Team OWL Review: Uglies - Shay's Story

Title: Uglies: Shay's Story
Authors and Illustrators:  Scott Westerfeld, Devin Grayson, Steven Cummings

“This whole game is just designed to make us hate ourselves.”—Shay 
 
Uglies told Tally Youngblood’s version of life in Uglyville and the budding rebellion against the Specials. Now comes an exciting graphic novel revealing new adventures in the Uglies world—as seen through the eyes of Shay, Tally’s rebellious best friend who’s not afraid to break the rules, no matter the cost.
 
A few months shy of her sixteenth birthday, Shay eagerly awaits her turn to become a Pretty—a rite-of-passage operation called “the Surge” that transforms ordinary Uglies into paragons of beauty. Yet after befriending the Crims, a group of fellow teens who refuse to take anything in society at face value, Shay starts to question the whole concept. And as the Crims explore beyond the monitored borders of Uglyville into the forbidden, ungoverned wild, Shay must choose between the perks of being Pretty and the rewards of being real.

I have a great guest review by a student of mine who was really interested in this book and then wanted to review it!

Why did you decide to pick up this book and read it?

A teacher recommended it and asked whether I would like to read it or not. I was really happy she showed me this because I have read the Uglies, Pretties, and Specials series and I have to admit I was curious about Shay’s story and they have it so that was exciting to see.

Did you like the book? Please explain why you liked it or not.

Yes I did like this book it was really cool to see what happened in Shay’s point of view versus Tally’s in the book series. Shay is Tally’s best friend. It showed how they got together like how they met and the story of Uglyville. Since it’s a graphic novel it gives you a good idea what this place looks like and the difference between pretties and uglies. Shay questions whether she should be real, herself or on her sixteenth birthday, should she go through this surgery called the surge for short. It also has a tad bit of romance in it which was really cool.

Tell me what you thought of the main character(s). Did you like him/her/them? Did you like how they acted/reacted to events in the story?

Shay and Tally were the mainish characters. I did like them especially Tally but in the end 

(WARNING SPOILER ALERT) 

was confused why she had betrayed Shay and many others in the "smoke" I liked the characters determination for the truth though. It was cool to see it in their view.

What part did you like the best and why?

My favorite part would have to be when Shay would sneak out on her hoverboard and go to new pretty town to see the pretties and the better living style they got because it was nice to see the comparison between the two "categories”.

Tell me anything else about the book and your opinion of it that you want to share!

I don’t know I just liked that the author had created something like this because it’s nice to know that he knows what his readers might like and that he creates what he thinks his readers might like. I really liked the fact that it was a graphic novel because it gave really nice pictures to the read and for those who don’t like reading that much it still gives you a great story with not as many words.

Would you recommend this book to a friend?

Yes even if they haven’t read the series it’s a good place to start if they are interested in reading it, and if they already have read it and are curious about Shay it answers a lot a questions I had in the book series and I’m sure they would like it too.

Thanks for that great review!!!!!!!