Reading at Dawn - Book Review Blog

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Book 21 in A to Z challenge

I've had this book a long time. Many years and several people have recommended it. Well, I picked a fun time to read it because I had only a few days (after rushing Z so I could get it back to the library before it was due) to read all 400+ pages. My sister loved the whole series so I'd been meaning to read it for a while but having to rush made me worry a little because I wasn't sure how quick I could get through while enjoying reading it. I read it in 2 days.

About the book: Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license - for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all.

The choice Tally makes changes her world forever...


 My Review: Definitely a good book. I wasn't sure on where things were headed for a good part of it and I am okay with that. The whole world and concept was interesting with the operations at age sixteen, with both of them along with the characters keeping my attention. Though I will admit on occasion it was hard with the main character, but I think in ways that was helpful. Many of us writers worry about our readers liking the main character even when they had to make bad/tough decisions. And when it comes to promises to two different friends, there was no great choice for Tally to make. She had a long standing friend who became pretty first that she made a promise to, then she had her new friend Shay, who she made a counter promise too, which messes things up and that's just the beginning. Tally spends the book digging herself into a pretty big mess and while it's hard at time to root for a bit of deceptions, it's understandable in many ways.

It had quite a few surprises. I didn't expect the romance and in many ways Tally didn't expect it either. David made for an interesting character, once we got to know him a bit more. I'm glad it wasn't her, him and some other guy. The female friend made for a better angle, in my mind, when it came to conflict and it was much appreciated change of pace. Frienship had a very important role in the story, in fact.

I had to rush read this but I still feel that it didn't affect my experience of the story overall. Reading 300 pages in a single day isn't the most I've done in the last few years, but it made me want to keep reading, which helped. I don't often plan when I'll read sequels as I have so much to read, but I think I'll be finding book 2 some time this summer so that I can find out what happens next. I need to know!

This is a great book for people who read young adult novels or some who haven't quite checked them out because certain media coverage makes them leery. It has an interesting twist on the concept of beauty, self-esteem and what happens in a world where plastic surgery is normal.


Reviewed by:
Dawn Embers

Reviewed by Ashlee Burke

About the Book: "In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself." - Goodreads



In Veronica Roth’s novel “Divergent” we are introduced to a society that is ruled by factions. The idea being that our current government was run down by war and famine and as a result people decided that they could save the human race from it’s flaws by living by 5 basic life principles. Those who blamed the world’s problems on selfishness formed Abnegation: a faction dedicated to being selfless. Those who blamed ignorance formed Erudite: a faction dedicated to knowledge. Those who blamed deceitfulness formed Candor: a faction dedicated to absolute truthfulness. Those who blamed hate formed Amity: a faction dedicated to peace. And finally those who blamed cowardice formed Dauntless: a faction dedicated to bravery and ruthlessness.

Each of the factions lives separate from another but have a function in society. For example Abnegation runs the government whilst Dauntless polices the walls and guards the city. Amity grows the food but Erudite design the irrigation and the hydroponics that allow more food for entire city as well as act as teachers for all of the factions. However there are people who do not fit into these five groups they are cast out and become known as factionless. They do not play into the story however until the sequel: Insurgent. In Divergent they are merely mentioned as foreshadowing ideas.

The main character in Divergent is Beatrice. She is 16 and as such it is time for her to choose her faction. She was raised with her parent’s in Abnegation but every child is tested at 16 to see which faction they have an aptitude for by being put through a series of simulations. They are then allowed to choose to stay with their family or they can switch factions. It is considered a great betrayal if you switch factions. Now this is an interested parallel from the story to real life because I do feel when you are choosing any career there is a pressure even if it is unspoken to choose a certain way of life. For Tris it was even more complicated due to certain events that happen during her testing. However at the end of the day she knows that she must follow her path and not one set down by her faction or her parents. Can she live with her choice? Better yet can she survive her choice?

This book is interesting on so many different levels. On the one hand you have a coming of age story of a girl who has to choose between following a well laid path or carving her own. On the other there is a lot of philosophical undertones when it comes to the factions. Are people really that simplistic that we can be broken down into one personality trait? Can really smart people be neither selfless, kind, brave or truthful? Is one better than the other? Is it better to be honest, brave, selfless, kind, or intelligent: no matter what it costs you to be any one of those things.

Recommendation:
Divergent and its sequel Insurgent was on the "Top One Hundred Teen Books" article recently published by NPR and while I would strongly recommend it to teens. I would also recommend it to recent graduates who are choosing their place in life. It gives an interesting perspective on living a life chosen for you and choosing your own path and how sometimes doing the later is the only way to truly commit to the former.

