I recently finished reading this trilogy of novels by author Scott Westerfeld. It starts with Uglies, next is Pretties, and finally Specials, all featuring teenage heroine Tally Youngblood, who lives in the future, in a self-contained city where everyone is linked into the city interface, people travel on hoverboards, and everyone has massive cosmetic surgery on their sixteenth birthday. Everyone is beautiful, and there's a commission who defines the parameters of acceptable beauty.
(God, I really am terrible at summarizing novels. I start getting very confused and scattered, like when you wake from a dream and start trying to explain it to someone and then you just peter out because you realize what you are saying makes no sense.)
Anyhow, it's a very exciting trilogy, and the novels raise interesting issues: what defines "cosmetic" surgery, socialized medicine, technology and society, cultural concepts of beauty, genetics, etc.
Personally, I would love to have Lasik eye surgery and I would love for it to be paid for by my health insurance, but it's considered an elective procedure. My vision is -4 and something in one eye and -5 in the other, which my eye doctor says is very common and right at the top of "the bell curve", but to me it means I can't see a friggin' thing without contact lenses or glasses! It would be amazing to be able to swim, run, etc. without needing lenses. I really think orthodontia should be covered by insurance, too. Universal health care... socialized medicine... okay, another discussion for another day and for people who are much more knowledgeable about the issues than I am.
The novels are fantastic; if you get one, get all three, because each one is such a quick read. There's a fourth novel, Extras, which is somehow related yet doesn't involve the same characters. I haven't read it yet, but I will soon!
The picture is the cover of the UK version of Pretties. Visit the author's site to learn more.
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