reading a 2000s ya dystopian series about beauty, tiktok face, and lookism | the uglies
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reading a 2000s ya dystopian series about beauty, tiktok face, and lookism | the uglies
Oh my god, why is it such a THING to have vague memories of this book??
It was an experience 😭
The only thing I remember about it aside from the basic premise is her eating "spagbol"--that really stuck with me for some reason
@@user-lh8im2vy8e the spagbol really made a mark on me too?? i guess i thought it sounded good lol and i somehow didn’t put it together til wayyyyy later that it mean spaghetti bolognese 😭
@@user-lh8im2vy8e I have always always thought of spaghetti bolognese as "spagbol" for some reason. Now I know the reason. 🤣
Cari how did you get access to my personal library on notion, who sent you the list because you are hitting The Classics
"I don’t know if the fourth one is like an extra" made me giggle knowing the fourth book is literally called Extras
It was my favorite of the series
for anyone confused you can skip extras and feel satisfied but I don't think anyone should
Scott actually added onto the series and there’s 3 additional books.
Extras is the only one I still own & even occasionally reread. I got really into scriptwriting a few years back and started working on adapting it to film - it's got a completely different focus that I think is a lot more relevant to us today than the original trilogy.
And this answera my question "did she talk about the most culturally relevant installment of the series that predicted influencer culture or not"
Saved me some time
I remember reading the opening line about the sky looking like cat vomit when I was like 11 years old and thinking "holy crap this is gonna be amazing!" lmaoooo
Its certainly memorable hahhaha
Same LOL
I'm only 15 mins into the video so maybe it gets explained, but doesn't that mean, like... brown? Is the sky brown? Is that supposed to be beautiful?
TALLY-WA AND SHAY-LA THIS DREDGED UP SUPPRESSED MEMORIES
Omg I had a friend named Taliyah and I totally called her Tally-wa from this book haha
One thing I always thought was interested about this series is that the writing changes as Tally changes. Like it gets ‘better’ when she’s evil, worse when she’s pretty, etc. The complexity of the writing style changes as her complexity changes! So cool!
the scene of her catching the arrows in the third one will never leave my brain
A movie is coming soon and I wonder whether it will be a serious dystopian movie like hunger games (just replace the districts with the beauty standards) or a campy fun movie about beauty standards like the Barbie movie
yeah, i noticed it too. the first book was written in kind of a silly way, but… honestly, how much can you expect from a 16 year old? then we get into tally being pretty and brain-washed and it was hard to get through, but that was how tally was living and thinking. then the writing is phenomenal, because she escaped, she thinks clearly etc. i’m glad that i’m not the only who noticed 🤍
NO WAYY Im so excited your reading this book, I read this as a tween and noone ever talks about it!!! I always thought of it more in the same vein as Giver but less academic
right?!!!
I certainly read it originally while being obsessed with the Giver and I concur with that assessment
I had to read Uglies AND The Giver in my 6th grade language arts class 💀
A movie is coming soon and I wonder whether it will be a serious dystopian movie like hunger games (just replace the districts with the beauty standards) or a campy fun movie about beauty standards like the Barbie movie
@@caitlingillum…kind of worst of both worlds unfortunately
whispering "siri" felt dystopian haha
Honestly that whole sentene was the wildest thing I've heard all week.
@@IgnisRex64 i was listening to this in the background and when i heard her say it i literally stopped the video and repeated the bit like 4 times to make sure i heard her right
My teacher read the first book to my 5th(?) grade class. I distinctly remember Tally thinking "why is that Ugly so happy?" when she saw an old Rusties ad with a swimsuit model. Blew my 11 year old mind that a modern model would be considered an Ugly
I remember that exact moment too! And when they were looking through the magazine and calling the celebrities “almost-pretties”. I was gagged.
These books gave me so many insecurities as a preteen because it never explained (if I remember rightly) WHAT happened in the operation, like HOW these people became pretty. I was so scared I would never become truly pretty because I would never get the operation and I wanted to DESPERATELY know what exactly made these people pretty.
@caitlingill that's such an interesting response considering the book is supposed to be commentary on the exact thing you experienced
Scott Westerfeld also did a series called Midnighters where only certain people experienced a secret 25th hour of the day. Its pretty good from what I remember. There were monsters that only appeared in this extra hour and it was such an original idea
i remember that series but didn’t finish it. i did remember liking his duology about vampires
The way that series is one of my Roman Empires. I loved it so much
Whoa, I had completely forgotten this series existed! You brought back the memory of me reading the first book. XD IIRC the main character was able to use things that required electricity during the hidden hour when nobody else could? It's foggy but I do recall how the cover looked!
