Synopsis: 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.

Review: I’m really happy this series was recommended to me. Uglies is a fantastic dystopian novel about Tally, who is just about to turn 16. Her friend Shay is also about to turn 16 when she escapes. She doesn’t want to become a “pretty”. Instead she runs away to a place called The Smoke, which is basically a town of vigilantes who knew the truth about “Special Operations” who are essentially the Government. The Smoke is free from all politics, from all control, and from being forced to have the surgery to make them a pretty.

Tally makes her way over to the smoke and not long after, Special Operations find out the whereabouts of The Smoke which really then just unleashes a whole lot of trouble.

I really loved the story line that Westerfeld developed with this book. It started out perhaps a little too slowly for my liking before we got into the action, but in hindsight I appreciate why he wrote the story that way, and that is to give the reader a true background of Tally’s life pre-Smokies.

Dr. Cable. Wow… loving the whole super evil doctor thing she had going on! Those of you who read my reviews just know how much I enjoy a good villain, and Special Operations didn’t disappoint! They had that mad scientist meets ninja type feel going on, and that earned some real appreciation from this reader!

Ultimately though, I love the good guys, and so I was cheering Tally and David on! I was left suspended at the end wanting more, which I understand was every intention of the author since there’s a few more books in this series! Looks like I will have to bump up Pretties on my list of books to read next!

Rating: 4 out of 5