April BAMC: Pretties

The April Book of the Month Challenge was Beauty. This was frustrating because I was already reading Catch 22 (again. I love that book) and there is just no way you can use beauty to describe that book.

So, I picked a Young Adult series by Scott Westerfiels. I had the series recommended to my Krisface. I loved them. The fist book is Uglies, then Pretties, then Specials. Because these books are so popular, I had a hard time getting a hold of them at the Library. Thus, I read Pretties first, then Specials, and last I went back and read Uglies. Pretties was definitely my favorite of the three. It did the best job of showing you this civilization with all the slang, the technology, and the thinking. Also, I hadn't read Uglies yet so I didn't know who David was, and thus liked Zane infinitely better.

The books are Science Fiction. It takes place in the future in a world where until the age of 16, you are called an Ugly. When you turn 16, you go in for a surgery that makes you a Pretty. You have perfect teeth, perfect skin, perfect muscles, and all your facial features are symmetrical. Your eyes are big and your lips are full. Along with this surgery, you move from the dorms of Uglyville to the mansions of New Pretty Town, where everyone is Pretty. What the people do not know, is along with making you pretty, the put lesions on your brain to make you complacent and content. In this way, all the problems of today are solved. There is no racism, no hate crimes, because everyone looks alike. No one is poor or starving, because the population is controlled. There is no crime, only "tricks" the uglies play to get attention.
The book makes several points on the beauty and ugliness, not only discussing the evolution of it, but also how beauty is defined by the society we live in. It also makes several points on how we, today (the book refers to us as Rusties) are ruining the world with all our pollution, greed and war. Of course, it also makes several points about agency, controlling people and government. It's totally bubbly-making.

I highly recommend this series. There is nothing questionable in them, not even any swear words. They are very easy reads and quite fascinating.