YA Dystopian

Book Review : The Hunger Games Trilogy

November 15, 2011 2 Comments

“Destroying things is much easier than making them.”

– Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a complicated book series for me to review. I have to look at the trilogy for the forest and not for the trees. Upon closer inspection, the book has a lot of imperfections, but when you take it as an overall narrative tale it is probably one of the most unique young adult series in along time. This book is often mentioned along with Twilight, so I was expecting a Twilight like love triangle and plot, but that is a pretty much non-existent part of the series.

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Book Review : Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

October 7, 2011 1 Comment

“You had to want your mind to change. Maybe some people had always been pretty-headed, even back before the operation had been invented. Maybe some people were happier that way.”

– Scott Westerfeld, Pretties

Synopsis : Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she’s completely popular. It’s everything she’s ever wanted. But beneath all the fun — the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom — is a nagging sense that something’s wrong. Something important. . .Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life — because the authorities don’t intend to let anyone with this information survive.

The first book,Uglies taunted readers and Tally with the perfect bubbly world of New Pretty Town. Let’s face it we were all a little curious about what it was like to be a Pretty and Pretties does exactly that. Who doesn’t want to see what the champagne-swilling, party going, Jersey-shore like atmosphere is like first hand? Somehow at their bubbliest Westerfeld still made Tally and Shay almost likeable characters. This book explores the aftermath that ensues after the cure has been discovered.

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Book Review : Uglies

September 24, 2011 2 Comments

“What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.”

– Scott Westerfeld Uglies

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. . . When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world — and it isn’t very pretty.

Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies is the first in a series of novels that asks the question; What is the cost of beauty? This dystopian novel takes place in a world were everyone is made to believe they are “ugly” until their sixteenth birthday, when the are tuned pretty via extensive plastic surgery.

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