Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

19 reviews

dmrains's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Rereading this as an adult with my high school students, I noticed a lot of tropes I've come to really dislike among YA novels
"special girl" Tally instead of writing Shay as a more important character
fridging Shay by having her have the surgery against her will really did her dirty

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daisdu's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Reread. Definitely don't love it as much as I did in middle school, but it still holds up for me. As an adult, David really comes off as a groomer, but I don't think that makes the story worse, in fact I think it improves the story a bit. The premise of the world is really interesting and I really love the moral dilemma at it's core. I think Tally and Shae read as extremely believably 16, which can definitely make them annoying at times.

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allidone's review against another edition

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slow-paced

1.0


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eslsilver's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25


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sweetchocolatez's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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tania_mybookishsecret's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0


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applesaucecreachur's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Honestly? I liked it! Pretties is peak YA sci-fi dystopian in its simplicity, approachability, ridiculousness, lukewarm romances, unexpected nuggets of wisdom, and charm. Did Shay
ultimately feel like a character of plot convenience
? Sure. Was Tally and
David's relationship cookie-cutter and dull
? Predictably. Was the explanation of what made someone "pretty" problematic? Oh, absolutely. But the tale that Westerfield spins is fun and even insightful (though ultimately misguided) in assessing the weaknesses that make topple societies. I'm happy that stories like these exist. 

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book_snail's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed parts of this book, however found it didn't fully live up to the expectations I'd gone into it with. 

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helhas3letters's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Eugenics: the YA novel.

WARNING: this book ends with a cliffhanger!

I enjoyed this book and raced through it as it was easy to read. The plot is interesting - especially Westerfeld's futuristic ideas - and moves quickly, so plot points get their payoffs in a satisfactory way.

The characters were a little clichéd in the typical YA way. The main character was not likeable, but as a reader you can forgive it because she's admittedly been brainwashed her whole life, and she grows as the story goes on. However, I felt that towards the end of the novel, the main character's instincts about an event revealed them to be incredibly self-involved, regardless of the brainwashing. (I'm talking about
Tally's reaction to David and Maddy being alone together after he'd just found out his father had died. Her narration makes it all about herself - I couldn't believe what I was reading!
)

Yes, unfortunately there is a
totally unnecessary romance plot
, as often is the case with these YA dystopic novels.

I do wish that the author had delved more into the racial aspect of the eugenicist regime. It is frequently stated that, after the operation, people's eyes become bigger, their noses become smaller, and their lips more full. Wouldn't it be interesting for Tally to learn about the implications of this? Especially from a futuristic perspective. There is also a brief mention of the fact that people's skin tones get evened out, and even a moment where she thinks about how weird it was that people used to kill each other over their skin colour. I'd have just liked this to be explored a bit more. What if Tally starts to learn about her family's lineage, and discovers that she is of a certain heritage, the defining characteristics of which have been wiped out by the operation?

My biggest critique, however, is that I found it very hard to follow Westerfeld's descriptions of space, direction, and travel. I felt that, when characters' physical journeys were described (which was often), the author could have been more detailed and clear. Unfortunately, it became increasingly difficult to orientate the characters in my mind and I ended up giving up on trying to do so, ignoring the geographical comments, and just enjoying the action instead. (Neueodivergent problem?)

I'll probably be reading the sequel, because I'm interested to see where the story goes.

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