Those 13 letter words had me guessing so much when I had to read them aloud to my sister. Ended up making up words at some point hahaha
OH MY GOD I’ve been trying to remember what those books were called for YEARS 💀 thank you 😭
cari: this book was written in the mid 2000s
also cari: this book was really timely even though it was written ten years ago
😭😭😭😭😭
the mid 2000s will always be 10 years ago. my brain can't process anything else
The sad thing is, my brain didn't see anything wrong with that statement 😭
19 years?! Holy crap
I love the language in this series only because it’s so much like things are now. Happy-making or something-making is JUST like looks-maxing now. And people use ___-maxing for everything. Language is so cool
Bubbly and bogus are just based and cringe if we took an alternate path.
@@fairycat23had such a visceral reaction to this my God
(Feeling)-making has been used in British English for decades
The only thing I remember from Uglies is all the SpagBol they eat.
Yes😂 Ide never heard of it before this book, this word alone dredged up a memory
@@cassandracornwell7595 that's so interesting because spagbol is how we normally refer to spaghetti bolognese here in Aotearoa
@@Vulpix298same in the uk!
Bro that’s literally what I took from it too!! The movie was coming out so I took two seconds to reread a bit of the first book and from the very first instant I read the word “SpagBol” I had a visceral reaction. Despite having not read this book in almost 15 years. From the very first SpagBol I was like oh shit I forgot about that 😂
This book actually traumatized me lmao and I didn't realize until I was older. I have this REALLY specific fear of not taking all of my required pills if they're like antidepressants or something and when I explained it to my sister I was like "Well, because....because of the nanobot pills. In the Uglies?"
So not to armchair diagnose, but have you ever gotten yourself assessed for OCD? It's common for people who are predisposed to OCD to have their symptoms triggered by a specific piece of media. I'm willing to bet that if you really stop to think about it, your medication might not be the only thing that you tend to have compulsions for. It might be a good idea to get assessed, because there's really good therapy for it that actually genuinely works.
@@taylorg2320 ahaha i don't mind the armchair diagnose because i actually was diagnosed with ocd a little over a decade ago for separate reasons that have nothing to do with the uglies, but this is a hilarious connection and turn of events
OCD is a pattern of thinking so you heart OCD and overthink on your Hobbies too😂😂
Fr how hard is it to write TAKE BOTH on the little note they left with the pills. Like yeah it was dumb of her to take only one but also they knew Tally they should have known she’d want to share with Shay or SOMEONE.
Scott Westerfeld somehow managed to write three book series that I still think about to this day. The Midnighters and Leviathan trilogies were truly my whole personality as a teenager
Did you see that Leviathan is getting an anime adaptation from Studio Orange?
Omg leviathan was sooooo good I think I need to reread
@@kyoyameganebereznoff um no and now I’m very excited!
Wait, I was obsessed with Leviathan!! I did not remember the existance of these books lol
Oh my god??? I had no idea he wrote the leviathan trilogies too, I read those books back in 2013 in middle school when I wasn't looking too hard at authors 😭
Blast from the past. There’s supposed to be an adaptation coming this year too so this is a great way for me to revisit the world
I cant believe we’re getting one 10 years later ahhah
@@caricanread 20 years later 😅
omfg 💀💀💀
WAIT WHAT
I doubt it, they’ve tried to turn it into a movie like 3 times and each time cancelled
You just made me google “when was MySpace popular” as if I didn’t live through that era 😂 turns out it started in 2003
I was born around then 😭
Right?! I have no concept of time hahah but for me myspace was peak 2005-2008!!
Oof, I had a custom Myspace layout that played music. I was 14. What an era....lol
Ohhhh yeah. I was definitely html coding my profile at 13 🤣🤣
Girl I’ve been saying “sad-making” and “happy-making” for years and years and couldn’t remember why 😭
Ur… pretty 😂
Why is the roller coaster hover craft scene seared into so many of our brains??! I swear that and the first line about the sunset were some of the only specific memories I had of this book. I loved this revisit to a childhood classic! Nostalgia at a 10/10 💕
Yes this! And also them burning off their bracelets with the hot air balloons 😂 terrified me
You should definitely read “Unwind” by Neal Shusterman. It’s about a dystopian world where they allowed parents to sign an order for their children between the ages of 13 and 18 to be "unwound" - taken to "harvest camps" and dissected into their body parts for later use. It was soooooo good
Omg, none of my friends ever read this or knew about it! I'm glad I saw your comment. It was such a good series.
