Zeroes – DaneCobain.com

Title: Uglies

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 446

Rating: 3*/5

Scott Westerfeld – Uglies

This book was okay, but I didn’t think it lived up to the hype. I actually picked this up from a charity shop after having read and enjoyed Zeroes, but I think that set my expectations too high because while this read was okay, it just wasn’t enough to impress me.

It’s pretty cool that Westerfeld used the YA genre to hold a mirror up towards our own society, and to use it to reflect on whether we spend too much time worrying about the way that we look, but it did also feel cliche in places. The worldbuilding was good, but because I didn’t like the world it was set in, that doesn’t really count for much. That said, in many ways that’s the point – that’s why it’s dystopian.

In the world of this trilogy, people are ‘ugly‘ until they turn sixteen, when they have an operation to make them beautiful. But it’s not quite as idyllic as it might sound, and our hero finds herself trying to get to the bottom of a mystery that plagues all of society. It’s pretty standard YA dystopian stuff, which explains two things to me – why everyone raves about this book, and why it didn’t really grab my attention. It just didn’t stand out. And I get annoyed by the front cover, which says, “Before The Hunger Games, there was… Uglies.” It doesn’t really sell it to me, because I haven’t read The Hunger Games and I have no desire to.

Scott Westerfeld

I actually think this would have worked better as a standalone. I mean, that’s how I read it, and how it’ll stay in my memory, because I have no desire to finish off the series. But the fact that it was written as the first book in a series was a turn off for me because I didn’t want to keep reading – if it had ended where it did, it would’ve been the perfect length, but it didn’t.

And so overall, I think there’s some potential here, but I can’t hold my hand on my heart and recommend this book over others. It’s the sort of thing that you should read if all of your friends have read it, but that you’re not going to enjoy so much if they haven’t. It’s also a good read if you’re into dystopian fiction or if you’re a young adult yourself.

If you don’t want to take the risk, then go for Zeroes – which is by the same author – instead. I felt like the characters were more developed, and the story was better.

Scott Westerfeld

Click here to buy Uglies.

Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti – Zeroes | Review

Title: Zeroes

Author: Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 552

Rating: 10/10

Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti – Zeroes | Review

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

This is one of the best books that I’ve been sent in a long time, and I’ve already been recommending it to my friends and family – I’m certainly recommending it to you! What’s not to love? This epic story follows the story of the Zeroes, a group of friends with superpowers. Just because they have superpowers, though, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re superheroes – in fact, the main characters are in their late teens, and each of them has to come to terms with their ability.

You see, each of the superpowers comes with a downside – the blurb puts it better than I ever could: “Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He’s got a voice inside him that’ll say whatever you want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t – like when the voice starts talking in the middle of a bank robbery and gets you into a whole heap of trouble.” Meanwhile, there’s a character who can manipulate electronic devices, but with the caveat that they get headaches whenever they’re around them. My favourite weakness, though, came with my favourite character – damn, what’s his name again?

It’s with this character that Westerfeld and co. show a serious level of genius, to me – there was a guy called Thibault, whose codename was ‘Anonymous‘, and his superpower was that people could forget him, even if he was in the same room as them. That comes with the worst drawbacks of all – he has no choice about whether people remember him, as he found out when he was a child and almost died after his parents took him to a hospital and left him there, and then forgot about him. How can someone like that ever be loved?

Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti

I won’t go too much into the story line, but suffice to say that it’s a rollocking tale of friendship and camaraderie, and I hope that the authors produce further books in the series for me to feast upon. Loosely speaking, though, it follows the Zeroes as they get embroiled in a bank robbery and Scam ends up getting himself into a little bit of trouble. Scam said some things, using the voice, and they almost tore the Zeroes apart. Can they find friendship again, when tested? There’s only one way for you to find out, and that’s to read the book.

Another interesting aspect to this was that it had a cinematic feel – I could imagine it working well on the big screen, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the film option has already been discussed. Now, I don’t normally go to watch superhero movies, but this would be different – as their name suggests, the Zeroes aren’t exactly Iron Man, and close combat isn’t their forte. These guys (and girls) live on their wits, and on the sheer strength of their personalities. There’s also another reason why they’re called Zeroes, but you’ll have to read the book to find that out – it worked well with the story though, and whilst it wasn’t exactly vital, it was an excellent touch. Definitely read this.