Uglies

Content Warning: This section of the guide references and discusses physical appearance body image issues.

“‘But we’re best friends, right?’

He sighed, dabbing at a brown stain. ‘Sure, forever. In three months.’”

Tally sneaks across the river into New Pretty Town, hoping to assuage her anxieties about Peris and his new appearance. While he promises that they will be best friends, he makes it very clear that their friendship hinges on Tally’s impending pretty surgery. This is one of the ways that the city ostracizes its young population, making them feel lesser than their elders. The isolation builds the desire for security and community, making them more likely to follow rules so that they can join their beautiful friends.

“Shay’s eyes flashed. ‘Or maybe when they do the operation—when they grind and stretch your bones to the right shape, peel off your face and rub all your skin away, and stick plastic cheekbones so you look like everyone else—maybe after going through all that you just aren’t very interesting anymore.’”

Shay expresses her disinterest in the pretty surgery and critiques how pretties behave. She and Tally are frequently at odds as they grapple with their impending futures. This is one of the first times that the novel hints at the darkness underlying the utopian sheen of Westerfeld’s futuristic society. Shay also inadvertently foreshadows one of the key, secret aspects of the pretty surgery—the brain lesions—that will ultimately convince Tally to remain at the Smoke.

“Tally stepped onto her board and snapped her fingers. When she reached Shay’s eye level she said, ‘I’m coming. I said I would.’”

This is one example of Tally’s devotion to her promises and of her deep-running emotions. When Shay tries to lead her out to the Rusty