Yes! Crow caller just did a massive breakdown of the whole series
Huh? Wouldn’t many/most people become somewhat attached to their children after having to take care of them for so many years?
@@mitchellhouser1572from what i remember, mostly unwanted kids get unwound. i think the book followed three main kids-a delinquent whose parents hated him, a girl from a children’s home who was being unwound to free up space for new kids, and a boy who was willing to be unwound as a religious sacrifice. most parents of course get attached to their kids but there are always kids without people to care for them unfortunately
Okay yes yes yes these books changed me when I was a young teen
I read this series as a 7th grader and it affected my whole personality for like a year afterwards in good and bad ways 😭Can't wait to watch this video!
💗💗💗
These books gave me so many insecurities as a preteen because it never explained (if I remember rightly) WHAT happened in the operation, like HOW these people became pretty. I was so scared I would never become truly pretty because I would never get the operation and I wanted to DESPERATELY know what exactly made these people pretty.
Croy is the craziest name for a character and using Troy’s picture makes me wheeze! Great video 🍝
I had to pause to have a little Croy-induced meltdown 😂
I enjoyed these books but hated Tally's toxic friendship with her "bestie"
Anyways, I've always wanted this book to turn into a TV series. With the cgi we have today, it would make the characters look so cool!
A movie is coming soon and I wonder whether it will be a serious dystopian movie like hunger games (just replace the districts with the beauty standards) or a campy fun movie about beauty standards like the Barbie movie
@@caitlingillkinda the worst of both worlds
Unlocked a core memory with this one 😭😭
😊😊😊
I used to be OBSESSED with this series!! you should read Extras, that one was WILD and you might be surprised how that one hits now. Scott is a very nice man, I met him and his wife who is also an author when I was in middle school! a highlight of my young years!
I picked this up ages ago because my sister had this book. I remember very clearly that the first sentence has something about cat vomit and I immediately closed the book and was like nope, not for me. 😂
Hahaha i did NOT remember and it threw me hahaha
I paused on your comment because our handles have similar names. The funny thing is I bought this book series and my younger sister would read my copies.
Lawd, the way 14 yo me loved these books. I was so heartbroken over Zane. Also, the way the breaking of that ice rink is burned into my brain. And im with you on the hoverboards too - etched into my memory for some reason 😅
The plot of this book kind of reminds me of the bizarre beauty standards set in Korea
Of the entire world tbh
While I do think the Avril Lavigne image you use for Shay is a good bit, something important that you ended up glossing over is Shay's actual in-book physical description. She's introduced as having her "long dark hair in pigtails," with her "eyes too wide apart", her "lips full enough [to be Pretty]", and having "olive skin". There's even a part (the bit you describe around @12:15, where they're tweaking their appearances) where Tally is editing Shay's hologram: "'And maybe a bit lighter?' Tally took the shade of [Shay's] skin closer to baseline." Even though in the setting of the book racism has supposedly been solved by making everyone who turns 16 Pretty, having Shay - the girl who introduces Tally to the idea of not becoming a Pretty - be a girl of color is a really important and poignant detail that subtly supports the core message of the series. Loved the video!
i always understood the “racism being solved by turning everyone Pretty” as.. simply that. i thought they were just.. i know how it sounds, but basically that the “baseline” was a standard skin tone and that they were making everyone have the same skin tone
to 12 year old me this series ate DOWNNNN
😂😂😂
the imposter series by the same author is quite good too. I have not read the last book but till then, its REALLY engaging.
Set in the same world as this, the imposter series is like post-ugly world. There is a man who is like very powerful (if i remember correctly, he was the president or something? like the ruler of the place) and he has a daughter- or that's what people think. Actually he has TWO daughters and they are twins. But the thing is the no one knows about the other twin because she is being made a weapon, a shield for her twin sister. If they have to go to a dangerous place or anything, SHE is sent in place of her in order to keep the other one safe. Now she is being sent to a place to live with these people (who are rulers of some other place or something) and like impersonate her sister. Its really good to read.
