Uglies by Scott Westerfeld takes place 300 years from now. There are two main cities, Uglyville and Pretty Town, and one hidden town that no one dares go in The smoke. The story takes place 300 years into the future. Tally Youngblood, fifth teen years old, she lives in Uglyville and is longing to turn sixteen years old to become a pretty. While she is trying to accomplish her long set goal, she, of course, runs into problems, new friends, and new threats. In my opinion, the book was well written with a fair amount of drama. The theme I chose was the beauty. I chose this theme due to the fact that it is used many times and a very important part of the story. In the book, society thinks that beauty is the most important thing and it's everything. “’We’re not freaks, Tally. We’re Normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we’re not hyped- up Barbie dolls’” (Westerfeld 79) I chose this because it shows how Shay doesn’t think that beauty is just appearance, but how you act and how you feel about yourself. Also, I think she’s is also implying that they are not fake nor does Shay want to be since Barbie dolls are made of plastic. “’What you do, the way you think, makes you, beautiful’” (Westerfeld 279). People in the real world don’t really determine if someone’s pretty by the way they are, but by the way they look and act with or without class. Body shaming well shaming just in general happens a lot in the real world and that would lead people to think they are not pretty enough or good enough. “’No one has the right to tell us we have to be pretty, right?’” (Westerfeld 226). I think this quote fits in well with the theme and the book because all along Tally believed that she has to be pretty in order for her to be accepted, while Shay doesn’t want to be pretty by surgery she already thinks she is, but what’s underneath is what’s pretty to her. I would recommend this book to girls mostly in their teens, but also older women since they would understand what’s happening more. Guys are welcome to read it, but I feel like girls would have a better connection to the book. I wouldn’t like for 10-12year olds to read this since some of them might not really understand what’s happening, and so they don’t feel that they have to change the way they look based on a book.