Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis from goodreads: "Tally Youngblood is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait for the operation that turns everyone from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to party. But new friend Shay would rather hoverboard to "the Smoke" and be free. Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The "Special Circumstances" authority Dr Cable offers 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: This novel was first recommended to me by my sister and I find it a pretty good because I felt connected to the whole story and it definitely connects to our modern society as well. Like many books today, this novel is written in the future, which intrigues me and shows how the progression of technology can advance to such a scary world. In my opinion, this first installment is a good start for the series and there is a lot more action to the novel than it seems. The message being portrayed in the novel seemed to not only tell the readers that appearance isn't everything, but warning the readers to be more aware of the technological advancements and to not abuse as well because what was written in 2005 for the futuristic world becomes more and more able for our society today. Tally's journey is definitely a tough but exciting one, which keeps you on the edge to keep flipping the pages and wanting more. Definitely a captivating read, but I did not like Tally very much. In my opinion, writing from Shay's perspective would show much more life/character and allow the reader to enjoy the plot more. Furthermore, I despised the plot going so slow at the beginning because novels always lose my interest if the pacing is tedious, but everything gets better when the plot starts to become more tense. Overall, a good read, but the beginning of the plot, and characters were not as engaging as the whole idea of the story.