Scott Westerfeld's bestselling Uglies book series made a huge splash in the early 2000s, clearing the way for a golden age of YA dystopian fiction. Now, the first book in the series has been made into a Netflix film, produced by and starring actress Joey King, with the hope of sequel adaptations to follow. Whether it's been a while since you listened to the books, or you haven't heard them yet but are looking to find out what all the buzz is about, check out this guide with everything you need to know about the Uglies books and movie.
Note: This article contains spoilers about Uglies and its sequels.
What is the Uglies book series about?
Uglies and its three sequels by Scott Westerfeld are young adult dystopian novels set 300 years in the future in a society obsessed with beauty. At the age of 16, everyone undergoes mandatory cosmetic surgery that turns them from an "Ugly" to a "Pretty," a process that promises to bring peace and equality to all—because pretty people couldn't possibly have problems. But the operation and societal divides are more sinister than they seem. The series follows protagonist Tally Youngblood, who we meet shortly before her 16th birthday, as she learns about rebel efforts to resist the world of the Pretties.
The first book, Uglies, was released in 2005 and was initially intended to be a trilogy. Three sequels were ultimately published: Pretties, Specials, and Extras. The series explores themes of coming of age, identity, vanity, conformity, and societal control.
Where are the Uglies books set?
The Uglies series is set centuries into the future, where the vast majority of humanity has been wiped out by explosive bacteria in oil. Those who remain are clustered into roughly 100 small, independently run cities. Uglies is set primarily in and around New Pretty Town, a city in Washington state where the government provides for all its citizens' needs—provided, of course, that they have the Surge operation to become Pretties, which is meant to bring about peace, equality, and sustainability. The Smoke, a rebel camp, is farther north, in the Canadian Rockies. Later books in the series explore the Rusty Ruins (formerly Seattle), Diego (formerly San Diego), and Yokohama (modern-day Japan).
Who are the main characters of the Uglies series?
Here are some of the key characters you'll meet in the Uglies series:
Tally Youngblood: We meet our protagonist, Tally, days before her 16th birthday, nervously awaiting the surgery (called “the Surge”) that will turn her from an Ugly to a Pretty. She's smart, curious, and a bit of a trickster. Tally begins the story as an average teen, concerned with fitting in with her peers, convinced that being prettier will make her happier and her life easier. But before long, Tally begins to question the society in which she was raised.
Peris: Tally's best friend, Peris, is introduced at the outset of the book. Slightly older than Tally, Peris has already undergone the Surge and become a Pretty.
Shay: Tally meets Shay, another Ugly who shares her birthday, while returning home from visiting Peris in New Pretty Town. Shay plans to rebel against the Surge and remain an Ugly. She introduces Tally to the Smoke and becomes Tally's on-again, off-again best friend throughout the series.
David: David, son of the founders of the Smoke, grew up in the rebel camp outside of society and is averse to becoming a Pretty. David falls for Tally, causing tension with Shay, who has long had feelings for David.
Dr. Cable: Head of the city's secretive Special Circumstances organization, Dr. Cable meets Tally on her 16th birthday. Cable threatens to withhold Tally's Pretty operation until Tally helps her locate Shay and the Smoke, which she plans to destroy.
What happens in the Uglies series?
Days ahead of her 16th birthday and anticipating the operation to turn her from an Ugly to a Pretty, Tally Youngblood sneaks across the river from her dorm in Uglyville to visit her best friend Peris in New Pretty Town. Peris and Tally made a promise to transition to Pretties together, and Peris advises Tally to avoid causing trouble. On the way home, Tally meets Shay, another Ugly who shares her birthday. Shay teaches Tally to hoverboard and shares her plans to avoid the Surge and run away to the Smoke, a secretive camp for people who leave the city and refuse to become Pretties. Wanting to fit in and keep her promise to Peris, Tally decides not to join her.
On the day of her surgery, Tally is taken to the top-secret organization Special Circumstances, where she's given an ultimatum by operative Dr. Cable: Help them find Shay and the Smoke so they can capture the runaways, or Tally won't be made into a Pretty. Tally agrees, following the instructions Shay provided to the Smoke with a special locket that will alert Special Circumstances to her location when activated. When Tally arrives, she meets David, a leader of the Smoke and friend of Shay, along with his parents, Maddy and Az, doctors who established the Smoke. They tell Tally that the Surge is more than it seems: In addition to cosmetic changes, the operation places lesions on the brain to make Pretties obedient and docile. Tally changes allegiances and throws the locket into a fire, unaware that the locket activates upon destruction. Special Circumstances arrives within hours and destroys the Smoke, taking the runaways into captivity, except for Tally and David, who escape.