I remember these!!! Not only the series, but my library actually had a guide book for like. The world of the uglies. I want to say it was called "From Bogus to Bubbly"? I have vague memories of bringing it on vacation one time and reading it to my grandma
As someone who dug up my whole collection for this, "Bogus to Bubbly" is such a fun read lmao -- it's got hoverboard instructions, explains a bit about Japanese honorifics, and other inspirations behind all the fictional stuff in the series.
I also found _Mind-Rain: Your Favorite Authors on Scott Westerfeld's Uglies Series_ -- a collection of small essays, literary analysis, historical context, metatextual discussions, short stories with related/inspired themes, technological speculation, etc that probably blew my mind as a kid lmao
"I don't know if the fourth book is like an extra or what" made me laugh so hard 😭😭😭
I’m so sad that you didn’t mention Zane’s death!!!! That had me bawling when I was a teenager!!!
honestly, i re-read this series like two months ago and i still cried as a 26yo
I’m a little afraid to hear your thoughts because this was the series that really got me into reading as a kid. Also, the fourth is literally called extras 😂 and there have been a couple cover changes but the first set is the best.
Literally read this series when I was 15 and I was OBSESSED! Wanted a movie so bad
Right?! Well apparently its been picked up but just needs to be released 😭
When I tell you that first line haunted every single sunset of my high school years...
So excited to be revisiting this amazing series with you! I remember being genuinely hooked by the story and messaging, it's so good! 💖
😂🐈😭
“even though it was written 10 years ago”
The pain i felt when i realized it was almost 20 years ago 😅
I read this series when i was younger and i loved it!!! the hover boards has been a constant in my brain almost since then
regarding 'lookism' i really recommend the book "disfigured" by amanda leduc! it's a nonfic but traces back why we see "ugly" or disabled people as inherently less than pretty/abled people and a lot of it stems from the fairytales/media we were exposed to from a young age!
I remember in 8th grade (which was like late 2010s for me) that the Uglies was one of the choices we had for our monthly book in English class 💀
I TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THESE BOOKS they haunt me to this day!!! And nobody in my friend circle has read them. This is healing, thank you.
It blows my mind that people will say things like "after a certain age your face is only ugly if you're a bad person" without hearing how deranged and hateful that sounds
This series was my--heck, everything Scott Westerfeld wrote--entire personality in hs. Entire.
🙏🙏🙏
I loved these books. I read them when there were only three of them and Tally's journey just really hit me in an empowering place. I loved how her role in the society changed for each book and that changed how she interacted with the society in general.
The fourth one is kind it's own thing, there's a timeskip involved, but I thought it was good for what it was.
Oh my gosh, i can’t believe you’re reading these. 😭 I also have a vague memory of solely the first book, despite knowing there are more. I can’t wait to hear your takes. Also, I like the original covers so much more!
💗
The hoverboards come back to mind at LEAST once a week. Especially driving in the winter, thinking about wouldn't it be great to have magnetic transportation so I didn't have to worry about ice 😅
Loved this series when I was freshman. My friend group shared the books and it was the first series that made us have book related discussion, I'll always appreciate it for that. I remember in the book instead of the characters saying something made them happy, they would say "thats happy making" and that stayed in my vernacular for a loooong time lol
The movie hasn’t been released yet. They announced the date only recently.
I wonder whether it will be a serious dystopian movie like hunger games (just replace the districts with the beauty standards) or a campy fun movie about beauty standards like the Barbie movie
The fact that the hoverboards work with a belly button ring lives rent-free in my brain.
I also have lots of vague memories of the series. One of the vague memories that I like the most is the city that lets people decide how they want to look and I remember how freakish those people looked to tally. And if I had a choice, that would be the city I want to live in.
I just realized what this concept reminds me of! there was an episode of Adventure Time where Finn and Jake had to help Lumpy Space Princess in Lumpy Space (I think she was losing her lumps)... in order to fit with the party her friends dragged her to, Finn and Jake had to touch an orb that gave them lumps and the vapid talk... lol!
omg yess i kept thinking about adventure time listening Cari all along. The old society collapsing also reminded me of 'Mushroom War'
the episode actually involves LSP biting Jake by accident and turning him lumpy. the orb makes lumpy people smooth while they're holding it but it's also the cure to lumpyness, in that if you've been bitten but touch the orb before sunset you get to go back
@@kayden8093 that's it! it's been a minute since I watched AT and my brain is leaky... lol!
@@kayden8093 so it's rabies?
