Scott Westerfeld

Tally Youngblood is an Ugly, just a normal teen in a segregated society, killing time and pulling pranks until her 16th birthday when she can finally get the operation to become Pretty and move to New Pretty Town. She makes friends with Shay, another elder Ugly, who tells her a startling secret - she’s going to run away before her birthday and refuse to get the operation. Tally refuses to go with her, and then on her birthday instead of getting the operation she’s brought before the secret police and given an ultimatum - locate Shay and the encampment of outsiders she escaped to, or stay Ugly forever.

I originally read this book in 2012 when I was steeped in teen girl dystopias and I did not appreciate it much. With some distance I enjoyed it more. The writing is more juvenile than I would expect from YA today, and it feels derivative until I remind myself that it came out a full 3 years before The Hunger Games. Tally feels unique - until almost the halfway point she is acting on behalf of both the authoritarian government and her own desires. Shay is the more common dystopia heroine, but viewing the story from Tally’s perspective feels more realistic. It takes quite a bit of convincing to get her to turn against the status quo, which I find more inspirational than a protagonist who knows the right thing to do from the start.

I’m glad I revisited this book and I plan to keep reading. I’m very intrigued that Westerfeld decided to pick this series back up after more than a decade and I can’t wait to get to the newer books. It's worth noting that Tally and Shay are definitely queer-coded, though I can't tell if it's intentional or not. They clearly make each other feel real feelings, and David has a real "him??" quality. (Every time Tally said his name it reminded me of David and his sister Alexis from Schitt's Creek.) I really hope the author goes somewhere with it.

Emily Tremaine is a perfectly good narrator. I appreciated that she didn't try different voices for the different characters, I don't generally enjoy that.… (more)