Lauren’s Letter Essay #6: Uglies

2/26/16

Letter Essay #6

 

Dear Classmates,

I read the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. This book is 406 pages long and was published February 8, 2005. This book is apart of a series and is the first book in the series. There is also the second book called Pretties the third book is called Specials and the fourth one is called Extras. Scott Westerfeld has also written the books Leviathan and Afterworlds and many more. I chose this book because it was a book club book and I read the back of the book and thought it was really interesting and put it down as one of my first two choices.

All Tally wants is to be pretty her sixteenth birthday is just around the corner and all she can think about is her surgery to become pretty. Tally meets a friend named Shay who has the same birthday as her but but unlike Tally, Shay does not want the surgery to become pretty. But when Shay talks about this illegal organization called the Smoke and asks Tally to run away with her, Tally gets suspicious with Shay. On the day of Tally’s sixteenth birthday Tally finds out that Shay has run away and Tally finds a note that leads to shay in her room. She goes to the doctor whos going to give her the surgery but the doctor knows that Shay has run away and needs Tally to help her find Shay. Will Tally decide to become pretty and betray her friend or stay ugly her whole life.

I noticed that in the book there wasn’t a capital or a real leader in this book like in most dystopian literature. The main person who acted as the capital or a leader for the capital or government was the doctor that Tally went to because she blackmailed Tally in order for Tally to get her surgery. I liked that in these dystopian literature books they have females as the main characters because it shows that women have the same rights as men and that they’re as strong as men. Why did the author not include a government or have the main character interact with the government or capital, I guess Tally did interact with the doctor but i feel like she doesn’t run the government so I wonder who does.

The scene that I chose is when the doctor finds the smoke and all the people who are in the smoke and Shay and Tally fight and Tally talks to the doctor.

 

Shay!” said croy.

 

“Croy?” “You!”

 

“Uh Shay?” replied Croy.

 

“You did this! Stealing my boyfriend wasn’t enough? You had to betray the whole Smoke?” said Shay.

 

“Shay! Calm down, look at her. She fought them.”

 

“Are you blind Croy? Look around, she did this.”

 

“I swear to you, I didn’t. I never”  said Tally.

 

“Who else could have led them here?” Shay said angrily.

 

“I don’t know. It could have been anything.” said Croy.

 

“A spy.” said Shay

 

“Will you look at her Shay? She’s tied up, like us. She resisted!” said Croy

 

“We didn’t know we have so many runaways.” Said the Special

 

“This had to be a coincidence. It can’t be my fault. I watched Dr. Cables pendant burn.” Tally said

 

“So you got Croy on your side too now I see. The boss suspected you from the beginning. But I told him every time, No Tally is my friend. She would never do anything to hurt me.” said Shay

 

“Shay I’m not lying.”

 

“How did you change Croys mind Tally? The same way you changed Davids?”

 

“Shay I never meant for that to happen.”

 

“Where were you last night?”

 

“Just talking to David. I showed him the necklace.”

 

“That took all night? Or did you just decide to make you move before the Specials came? One last game with him. With me.”

 

“Shay…”

 

“Tally Youngblood? Come with us. Dr. Cable wants to see you immediately.” said the Special.

 

“I knew it.” said Shay.

 

“No!” said Tally as she was taken away by the Special.

 

“Don’t worry Tally, we’ll have you home in no time.We’ve been looking for this bunch for years, good work.” Said the Special.

 

“Ah Tally. Nice to see you, sit down. Goodness. Look at you. For someone who wants to be pretty, you’re always such a sight.” Said Dr. Cable

 

“I’ve had a pretty rough morning. I was just trying to get out of the way.” Said Tally.

 

“Indeed. That doesn’t seem to be something you are very good at.”

 

“I guess not. Some of the Smokies already suspected me. So when I heard you guys were coming, I tried to get out of town. I didn’t want to be around when everyone realized what was happening. In case they got mad at me. I didn’t ask to come here.”

 

“ No, and you took your time too. How long have you been here exactly?”

 

“Not that long.”

 

“You didn’t get here as quickly as I’d hoped.”

 

“I almost didn’t make it at all. And when I did, it was ages after my birthday. That’s why they suspected me.”

 

“I suppose I should have been worried about you, out in the wild all alone. Poor Tally.”

 

“Thanks for your concern.”

 

“ I’m sure you would have used the pendant if you’d gotten into any real trouble.”

 

“Unless I’d fallen off a cliff. Which almost happened.”

 

“We would have come for you. If the pendant had been damaged, it would have sent a signal automatically. Speaking of which, where is it?”

 

“ I hid it. I was scared.”

 

“ Scared of what?”

 

“Last night, after I was sure this was really the Smoke, I activated the pendant. But they have this thing that detects bugs. They found the one on my board- the one you put there without telling me. So after I activated the pendant, I got scared they’d know a transmission had been sent. I hid it, in case they came looking.”

 

“ I see. I’m glad you decided to help us.”

 

“ Like I had a choice.”

 

“You always had a choice Tally. But you made the right choice. You decided to come here and find your friend, to save her from a life of being ugly. You should be happy about that.”

 

“I’m thrilled.”

 

I picked this passage because It showed that Shay and Tally used to be close friends but now they’re fighting and in the part of the passage a boy came between them. also liked the way the author wrote the scene because it has some drama to it and there is some dramatic irony because of something Tally did, but she doesn’t know what happened but we do as the readers. I would rate this book a nine out of ten because it was a really good book and I would definitely reread this book!

 

Sincerely,

Lauren  

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9 thoughts on “Lauren’s Letter Essay #6: Uglies

  1. Dear Lauren,
    I really enjoyed reading your letter essay. I liked your dialogue that you chose. It was very long so that allowed me to understand the passage better. Nice job! Maybe I will read this book.
    Julia

  2. Lauren,
    I read this book too and I thought you wrote a really good summary! I thought this was a good book too. Good job!!!
    -Kayleigh

  3. Dear Lauren,
    I really liked your letter essay! It portrayed the book very well, but masked the good parts. I also liked your question passage. It was very dramatic and a good part in the book to give away!
    From,
    Tiernan

  4. Lauren,

    I enjoyed reading your letter essay! You wrote a great summary and reflected on the book well. It seems like you really liked this book and i might want to read it.

    -Sara

  5. Lauren,
    I really enjoyed reading your letter essay. I loved reading your summary I thought you had great detail and this book sounds like a great book!
    Erin

  6. Dear Lauren,
    I really liked your letter essay. I thought that it was very interesting that you were thinking and wondering about the government and leader. This book seems great, and you seemed to think that too; I’ve been interested in this book for a while and hearing that it was so good makes me really want to read it soon!
    Great job!
    -Jenna

  7. Dear Lauren,

    I really liked reading your letter essay!!! It had a lot of detail and your summary was very good! I’ve always wanted to read this and hope I can soon! It seems like a good book!
    Hannah Wergeles

  8. Dear Lauren,
    I really enjoyed reading your letter essay I thought I was really well written. I liked your quoted passage and I think it was an very important scene. I am currently reading this book and I didn’t really like the first 90 pages but now that I am a little farther in the book I agree, I would also rate this book a 9 out of 10.
    -Rebecca

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