A book set in the future

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Love, friendship, truth, lies and adventure. Uglies has it all. 

The book is centred around a fifteen year old girl named Tally who cannot wait until her sixteenth birthday when she will become a pretty. Three months before her birthday however, she becomes friends with another girl named Shay. Shay is also an ugly and on her sixteenth birthday she too is meant to become a pretty but she has other plans. When Shay decides to run away it is Tally who is left to pick up the pieces. She cannot become pretty unless she brings back Shay but she also does not want to have to follow her friend into the unknown. As expected though, she does follow her friend and does find her but is conflicted about turning in her and the people she is staying with. When the truth about what really happens when becoming a pretty is revealed to Tally she finally makes her decision. This decision is followed by more conflict and problem that have to be solved. 

Through the story, Scott Westerfeld leaves the reader thinking a great deal about how we view others in society. When we first meet Tally she believes that there are ugly people and then there are pretty people but is conflicted when she reaches "the smoke". In the smoke all of the people are what Tally considers ugly until she falls in love with one. This is when she decides that although "Pretties" maybe beautiful, "Uglies" can be too. She works out that the ugliness that she witnessed growing up was just the awkward stage that comes with adolescence. Everyone knows this "stage" that she is talking about when nobody quite fits their body right and are all trying to work out who they really are. Tally finds all of this while in the smoke with her friends. 

The friendships that are created in Uglies are ones full of love. There may be mistrust amongst some, they may lie to one another on occasion and they may not always get along but they share a great love for one another. These are the friendships that everyone has and can relate to. That is what draws you into the story in the beginning. When Tally meets Shay she never intended in them being friends but by the time Shay was running away she didn't want her to go. Not out of being selfish and wanting her to stay (even thought that was part of the reason) but because she had come to care about her friend. She was worried about what may become of her and whether or not the two would meet again. 

When Tally also fell in love with David, it was unexpected. At first she could not admit to herself that she liked this young man who was neither ugly nor pretty but she could not help herself from falling for him. She was a girl who never believed she could love someone who looked the way he did. 

Westerfeld also shows his readers in his book how easy it is for people of authority to lie to those below them without them ever finding out. The people of the society Tally is part of have been lied to all of their lives, and with a little influence they do not question anything that they are told. They just accept what they are told as the truth instead of discovering what truly happens behind closed doors. 

Westerfeld has created a society that can be related to in some way by all of his readers. His writing both takes you to a new place while also leaving you in your own world to debate with yourself what he is telling you. 

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

Rick Yancey did another great job on this book. The imagery he uses throughout the book really does help you to become part of the world that his characters live in. I had to put this book aside for a while to concentrate on my exams but with Yancey's writing style it barely took me any time at all to fall back into the story. I truly believe that this is what makes a good writer.

The Infinite Sea is the sequel to The 5th Wave. It continues on from the ending of The 5th Wave, where we find the group hiding out in a rat-infested hotel. The majority of the book follows the group in the hotel and the dangers they face while staying there. 

A large part of the book however, follows Ringer/Marika. Ringer was one of the members of Zombie's squad. Her story begins when she is preparing to go off without the rest of the squad to find safety elsewhere for them as she felt that they had been in the same place for too long. This leads to a series of problems that she has to get herself out of while also trying to protect all of her friends. 

Throughout the story there were often references to the title of the book. The characters would subtly mention it to describe the situation that they found themselves in. These subtle references allowed me to understand why Yancey had name the book The Infinite Sea. 

A large part of the book was made up of references to "the rats". These rats turned out not to be rats at all and the group were so obsessed with them because they simbolised human beings. To the aliens who had invaded the Earth the humans were the rats, rats who they wanted to destroy from the inside out. They don't just want to kill the rats as quickly as possible though, they want them to know that they are being hunted. They want them to be scared of their hunter. 

One thing about this book that I enjoyed less than the one before is that some of the storyline drags out. I know that is to be expected when a book is set in one building for the most part but I think that it could have been made more exciting. 

If I were to rate this book I would give it a 4/5 starts. This is just down to the slow pace that some of it had but on the most part the book it a great read.