YA er... Saturday: Uglies by Scott Westerfield

I've been a bum of a blogger lately. I'm not sure what it was this week, but I didn't seem to get half the things done that I needed to do. Fortunately there are only two weeks of school left, and then I have a month of freedom before I sell my soul to nursing school. Right now my husband is here , at a biannual international meeting for my church. (This session is especially for men). So lucky me, I have time to catch up a bit on blogging. :)

Anyway...
Title: Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfield
Genre: YA, dystopian
Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2005
Source: Provo Library

Uglies is set in a society where, at the age of sixteen, everyone undergoes a plastic surgery operation to make them "pretty." Their features are averaged out and they go to live in New Pretty Town, a place of partying, romance, and fun. Tally has spent her life wishing to be pretty. Her eagerness is intensified when her best friend, Peris, turns sixteen and moves on to New Pretty Town without her. Tally makes friends with another ugly, Shay, also missing her friends and eager to turn sixteen - or so Tally initially thinks. Soon she learns that Shay has other plans for when she turns sixteen - and those other plans bring Tally into a world far more complicated than she'd imagined possible.

After reading Leviathan, I knew to expect a slightly younger feel to this book. With that expectation, I really enjoyed the plot. I don't want to reveal too much, because part of the charm of the story for me was the fact that I had no idea what was going to happen. Suffice it to say that Westerfield's alternate reality is interesting, and Tally's adventures will keep you eager to learn more.

I also enjoyed the characters. The major characters, Tally, Shay, and David, all had very different personalities, something I sometimes find lacking in other books where main characters' personalities are a bit too similar. I also loved the relationships between all the characters, especially Tally and Shay's friendship. I loved how quickly their friendship developed and how close they became - I miss that about the younger years of high school. Thinking about it now, I met most of my good friends about the time when Tally and Shay met, when I was fifteen. The dynamic of their friendship just seems really legitimate. The romance in this story is also quite believable - who hasn't stayed up all night talking to a boy, only to be completely incompetent the next morning? Westerfield deals with themes of jealousy, first love, and friendship in a way that, despite being set in a completely new world, rings true.

I really like the questions that this book raises. What if everyone was "pretty?" How does the government stratify society by imposing that? In the book, Tally sees "artifacts" of books and magazines with "ugly" people, and she is revolted by them, but later, she learns to appreciate the uniqueness in each individual face. I think these are great questions for younger teens to ask themselves, especially in a society where eating disorders run rampant and teens are often ostracized into different cliques (I know all high schools aren't clique-ish, but many are).

The one thing I didn't love about the book was the writing style. Once again, this may be a result of the intended audience, but everything felt a little cheesy and occasionally dumbed down to me. The slang was so obvious that it wasn't believable to me. "New Pretty Town" seems like a region of an amusement park, not a legitimate town. It wasn't awful, but the cheese just put me off a little bit.

Overall, it was a fun, light read. I really think this is a great book for younger teens to read, and older teens and adults if they can get past the slightly younger writing and cheesiness.

Readability: Easy read.
Plot: 3.5
Characters: 4
Writing: 2.5
Personal response: 3
Overall: 3.25

YA Friday: Leviathan by (Mr.) Scott Westerfield

Title: Leviathan
Author: Mr. Scott Westerfield
Genre: Steampunk*, YA
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009
Source: Public library

*Steampunk: Steampunk is a sub-gnre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used - usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain - that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. (Thanks, Wikipedia)

Leviathan contrasts two different groups of technology - the Clankers, who use elaborate machines, and the Darwinists, who genetically engineer animals (called fabs, short for fabrications) for all kinds of different uses, including the Leviathan, a giant whale that is also an airship and a whole ecosystem of species, including glow worms for light, six-legged dog-like creatures who sniff the creature's skin for hydrogen leaks, and flechette bats, which eat darts and then poop them out on attackers with a red light as a signal. World War I (a slightly different version of World War I) breaks out, pitting the German and Austro-Hungarian Clankers against the British Darwinists. Caught in the middle of it all are Prince Aleksander, the son of the Duke but unable to inherit the Austro-Hungarian throne due to his mother's common blood, and Deryn, a witty Scottish pilot who is disguising herself as a boy to serve on the Leviathan.

This book was very different from anything I have ever read. I had hardly heard of steampunk, and when I did read the definition, I thought it sounded so nerdy. Forgetting, of course, that I am the queen of all nerds. And once I got started, I absolutely loved the steampunk aspect of the novel, particularly the Darwinist creatures. Ok, fabricating a whale that floats through the sky as a hydrogen blimp (the hydrogen is produced by bacteria that excrete hydrogen in the whale's gut) is completely improbable. But it's also really cool. My favorite part of the machine/animal was the signaling tissue supplied by cuttlefish nervous tissue (something neuroscientists often use to study nerve conduction) -

He pointed at the signal patch on the airship's membrane. It was made of cuttlefish skiin, the master engineer had explained, connected by fabricated nervous tissue to receptors down on the bridge.

I don't think I would have enjoyed the machines as much had the book not contained the exceptional illustrations by Keith Thompson. I'm not mechanically minded at all, so seeing pictures made the machines come alive in a way that I probably couldn't have imagined myself.
I also enjoyed the characters. Deryn is about as hard-core as can be. This girl is thrown into all kinds of difficult situations, and her finesse as a pilot and her solid common sense save her (and often others) every time. I also enjoyed the contrast between Deryn and Alek - Deryn is rough around the edges, knowledgeable, a survivor, but she is a girl, usually stereotyped as weaker than boys. However, Alek is a slightly pampered, sensitive prince who doesn't know how to deal with the real world. Don't get me wrong - I loved Alek. But it was interesting to read a story where the girl was so much more competent than the boy, not because the boy was a jerk or a bad person, but just because he was ill-equipped to deal with life at war. I also greatly enjoyed Dr. Nora Barlow - she is so fussy and all-knowing, and I found myself shaking the book at her because despite her annoying personality, she was always right. That kind of emotional reaction to a character usually shows a well-developed character.

I was a bit surprised by the writing. I have heard a lot of hype for Scott Westerfield's books, and I was expecting to be blown away. However, the writing was a little juvenile for me. I felt like the book was aimed toward the much younger side of YA - I would have enjoyed smarter, more evocative writing. I have read many YA books that, despite being marketed to a younger audience, had powerful and beautiful sentences (Delirium by Lauren Oliver is what immediately comes to mind). Don't get me wrong - there was nothing wrong with the writing - I was just expecting more with all the excitement I've heard about Mr. Westerfield's book.

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable book. The machines and fabricated animals were original, and it was fascinating to be swept up to Alek and Deryn's world. The characters were fun to read about. The writing underwhelmed me a bit, but was fine. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to explore a strange but fun new genre. Also, be aware that the story is aimed to younger audiences (but can still be enjoyable for those who are "a little less Y and a little more A").

Readability - Easy read
Plot - 4
Characters - 4
Writing - 3
Personal Response - 3.5
Overall: 3.5