Book Review: Uglies (Uglies #1)

Uglies (Uglies #1) by Scott Westerfeld

Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1st January 2006
Pages: 425
Main Characters: Tally, David and Shay
Date Started: 17th September 2011
Date Finished: 29th September 2011
Rating Given: *

Goodreads:
Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?
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. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

I wanted to read this series a few years ago although am not sure why as that was when I would only read fantasy books (I have broadened my horisons now) but I never got around to actually buying the book so I just left it at that for a few years. That changed when someone wanted to swap one of my books on Goodreads and this book was there so I thought I would give it a go I wish I never bothered...
There are three parts to this story and the first part I thought I was going to quit it but as usual I kept going hoping that it would get better.
This story is about children being Ugly until they reach the age of 16 and then they have an operation to make them pretty which I thought was a bit shallow but I thought that maybe there would be some depth into it but there really wasn't especially in the first part.
Tally dreamed about becoming pretty and would do anything to have this dream become reality even if it meant betraying a friend, which I thought was terrible usually the main characters that you rout for are the good guys and wouldn't even think about betraying a friend. She made excuses to why she was going to do this but I still thought it was a horrible thing to do and nothing she did made me symathise with her character. Her friend Shay however seemed like the person you would want the story to be about as she did have depth she seemed a lot more relatable than Tally.
By the end of part one I couldn't stand Tally and didn't think that could change that bit I was wrong about. Tally seemed to be a completely different character she seemed more strong which I like in a female character. Shay was the same she changed but she changed in a bad way as she became more annoying. We met a new character in this part called David, he was what this story was missing in the beginning. He was kind, strong, independant and had a lot of depth to his character, this character I was routing for.
There was more action in the second part well the beginning of the second part anyway. There was more going on and I was starting to think it was improving but once the action stopped so did the flow of the story.
The third part again started off with action which I liked and I was really starting to like Tally and hate Shay as there characters just flipped from what they started off like. I really felt sorry for David by the end of this book and wanted to strangle both Shay and Tally as they both just seemed to forget their values and just ended up being shallow.
I won't continue with this story as it was far too shallow for me and it was too slow in most places I just know that if I got the next book I wouldn't look forward to reading it so there is no point in even trying. Such a disappointing book that took me ages to read longer than I have ever taken to read a book that wasn't over 500 pages this book just wasn't for me.