It is set in a futuristic post-scarcity world in which everyone is considered an "Ugly" until they are then turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age of 16.
It tells the story of a teenager, Tally Youngblood, who rebels against society's enforced conformity after her friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "Pretty".
[3] After the operation, new Pretties cross the river that divides the city and lead a new life with no responsibilities or obligations.
At first, Tally ignores the idea but is forced to deal with it when Shay runs away a few days before their shared sixteenth birthday, leaving behind cryptic directions to her destination, a "renegade settlement" called the Smoke, where city runaways go to escape the operation.
Tally cooperates, and Dr. Cable gives her a hoverboard and all the needed supplies to survive in the wild, along with a heart locket that contains a tracking device.
When Tally arrives at the Smoke, she finds Shay, her friend David, and an entire community of runaway Uglies.
[10] After meeting Dr. Cable, David knocks her out and takes her work tablet, which contains all the necessary information to reverse the brain lesions created by the Pretty operation.
"[13] To convince David to let her go back to the city, she tells him about her involvement with Special Circumstances and searching for the Smoke to betray them.
Phillip Gough said the government of Tally's city, which controls what happens within the operation, "removes responsibility for identity," creating sameness and uniformity.
[15] A "utopia resting on ruthless suppression of individual freedom" was the Times' Amanda Craig's description of Tally's city.
[18] People in the protagonist's world are "programmed and designed by the Pretty committee, " with no say-so in their operation, and identity is placed firmly "in the hands of the state".
[15] Dragoo and Scott point out how segregated the city is, with Pretties, Uglies, Middlies, and Crumblies neatly divided into different sections.
[16] Many reviewers have commented on the way in which the city manipulates its inhabitants, including the supposedly rebellious uglies, who are nothing more than "docile bodies".
[15] Bedies, the dystopian society depicted by Westerfeld includes a particularly common trope in the genre: the duality of spaces, the metropolis representing the totalitarian civilization and nature as a field for freedom.
"[16] The novel Uglies seems to take no definite stance on it, but clearer points are shown in Pretties and Specials, the following books in the trilogy.
"[20][21] He is the son of a computer programmer for UNIVAC, which meant that he grew up familiar with the cutting edge of 1960s technology.
Amanda Craig said that "it is his prescient perception of how such inventions will lead to absolute loss of privacy which has elicited as much fan-mail as the issue of how looks dominate our lives.
[24] In the dedication page for Uglies, Westerfeld says: "This novel was shaped by a series of e-mail exchanges between me and Ted Chiang about his story "Liking What You See: A Documentary".
The Baroque Body praised the novel as having "creative slang, unique technical gadgets, and defining characteristics of personhood.
"[16] Cory Doctorow complimented its "perfect parables of adolescent life" and stated that it is "fine science fiction for youth.
The author said he has "received many letters from girls who have decided against having surgery since reading Uglies, pondering the ethics of changing your body's appearance.
[2] Westerfeld has forecast that "having extreme cosmetic surgery will be like buying a $1,000 Gucci bag, an indication that you are a member of the privileged class.
[30] The movie was reportedly supposed to be released in 2011, but was delayed multiple times and ultimately entered development hell.
[32] Joey King, who had previously worked with Netflix on The Kissing Booth, served as the movie's executive producer in addition to the lead actress, where she portrayed the protagonist, Tally Youngblood.