History Literature / Uglies

* DoggedNiceGirl: Tally implies this with Peris as a Littlie and an Ugly, when she says that he always liked “other girls.” [[spoiler: This still seems to be the case when Tally visits him in New Pretty Town for the first, however, soon after that Tally quickly moves on.]]

* LoveTriangle: [[spoiler: Tally, Shay, and David in Uglies. Tally, David, and Zane in Pretties and Specials. In Shay’s Story we also have Zane, Shay, and David. Shay, Zane, and Helen. Tacos, Shay, and David. Even though Shay is ObliviousToLove for most of the book, this is very evident to the reader and the characters eventually make AnguishedDeclarationsOfLove in the text confirming the shipping. Then In Cutters we have Tachs, Shay, and Zane. Tally, Zane, and Helen.]]

* LoveTriangle: Tally, Shay, and David. Tally, David, and Zane.

* TheCameo:[[spoiler: In Extras, Aya mentions that there are a group of crumblies who claim that the government has the secret to immortality and aren’t sharing it. Considering her RapidAging in Specials and the fact that she is implied to be hundreds of years old, Dr. Cable could very well be the person who is making this claim and is leading the other crumblies to investigate it.]]

* BigBad: Dr. Cable.

* EvilCounterpart: Dr. Cable to Tally. Both of them are very smart, sarcastic, and manipulative natural leaders. This becomes much more apparent as the books go on. [[spoiler: Also a subverted example, Tally to Aya in Extras. As Aya is very similar to how Tally used to be before she became TheHero. However, Tally is able to warn Aya about the dangers of the world so that Aya won't become a BrokenBird Anti-Heroine like Tally.]]

** The adults that avert this-- [[spoiler:the museum guard, the ones driving the helicopter, are the ones who need their brains for the jobs they have.]]

* AesopAmnesia: At the beginning of every book Tally has to re-learn why the status quo is bad. But it's justified because it's not stupidity, [[spoiler: (not intentional stupidity at least). In the beginning of ''Pretties'' the Pretty operation has made her vapid and oblivious, while in ''Specials'' she starts out brainwashed to serve the city.]]

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: [[spoiler:Dr. Cable in Specials.]]

** In Uglies [[spoiler: David's father Az is dead as a result of Dr. Cable trying to install new lesions, and Maddy may have developed a pretty cure]] but they have no subject on which to test the pills. [[spoiler: Tally decides to perform a HeroicSacrifice in offering herself as a test subject, outing herself as the traitor who destroyed the smoke, and willingly turn herself in to have the operation.]]
** In ''Pretties'' once again [[spoiler: Tally accidentally betrays the New Smoke, this time through Zane's false tooth. She decides to stay with him as the New Smoke members escape, taking the cure with them, and Shay turns her into a brainwashed Special.]]
** Tally [[spoiler: ends the war]] that she and Shay started, but not before [[spoiler: Zane dies and as the only Special]] in existence she has to make sure the new world doesn't destroy itself the way the old world did. [[spoiler: David]] joins her in the wilderness as she vows to keep the world safe.

* BreakTheCutie: Tally becomes progressively more broken as she's dicked about with by the various authorities.[[spoiler: Shay in both Shay's Story and Cutters]]
* BreakTheHaughty: [[spoiler: Shay in the graphic novels.]]

* CanNotTellALie: The members of Frizz's clique in ''Extras'', Radical Honesty, take (brain) surgery so that it's impossible for them to lie.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Dr. Cable [[spoiler: saves Tally from the surgery that would make her normal, since Tally is the last Special in existence.]]

* DarkActionGirl:Dr. Cable [[spoiler: Shay in Pretties and Tally in Specials]]

** After [[spoiler: receiving the surgery that makes her pretty, lesions and all,]] Shay is bubbly with Tally despite their earlier fight over David. This makes Tally [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging feel even worse]]. Averted later on in the series, though, as Shay remembers [[spoiler: what Tally did and continually does.]]
** Subverted with David's mother. She doesn't [[spoiler: forgive Tally for betraying the old Smoke, accidental was it was, and getting her husband killed.]]
** David himself forgives Tally, even when [[spoiler: Tally betrayed the Smoke by accident and she called him ugly to make him leave her and Zane behind in ''Pretties''.]]
* {{Epigraph}}s: the beginnings of the different parts of books in the Uglies Trilogy.

* GreenAesop Sometimes mildly {{Anvilicious}}.

** Defied by Maddy in ''Uglies''; although she wants to try the pretty cure [[spoiler: on Shay]] she won't force it on the latter without "informed consent." As she explains to Tally and David, Specials like Dr. Cable [[spoiler: killed her husband Az by forcing experimental surgery upon him]], and she doesn't want to stoop to that level.
** Played straight by the town of Diego, though. They consider [[spoiler: Tally in Special form]] a weapon and even though they'd need her consent to change her mind, her body can be BroughtDownToNormal. [[spoiler: For Tally, though, it would be a FateWorseThanDeath.]] They then heavily drug her when she throws a temper tantrum and is reduced to begging for it not to happen, and would have succeeded if not for [[spoiler:Shay]].

* [[MagicalComputer Magical Floating Camera]]: Apparantly, the protagonist of Extra saved a ''backup copy of the entire Internet'' on her hovercam (which isn't even exactly a high-quality model). It should be noted that the future's version of the Internet is mostly video data (with some blogging).

** Could also have partially been [[spoiler: a placebo effect. Even though the pill she took didn't do anything to fix her, she didn't know that at the time.]]

