Reviews tagging 'Death'

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

18 reviews

dmrains's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Fatphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Body shaming, and Death of parent

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Bullying, Animal death, Ableism, Classism, Death, Deportation, Dysphoria, Grief, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Racism, Torture, and Car accident

My students were really upset that

Tally & Shay didn't ride off into the sunset as a cute lesbian couple

jasmineslibraryy's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

the premise of this dystopia is interesting, but some things personally failed in execution for me, particularly the random romance arc and the timeline of when their world formed from ours. but it was super enjoyable to read and think about and engage with!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Medical content, Body shaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Murder, and Bullying

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Eating disorder

the entire premise is that only certain features are pretty so..

daisdu's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Death, Medical content, and Death of parent

loddaline's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I think, it is a very nice Dystopian Novel for YA readers, who at this age probably especially struggle with their appearance. It is a good way to reflect on the differences we as humans have and that every person looks unique. 
However, I felt like it was a bit dumbed down for the recommended reading age being 12-17. Some of the characters' actions or the overall plot were pretty predictable. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death and Death of parent

helhas3letters's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma

Moderate: Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Death of parent, and Body shaming

Minor: Confinement, Death, Police brutality, War, Classism, Animal death, Colonisation, Grief, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

cow_inthe_closet's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

tally and shay had more chemistry in this book than tally and david/zane ever did

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent and Confinement

Minor: Medical content and Death

kstericker's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Eating disorder

sallytumbler13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Dysphoria, Classism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Medical content, Police brutality, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, and Violence

valpyre's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

i first read this in high school and had an urge to do a reread of the series recently. i think it still holds up pretty well. the rampant eco-fascism and other controlling aspects of the futuristic society are still pretty chilling. i also had a weird feeling that the book was moving too fast and too slow at the same time, but maybe that's because i already had a vague recollection of plot points.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Death

Minor: Eating disorder

dayniw's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Medical content, Police brutality, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Animal death