Uglies, however, is one of those books that people saw me reading and expressed surprise. Apparently, it just doesn't look like a book I would read. Thus I am provided with an excellent segue into marking, cover art, and the book industry. Unfortunately, Stephen King already wrote that article some years back for Entertainment Weekly (which I can't find unfortunately). {Ryan found it!} But the point is, publishers can do a lot of damage with cover art. Human beings are visual creatures and cover art is the usual source of a reader's first impression of a book. Which is, of course, grossly unfair to authors.
This brings me to my point. The cover to Uglies makes it look like a psuedo lit for the fashion mag set. Part of it is the dimensions of the book itself which are off industry standard for fiction. It's the same size/dimensions as those books that are really just a collection of vapid observations and an excuse for too many artistic navel gazing glossy photos. The cover art reenforces that impression. It's an extreme close up of a very pretty model.
In all fairness to the publisher, the book is actually all about a world that uses superficial attractiveness to control the population. So the cover art, fits. Uglies is about a world where everyone receives compulsory plastic surgery at the age of 16 to become a Pretty by having all their physical features pulled towards a set of norms. As is always the case, there are people who don't want to be perfected and this of course threatens the powers that be. Also, unsurprisingly, there is something more sinister going on.
This book is exactly up ally, it just doesn't look it. It's strange how easily we are affected by subtle visual cues. If I had to come up with a criticism, it's that it's a bit of a slow start for a YA novel and doesn't really get going until about 100 pages in. That's only if I had to find a fault though.
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