@@Vulpix298 pretty much, yeah, although I'd think of it as more of a warewolf/vampire thing
You should read the cold awakening trilogy if you can. I read it like in 2008 or 2009 but the book stuck in my head for some reason. It’s YA and sci-fi and dystopian as well. Here’s the book description of it: The Download was supposed to change the world. It was supposed to mean the end of aging, the end of death, the birth of a new humanity. But it wasn’t supposed to happen to someone like Lia Kahn. And it wasn’t supposed to ruin her life.
Lia knows she should be grateful she didn’t die in the accident. The Download saved her-but it also changed her, forever. She can deal with being a freak. She can deal with the fear in her parents’ eyes and the way her boyfriend flinches at her touch. But she can’t deal with what she knows, deep down, every time she forces herself to look in the mirror: She’s not the same person she used to be.
Maybe she’s not even a person at all.
I LOVED SCOTT WESTERFELD AND NO ONE EVER TALKS ABOUT HIM!!
Babe wake up, Cari just posted
😊💗
real
I constantly bring up the uglies series (ESPECIALLY EXTRAS) and how it’s so relevant to influencer culture today!!! I’ve read it so many times as a kid, but going back as an adult in 2018 blew
My
Mind.
the novelette is literally how i experience the world as an aroace person! its crazy that my reality is so specific its a thought experiment
Me too and I was thinking the same thing! It’s not exactly the same, but it seems like a closer experience than being allosexual
this series was HUGE to me as a kid omg..... I don't think I ever read it multiple times like I did with other series, but scenes and concepts from it are still rattling around in my head to this day!! god. huge fricking throwback!!!
Omg!! This is one of the first series I've ever read where I remember waiting and waiting for the next book. And all i remember now are the hoverboard scenes, so excited to watch this 🤭 a lil refresh ❤
Right?! The hoverboard on the rollercoaster is burned into my mind!
@@caricanread YESSS that scene! It fueled my childhood daydreams for monthsss
FINALLY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT THIS SERIES IVE BEEN WAITING MY WHOLE LIFE YALL
I remember my older sister reading it and even though I was very much into the dystopian YA book wave, I never got around to reading these. I'm feeling nostalgic so now I'm kinda interested 🤣🤣🤣
I have a vivid memory of freshman year of high school hiding my Kindle behind my textbook pretending to study for finals, but I actually speed reading through this whole series. I was obsessed
I have a signed copy of this book and it was such a fever dream book. i really like the themes tho and feel like it’s applicable today
I read this series as an adult. I agree that the first book was the best and it kind of went downhill from there. I think the world shifts a bit by time Extras happen, and it's kind of like that Black Mirror episode called Nose Dive, where your value in society is based on your social media rating.
omg YES! I read this in freshman year of high school. It was formative. The tech in this and Fahrenheit 451 are my mental "futuristic high tech world". The rings, hoverboards and plastic surgery, plus the TV Walls in homes in Fahrenheit 451.
Oh man, I liked the first 2 books ok (justice for Zane!) But the last book was just horrible and I couldn't finish it. Granted, I read them almost 14 years ago, so....
I had the same experience 🥲🥲🥲
i remember liking specials the most because i thought it was the most interesting version of tally and shay, but i remember absolutely nothing about the boys, lol. interesting series to look back on because i still think it had more substance to it than a lot of the dystopias that saturated the market once thg blew up. you could not pay me to call something "bubbly" or "pretty-making," though
Ahhhh this is my FAVORITE series. I return to it probably once a year. So happy to see you talking about it!
would love to see your review on the movie now that it's out
You should give the Leviathan trilogy a read!! Also by Scott Westerfeld and they are SO GOOD. Truly and underrated fantasy/sci-fi/futuristic series and the worldbuilding is knock-your-socks off creative. It's a finished series and it also deals with issues of gender and cross-dressing. Would 100% recommend!!
seeing more creators revisit books they loved when they were younger and I'm so here for it!! this unearthed such a specific memory of me reading book one and then being so irritated with book two i couldn't finish it lol
Um so apparently they’re making a movie out of this now??
I remember reading this series through 7th grade in 2006/2007 holy shit😂
With all that's going on today, the concept of this book hits different.
I way I was absolutely obsessed with these books when I was in high school 😂 I reread them when I was like 29 and actually still enjoyed them. Maybe that’s because of the nostalgia factor, but it felt like they stood the test of time lol. Love listening to your commentary and remembering a time before social media was so pervasive, and also feeling like the author predicted the future a little bit.
