Half-Minute Horrors

Half-Minute Horrors

by Susan Rich (editor)

Waktu edar : September 1st, 2009 Waktu membaca : September 2011
Hal paling berkesan : The unexpected creepyness of a short story children anthology.

Prior to reading this, I expected this to be an anthology of short horror stories aimed at children. I was partially right on both count. What I didn’t expect was how short those stories were and how creepy some of them are, considering this is a children’s story.

Half-Minute Horrors is literally a collection of horror stories so short that you can spend only half a minute to read one. This collection of horror stories were comprised of many versions. There’s the classic short stories. And then there’s also one page drawings, comics, limericks, and poems. The only similarities between them is they were all really short, some more than other.

I confess that I did enjoy some of the stories, and I’m creeped out by them too. If you have read Goosebumps series by R.L.Stine, you know how some of them go. Even though they are all really short, there’s almost always a twist ending at the end. It’s clearly aimed at children though, so it’s not gonna be very frightening, even though some of them are a little bit too creepy for children. Some of them were classic stories, like the creepy babysitter or things in the closet. Some were random and abstract stories like the one titled The Chicken or the Egg by Jerry Spinelly. And some of it doesn’t make any sense whatsover. Some classic stories that I love were In Hiding by Kenneth Oppel, The Legend of Alexandra & Rose by Jon Klassen (which is actually just one picture, but a creepy one nonetheless) , One of a Kind by Sarah Weeks, and A Very Short Stories by Holly Black. Some of the good abstract one were Grand Entrance by James Patterson, Chocolate Cake by Francine Prose, and Easy Over by Frank Viva. There’s everything in here. There’s aliens, ghosts, murder, werewolves, and a lot more. I can’t tell you what’s the story’s about though, because it’s so short so doing summaries is just a waste.

I enjoyed reading it, and it literally took me just half an hour to read the whole thing since they’re so short. It’s an enjoyable 30 minutes though, so it’s not a waste of your time. Some really well know author is contributing too, like Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, and Holly Black. But be warned though that this is a children’s book so adjust your expectations as much. It’s very enjoyable though.

A Kiss in Time

A Kiss in Time

a novel by by Alex Flinn

Waktu edar : May 1st, 2009

Waktu membaca : June or July 2011

Hal paling berkesan : The alternating chapter. It's so cute.

Talia fell under a spell … . Jack broke the curse.

I was told to beware the accursed spindle, but it was so enchanting, so hypnotic

I was looking for a little adventure the day I ditched my tour group. But finding a comatose town, with a hot-looking chick asleep in it, was so not what I had in mind.

I awakened in the same place but in another time - to a stranger’s soft kiss.

I couldn’t help kissing her. Sometimes you just have to kiss someone. I didn’t know this would happen.

Now I am in dire trouble because my father, the king, says I have brought ruin upon our country. I have no choice but to run away with this commoner!

Now I’m stuck with a bratty princess and a trunk full of her jewels… . The good news: My parents will freak!

Think you have dating issues? Try locking lips with a snoozing stunner who turns out to be 316 years old. Can a kiss transcend all - even time?

REVIEW :

Perhaps some of you have watched the completely ordinary movie called Beastly starring the gorgeous Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens in the past month. Perhaps a few of you knew beforehand that the movie was based on a book with the same name by Alex Flinn. Maybe some of you have read it. But let me tell you this : if you haven’t read the book and you judge Beastly only by watching the movie, DON’T. This book deserve more than that crap movie.

If you’re wondering why I’m discussing Beastly instead of A Kiss in Time, well it’s because they were both written by Alex Flinn and they were both a fairy tale reimagining. Whereas Beastly is the reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, A Kiss in Time is the reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty. And let me tell you this one fact : it’s adorable. Maybe it’s not a book that will get awards. It’s not a serious book. But it’s adorable to bits. And sometimes we need a little bit cuteness in our life.

The story starts with a guy named Jack who’s taking a vacation in a country in Europe. Feeling bored following the tour guides everywhere, he strays towards the forest. And there he finds something weird : a whole town straight from the medieval era that seems to be frozen in time. At first he thinks that this is some sort of new attraction for new tourist. But when he went inside a castle in the center of the village, he discovered a very beautiful girl lying in the bed, asleep. And he felt compelled to kiss her. But it turns out that single kiss not only woke the girl up, but the whole medieval town that’s been stuck in time. And things get even more complicated when Talia, the girl, decides to follow Jack everywhere, even to his home.

