The world that Tally Youngblood lives in seems to be idyllic. Everything is recyclable, everyone is a vegetarian and fighting, much less war, is unheard of. Once you're sixteen, you're in perfect health and you're gorgeous. You're invited to a literal life-long party where your job is just to have fun. Of course, Tally never looked for more, or wanted anything but to be pretty until a friend named Shay changes the course of her life.This is not a perfect book. There are large plotholes (black and white movies with "an English she could barely understand" but doesn't know the name David/roller coasters/or Barbie?), inconsistencies (Tally doesn't know about trains but cars, though not used, are common knowledge?) and other errors. But it is a good book; an entertaining and thought-provoking dystopia where life is based on looks.Tally was a decent protagonist. She was aggravatingly dense often, and grated on my nerves when "pretty" or "ugly" was every fourth word out of her mouth. It is all she focuses on, thinks about. For instance, when Shay leaves for "forever", all Tally says is she wishes she could have known what Shay looked like pretty. It was a tear-my-hair-out moment for me as a reader. Unfortunately, she grew on me, like moss. Slowly and creepingly, her narrative matured, improved as she had to face new situations and deal with things outside her dorm and New Pretty Town. She thought more about others, tried to do the right thing and generally stopped being so self-absorbed. Yes, the pretties are self-absorbed and vapid, but the point is the uglies aren't so I felt that Tally's maturation was overdue by the time it arrived.The big revelation about what happens to the Pretties seemed like a let-down to me. I saw that coming from before page one hundred, when Tally mentions how an Uglies' party would have fights but never a Pretty party. However the "twist" made sense with the storyline so far in the book and with the ideals of Tally's "world", so I have no complaints about that except predictability.It is a rather slow-starting novel, the initial escapade we discover Tally during was not interesting or riveting to me. The novel picked up immensely when Tally met Shay and started thinking outside the prescribed lines. I enjoyed the relationship between Shay and Tally because Shay was challenging and questioning rather than meek, brainless and accepting. The relationship between Tally and David was different, mostly because David remained off-scene or distant for most of the book. He remains mostly a mystery, up to and through the very end. I would have liked to see more development for David, as well as the rest of the Smokies.The wording in the novel is pretty simplistic, and thus, very quick to read. I think it was worth the few hours it took to read. I'd honestly rate this is as 2.5 star book, almost a three. It just needed a little more depth.More of my reviews here: http://bibliophileanonymous.blogspot.com/