Coming back to this video because of that trailer drop 👀
I remember reading all four books in a row. I STRONGLY remember reading EXTRAs at age 15 and being like "Are those girls cutting themselves ? That's not a good moral for teenagers. 🙃"
Not to mention Tally and Zane trying to break out of pretty-mindedness by starving themselves and abusing caffiene and "metabolism boosting diet pills," haha.
Wow I'm early. I remember loving the Uglies series and it got me started reading in middle school. I wonder what you'll say
🤍🤍🤍
Was about to comment this exact thing haha I can’t believe this series is being resurrected
LOVE the Ted Chiang interlude! i just read the short story collection that has the arrival story and liking what you see and LOVED it
I reread this recently as an adult and the most striking thing to me (aside from the young writing) was that each book has the same plot?? Tally goes to the wilderness, they get caught, she’s changed. Rinse repeat
I think it works beautifully, though, with the themes of the series. it speaks to generational trauma cycles and how it can feel futile to try to break out of these systems and structures in our lives, but that no matter how many times one can loose track of the goal, revolution is still possible and the power is within the individuals who make up these systems to choose to break the cycle.
I have such vague memories of starting this series for which I had the whole thing on my bookshelf for some reason from like a library sale or something in Middle School, and stopping like halfway through the first book because the main character felt really unrelatable and frustrating
I vaguely remembered reading and loving the first book and maaaybe the second one from high school too so last year I read the whole series and holy nostalgia. I think it’s so wild they’re now making it into a movie.
honestly THIS was theeeeee ya series for me. Like, idk i went back to this one more than even the hunger games
God I remember 12 year old me HATING these books. I was so excited to read them that I got the whole series for Christmas or something, and then I got through only the first book and even back then was discerning enough to be like "nah" 😂
Maybe I'm just being weird about this, but it really bothered me how the books framed the vapid, brainwashed, hyperconsumerist society as the environmentally responsible option and the people walking away from that conditioning and lifestyle and thinking for themselves as the thing that would destroy the world if nobody stopped them.
It’s wild they’re turning it into a movie and with Joey King no less???
i think what's most horrifying about that short story about attractiveness isnt the beauty argument but the fact parents can just decide to take away your natural perception without your consent. like sure you can wax poetic about how attraction can be manipulated but so can literally every aspect of being human.
Please review Sophie Jordan's Firelight trilogy, massive 2010's YA fantasy saga that I hope scarred you in the same way it did me :')
This is just a weird aside, but I always pictured Shay as having a darker skin tone so the Avril picture is throwing me off. I loved this series growing up!
Oh my god if you havnt already can you please read "tithe a modern faerie tale" . The beginning of that boom is wild and threw me so off when I was 15 lol I havnt seen anyone talk about thus book before 😭
I lovedddd this series and I wanted it to be real so badly 😫 Growing up as a fat brown girl in a predominantly white school I tied a lot of the rejection I experienced to my appearance
this reminds me of another series, The Program by Suzanne Young. I read the first one as I finished high school and remembered really loving it, which led me to pick it up from my library again last year to try to read the whole series (there's like 8 books total or something). I got through the first book and liked it well enough though i could clearly see the dated writing. i got through the second book and just HAD to stop because of how wild it was getting and, honestly, how depressing it got. i'm mildly curious about how that series turned out and how other people received it, but hearing you talk about the Uglies series (which i also had an interest in) makes me a feel a bit more vindicated in not forcing myself to finish The Program series lol
WOKE UP TO A NEW CARI VIDEO!! Perfect way to start the day 🕺
Hehe good morning!
As soon as you said you were gonna read the first sentence the words "cat vomit" flashed before me
I couldn’t get past the first book. Tally seemed so reluctant to not go pretty and her helping the others felt very forced
The third and fourth book didn’t have the same feeling as the first two so I remember not liking them as much.
The glorification of anorexia in the second book is what I remember most clearly… sigh
I read the first one in middle school and then quit because I hated David and liked Peris😭😭 oops
Also, why is it Giving, techy dystopian The Great Gatsby.
Why is this society giving eugenics… 11 year old me did not pick up on a lot in his book 😂
I remember getting to Specials and had to stop reading because reading from an evil perspective was so hard lmao. But now I regret stopping because this series was iconic.
Since the movie is happening, this was a good choice to cover.
I was just thinking of rereading the Lemony Snicket books and probably the narnia series too. I think I might!