* {{Premiseville}}: New Pretty Town, Uglyville, and Crumblyville. And in Extras, there is also a Prettyville.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Shay tells Tally that the latter needs to tell David about the new heart-shaped locket she's acquired, assuming that it's a romantic token from Tally's new partner. [[spoiler:Said locket is a medallion that is meant to track down the Smoke, and David's parents run the smoke. So yes, Tally should have told David about it instead of pitching it in the fire.]]

* TranslationConvention: Averted in Extras. Aya does not speak good English.

* TroubleFromThePast: People in the future still have to clean up the hole in the ozone layer and contain a species of nigh-invulnerable genetically engineered ecosystem-destroying orchids.

* UnwittingPawn / SpannerInTheWorks: Yep, Tally again.

** Well Scott Westerfeld has said that there is going to be more Croy in the future, so that may be answered.

''Uglies'' is the collective name given to a series of books by ScottWesterfeld: ''Uglies'', ''Pretties'', ''Specials'', and a [[SpinOff companion book]], ''Extras.'' They are set in the future, three hundred years after a petroleum-destroying bacteria and genetically modified orchids went out of control, leaving the humans of the world to rethink their destructive ways.

* WeatherReportNarration: ''Uglies'' begins with "The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit." And then describes the diet said cat would need to get all the colors right.

* BadAss: The Specials in general. [[spoiler:The Cutters and [[TheHero Tally]] especially.]]

* BreakTheCutie: Tally becomes progressively more broken as she's dicked about with by the various authorities.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Lots of fans on the author's website wondered what happened to Croy.

* EvilCounterpart: Dr. Cable to Tally

* DarkActionGirl:Dr.Cable [[spoiler: Shay in Pretties and Tally in Specials]]

* EvilCounterpart: Dr.Cable to Tally

* DarkActionGirl:Dr.Cable[[spoiler Shay in Pretties and Tally in Specials]]

* ActionGirl: Tally Youngblood, Shay, Aya Fuse,and Eden Maru. It's also implied that Maddy was somewhat one before David was born.

* ActionGirl: Tally Youngblood, Shay, [[DarkActionGirl Dr. Cable]], Aya Fuse,and Eden Maru.

** ActionGirls: Tally Youngblood, Shay, [[DarkActionGirl Dr. Cable]], Aya Fuse,and Eden Maru.

* ActionGirls: Tally Youngblood, Shay, [[DarkActionGirl Dr. Cable]], Aya Fuse,and Eden Maru.

* ActionGirls: Tally Youngblood, Shay, [[DarkActionGirl Dr. Cable]], Aya Fuse,and Eden Maru.

** Tally's parents are on the vapid side and encourage her to do what Dr. Cable says to get her pretty surgery. [[Justified for most of the adults in the series that come off this way due to [[spoiler:the lesions that make them into vapid Pretties.]]

** [[spoiler:Through no fault of her own, Shay in each book. Starts out on the good side, gets forcibly changed into a pretty, which leads to her cutting herself to regain her brainpower after learning Tally gave the cure gave to Zane instead of to her. Then she gets changed into a Special, which puts her on the Face side, and then is forcibly given the cure in ''Specials'' before rescuing Tally in Diego.]]

** David himself forgives Tally, even when [[spoiler: Tally betrayed the Smoke by accident and she called him ugly to make him leave her and Zane behind in ''pretties''.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Shay in Pretties, though she turns back in ''Specials''. Tally arguably pulls one of these as well, but since it's mind control, it may not count.]]

** Played straight by the town of Diego, though. They consider [[spoiler: Tally in Special form]] a weapon and even though they'd need her consent to change her mind, her body can be BroughtDownToNormal. [[spoiler: For Tally, though, it would be a FateWorseThanDeath.]] They then heavily drug her when she throws a temper tantrum and is reduced to begging for it not to happen, and would have succeeded if not for [[spoiler: Shay]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: A minor version of this is used as a plot device in the first two books; In the first, Tally is given a medallion to use to signal the specials to come take out the Smoke. [[spoiler:She throws it in the fire once she decides to stay in the Smoke, not knowing that damaging the pendant causes it to automatically send out a signal.]] In the second, she and her new boyfriend find pills to reverse the Pretty brain lesions. [[spoiler:Turns out that the two pills were supposed to be taken by one person. One pill eats the lesions. The second pill stops the first pill from eating the entire brain.]]

* ShootTheShaggyDog: This seems to be [[spoiler: Zane's tale]]. First we find out he was responsible for the Specials wanting to track down Shay, then [[spoiler: his brain gets eaten up by nanites, crippling him and his girlfriend is brainwashed into becoming a Special.]] Just when it seems that [[HopeSpot he gets the surgery he needs]], his [[spoiler: brain rejects the new implants, and he becomes a vegetable on life support in the middle of a war. The hospital has to take him off it for the other wounded people coming in.]]

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* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Shay in Pretties, though she turns back in ''Specials''. Tally arguably pulls one of these as well, but since it's mind control, it may not count; while we don't see Shay actually choosing to join the Specials, it's not at all a leap to assume she did so willingly.]]

* UnusualUserInterface: Most not [[spoiler: iceable]] in ''Extras'', where the characters could view the in-universe equivalent of internet, television, and video games through screens inside artificial eyeballs.

* UnusualUserInterface: Most not[spoiler: iceable in ''Extras'', where the characters could view the in-universe equivalent of internet, television, and video games through screens inside artificial eyeballs.

* UnwittingPawn / SpannerInTheWorks: Yep,Tally again.