Tally and David carry out a plan to release the other runaways from Special Circumstances. They learn that Shay has forcibly undergone the Surge and is now a Pretty, and David's father, Az, died during an operation to erase his memories. With information stolen from Dr. Cable, Maddy creates a treatment to reverse Pretties' brain lesions, but she needs a willing test subject, and Shay refuses. Tally agrees to undergo the Surge in order to test Maddy's treatment.
Newly a Pretty, Tally attends a party where she'll be voted into the Crims clique alongside Peris and Crims leader Zane, with whom Tally has a romantic connection. When Tally is given directions to a secret message by someone she knew at the Smoke, Zane encourages Tally to seek out the note with him. The note, written by Tally when she was an Ugly, is about the brain lesions used to control Pretties and includes two pills promising to reverse the lesions. Tally and Zane take one each.
Zane's seems to be more effective, but also causes terrible headaches. Tally and Zane run away to the New Smoke encampment in the Rusty Ruins. They take a hot air balloon, along with several other Pretties, and use hoverboards to jump to the ground. After pausing to say goodbye to Peris, who decides not to join them, Tally misses the Rusty Ruins and breaks her hoverboard in the fall. Alone, she encounters a village of adult Uglies who speak a different language and believe Tally to be a god. Tally realizes that the community is monitored by scientists, who are researching humanity's violent nature, causing Tally to wonder if Pretty surgery really is a tool for world peace.
After stealing a scientist's hovercar to travel to New Smoke, Tally finds David and Maddy, who explain that the pills she and Zane took were meant to be taken together. Zane's pill contained nanos to eat away the lesions, and Maddy's was meant to destroy the nanos once they'd done their work. Maddy works to heal Zane's damaged brain tissue. But since Tally never took the first pill, she realizes she healed herself of the brain lesions without the drug. Discovering Special Circumstances placed a tracker in Zane's mouth, the New Smokies flee, but Tally refuses to leave Zane, and they're both captured by Special Circumstances. She learns her friend Shay has become a Special, and Tally will be forcibly turned into a Special as well.
Tally has had a second operation to turn her into a Special, giving her enhanced mental and physical capabilities. She's a part of the Cutters, a renegade group of Specials led by Shay who report to Dr. Cable. Cutters use ritualistic self-harm to heal themselves of brain lesions. Upon seeing Zane, her former boyfriend, weakened by his brain damage, Tally finds herself disgusted and learns that the Special surgery also instills senses of superiority, anger, and euphoria. Tally follows the Cutters to New Smoke, now located in the town of Diego, where a doctor offers a cure to reverse Special surgery. The other Cutters accept the surgery, but during an attack on the hospital by Dr. Cable, Zane dies mid-operation. David arrives and offers Tally an injectable cure, but also tells her he believes she can mentally cure herself. Tally tricks Dr. Cable into taking the cure, then tells the world about Dr. Cable's surgeries on non-consenting teenagers.
Extras takes place three years after the events of Specials, and while Tally appears later in the story, it stars 15-year-old Aya Fuse. Once the world has rejected Pretty brain lesions, each city must choose their own way to control their resources through societal order. Aya's city, Yokohama, runs on a "reputation economy" that awards points for fame, and Aya seeks fame as a "kicker," recording and posting news-breaking videos online with her hovercam. Attempting to record a group of train surfers, Aya discovers a group called the Sly Girls who reject fame. Together, they witness a group of inhumans loading materials onto a train that could potentially be used for an attack on the city. Breaking the story makes Aya famous but also draws the attention of Tally and the Cutters, who reveal their plan to stop the destruction of nature and build space stations for humans to live in.
Everything you need to know about the Uglies movie
Rights to the Uglies series were first acquired by 20th Century Fox in 2006, a year after the first book's release, with rumors of a film adaptation swirling for years afterward but never coming to fruition. In 2020, Netflix announced plans to adapt the Uglies book into a movie, with actress Joey King, known for her roles in The Act and The Kissing Booth, starring and executive producing. King said that she's dreamed of playing Tally Youngblood since she first read the book at the age of 11 when her sister suggested she read it while home sick from school.
The film is set to release on Netflix on September 13. In addition to Joey King as Tally, the cast includes Chase Stokes (Outer Banks) as Peris, Keith Powers (Straight Outta Compton) as David, Brianne Tju (I Know What You Did Last Summer) as Shay, and Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black) as Dr. Cable. It was directed by McG, known for films like Charlie's Angels and Terminator Salvation.
Susie Dumond is the author of Queerly Beloved and Looking for a Sign. She is a senior contributor at Book Riot.
