Uglies

This sci-fi for teens by Scott Westerfield is a good read. It's set in some post-apocalyptic era where everyone gets cosmetic surgery at age 16 and becomes one of the "Pretties" class. Sounds funny? It's not really a comedy, but an interesting look at what happens when diversity gets thrown out of the window, in the name of democracy and equality.

Tally is hanging out for her turn to made Pretty, when she meets a girl called Shay who weirdly enough doesn't want to go for the operation. Shay ends up running away; Tally gets forced by the Special Circumstance scary police to go and find her. She does, and discovers there's some good reasons why people are choosing not to be made "Pretty".

This is more than an allegory - it's an interesting view of what might be, in the future sometime. It's also the first in a series, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. Especially whether people with disability ever turn up; they haven't, yet. He has some interesting ideas about the future, such as hovering surfboards and total vegetarianism, with enough cool gadgets to keep the interest of most readers. It's not going to be the next "The Giver", but it reads well and it has some interesting ideas.