Week 8- Tally ex machina

So... I finished Uglies. Whoo-hoo. Here we go.

Like I said, Marian Susan all the way. And... random love story in the middle of it. I was so confused and underwhelmed by Tally's sudden feelings for David. When she first met him, she noticed how Shay felt about him and saw David as a friend. In fact, when Shay started accusing Tally of trying to take David from her, she insisted that it wasn't like that. But as soon as Tally finds out about the brainwashing, suddenly she goes, "Oh, David~, you're so handsome, you showed me that people can be pretty without the operation! I love you now!" And of course David likes her, not Shay, even though he actually knew Shay for months and only met Tally a few days ago. And so of course they kiss and are happy and then they go on another ~ADVENTURE~ which again lasts only a few chapters. Great.

So, this thing happens where Tally, always perfect and not at fault like the Mary Sue she is, accidentally calls the government to the Smoke and they attack and capture everyone there. But of course, since she's a spy, they let her go, which lets her get away and find David. And they come up with this foolproof plan to save everyone else, and even though she said it took them two weeks to get there, only Shay has been turned pretty. Because... Tally ex machina, I guess.

And Shay's mind has been changed because brainwashing, but they "rescue" her anyways, and she's complaining literally the entire time. I get that it's because she's brainwashed, but she's so annoying and shallow. I would let her fall off the hoverboard.

And then, Tally ex machina, David's mom magically finds the instructions to fix the brainwashing. Why wouldn't she? Oh, and by the way, David's dad died, but no one really cares for more than five minutes max. So David's mom uses these instructions to make a cure, but because she wants to be nice she doesn't force Shay to take them, and the book ends with Tally giving herself up as a test subject for the pills by letting herself become pretty, because she hasn't done enough heroic, selfless things in this book. Of course, there's a 99% chance that she'll not only be pretty like she wanted from the start but also retain her brain, so really it's pretty much guaranteed that everything will go perfectly for her, which means that there's not actually any tension in this "cliff hanger."

If the story was less predictable and Tally was less flat, I might actually read the rest of the series, because the ideas behind the world are really interesting, but... no. Just no. I'm sorry if you like this book, but I don't.