boards which didn't add anything to the story or overall message.
Also I thought it was boring. Many of the characters like Tally or Shay or anyone these characters encounter were boring and lacked personality. Tally and Shay almost seemed like the same character to me. There wasn't any villains or bullies that struck fear into the reader because of how similar they appeared to people in real life. There wasn't any rich conflict against protagonists and supporting characters. It just seemed like Tally passively agrees with Shay's idea because they are friends. Character motives and ideologies seem weak. Seems like a man vs society plotline where things are very black and white: the pretties vs the uglies. But it's just weird reading it from the perspective of a grown woman who has some cultural awareness on the war on woman.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Julie Reitzel
- 2023-12-15
How bad it was
I disliked the book. I liked when our teacher didn’t make us finish it since she also disliked it
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