Yeah, I'm a little late (okay, way late) to the party but I finished reading the Hunger Games back in April. I read it partly during my lunch hours at work, and now I can review the book.

From Goodreads: "Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival."


My opinion: This is a pretty good book. I am normally not the biggest fan of first person point of view but in this case it really works. I do kind of wonder what it was like reading this book right after it came out instead of already knowing bits about the sequels. Reading it already knowing that she is in a sequel and so is someone else lightened the impact a little. The main character was likeable and easy to read about. The story has enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested in turning the page. I've always been a fan of young adult novels where the character has to struggle to survive but finds a way on their own to handle the situations they end up in. And the first person present tense flows well enough that it's almost hard to noticed it. Overall, a good book.

Recommendation: I recommend anyone who hasn't read this one to read it. Which probably isn't too many people.

Another book read for a book reading club online. It's one of the few books I have in hardback since I am fonder of paperback when it comes to books. However, I had to buy this book twice because my first copy had a major printing error. Chapters were missing and instead other chapters were repeated. It was weird but the second copy meant I could actually read it.

About the book from Goodreads:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.


The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.



This book had a lot of potential for it was a book I'd heard about for months and so wanted to read. However, the book didn't quite reach that for me. Especially in the beginning. The end finally brought me on board but it took till the last 6 chapters or so for me to really be involved in the main character's story.

Love triangle: Okay. This is part of what didn't do it for me and that's because I'm very picky about love triangles. This has the same type that I've read in other books, including a book I haven't reviewed here to avoid going on a love triangle rant. It's a girl who loves two boys. One boy is the dedicated friend who takes risks for her and/or others despite what that could do to him. The other boy is more of a mystery. He is darker and has a surprising connection to the main character that she can't shake off. Always the nice guy loses or it seems he is losing if the triangle isn't resolved in the first book. But the nice guy losing bugs me to no end. Sure, I liked Ky, and he becomes a well developed character by the end, but it's the same old thing. And the friend relationship comes off more as a given which makes it less developed. Xander shows up at random but he isn't involved much in the actual story.

The world: I give the author great credit for the world she has created. As someone who hasn't even built the world for her epic fantasy series that she has had for almost 10 years, I can't even imagine the work Condie put in creating the Society. The details were well done and I enjoyed discovering when we were given the chance to see what the main character notices since it's done in first person narrative. I look forward to seeing the rest of the world outside the one province as the sequel promises to show. There is more going on in the world than the main character first realized and it will be interesting to learn even more in the future.

Overall: The beginning was a little rough and unfortunately it made the book a little too easy for me to put down most of the time. By the end, I started to get into the story but it took a bit too long for that to happen. I'm hoping the sequel is even better but I'm going to wait for the paperback version.

This was a surprise. I really wanted to read this but was stuck waiting or so I thought until I was in my sister's room and noticed she had an advanced reviewer's copy. And she has no idea why she had a copy. Lucky for me because I started reading it right away and only took three days to read the whole thing, which is fast for me right now. This was an advanced copy, so things might be a little different in the one published last month. But either way, the overall reaction is summed in one word. It was... wow.

From Goodreads: "What if you knew exactly when you would die? 


Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. 


When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home..."


This book is amazing. Seriously. A-Maze-Ing

Story: The idea of the world is an intriguing one. My only concern was the two males shown as interested in the one female main character, but this is the type that I can handle and even enjoy. It's not the girl/woman is indecisive or trying to even pick. Instead, it's a matter of circumstances. And I ended up liking both males.  I loved the little elements that were shown in the world. The music of the piano, the fish illuminations in the pool and the attempts to recreate existences from the past to make the harsh reality of the truth in their world more bearable.

Characters: All of the characters are well developed. I liked Rhine, the main character. She was interesting and easy enough to feel empathy towards. Linden may have three new wives, but he really isn't a bad guy and his character was well developed. And the servant, Gabriel added dimension to the story. His interactions with Rhine were good to read. The female characters had their own depth and the variety of characters dealing all with the situation made for a great story. Variety in characters was great to read and having them stand out with decent development was a relief to see. I enjoyed this book mostly for the characters.

Overall: I didn't want to stop reading. The only difficult parts I had with the copy I read is sometimes the flashbacks would catch me off guard and I would be confused for the first paragraph. Even with the stranger subjects like polygamy, death happening at ages 20 and 25, and the strangeness of the world, it was easy to visualize the story. I found it to be an amazing read and hope others give it a chance. Read this book.