I like this book more than Beastly, even though at first I had some reservation to read it because of the summary. I thought that the character was unlikable, but boy was I ever wrong. They both have flaws and I love them for it. Jack is an arrogant boy. He’s selfish and never seem to think about others. Talia is a spoiled brat because she’s been raised that way. When they both fall for each other, and start to gradually change to protect each other, I love it. And I love that the chapter alternate between the point of view of Talia and Jack. This book is so very adorable.

Truth is, it’s not my favorite book out there. There are far more genius books and great books out there. But this is so very adorable and for that, I give it a special award. If you thought that Beastly could’ve been great but not, well, try to read this book. Because it’s just like Beastly, only better.

The Declaration

The Declaration (2007)

a novel by Gemma Malley

Waktu edar : October 2nd, 2007

Waktu membaca : This year, forgot when.

Hal paling berkesan : The world building, no doubt. Classic distopian awesomeness.

What would you do in a world where humans live forever?

I was always on the lookout for great science fiction books. And I found just the thing when I found this book, about a distant future where humans have discovered a way to live forever.

In the distant future, humans have found out a way to live forever. They have developed a drug, Longevity drug, that can enable them to live forever. Not forever young, but forever static. Frozen in the age that you are now. In this world, it is forbidden to have children. Because of the ever dwindling energy source and food, and because humans now live forever, it’s a very big crime to have a child.

In this world, there lived Anna, a Surplus. A Surplus is an illegal children. It is forbidden to have a child in this world while still live forever, so every Surplus is considered an abomination, a waste. The parents that were found having a child will be immediately sent to prison and the child will be sent to Surplus Hall, a school where Surplus were taught to learn their proper place in life. They were taught to cook, sew, and basically serve the Legal humans, and they were reminded every day of how they are evil and thieves for stealing energy source and how they were lucky even to be allowed to breathe.

Anna was content living like this. She was the favorite surplus because she knew her place and didn’t dare question about the Longevity drugs or about life on the Outside. She was content to be a good servant someday to a Legal human.

Then came Peter. He was a new Surplus on Surplus Hall, discovered on the age of fifteen. And he told her the most amazing stories. About life on the Outside, about being free. And most importantly, about Anna’s parents, who’s looking for her. And Anna’s life would be forever changed.

Wow. What an amazing book. I read dozens of books about the future. I read the very awesome The Giver series by Lois Lowry. Recently, I read Delirium by Lauren Oliver about a distant future where love is treated as a disease. I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan about a distant future where zombies have taken over the world. In short, I read a lot of books about the future.

But this book really got to me. The plot is great, but it’s not the most important thing for me. For me, there are two things about this book that made it absolutely amazing. The world building, and the characterization.

The world building for me is just amazing. I always love books about the future because the world they described is often fascinating. And I love it here as well. Mostly we were only shown life in the Surplus Hall for Anna, but sometimes we get a glimpse of the back story, about the history of the creation of the Longevity drugs. About the people and the country outside. About how the people there lived. The description of life in the Surplus Hall is equally amazing as well. I can picture it very well, and I read every last detail on the book without skipping even one paragraph. I love the world building here. It’s shown in glimpse at first, but with a very straightforward decription so that we can picture the scene very clearly in our mind.

The second is the charaterization. I love Anna. She’s amazing. We can read about her character development, about a girl who’s afraid to question everything around her, to a girl that’s brave enough to defy the authorities. But not even once I felt her characterization is unbelievable. Everything is progressing very naturally and I felt for her. I like Peter too, but the romance between Anna and Peter is not shown very much for my taste so their chemistry is not as strong as other books I’ve read.

Overall, this book benefit from great characterization and descriptive world building. I love this book, and I’m so delighted that this is a three book series. I’m looking forward to reading the next book soon. This is one dystopian book you won’t soon forget.

Delirium

Delirium (2011)

A novel by Lauren Oliver

Waktu edar : February 1st 2011

Waktu membaca : Februari 2011

Media membaca : ebook di Stanza for iPhone

Hal paling berkesan : beautiful writings, great dystopian world building

Love can make you do crazy things. We all know that. But this book takes it a step further. In this book, love is a disease. A deadly disease.

Lena lives in a future world where love, or amor deliria nervosa, is a disease. At the age of eighteen, everyone goes into surgery to remove this disease, called the cure. Everyone’s afraid of contracting it. The most deadly crime is to be caught with a member of the opposite sex. Singing, laughing too hard, or too-long hugs and kisses are forbidden. There are regulation officer that patrols the city to look for signs of the disease. If you want to read books, movies, and music, you have to search through the LAB (Library of Approved Books) and LAMM (Library of Approved Music and Movies) and you can download it throught the intranet. The officers patrol everything. They’re listening on phone conversations, through closed curtains, to make sure that everyone is safe from the disease. The required reading for health class are Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, to remind them of the dangers of love.

Before graduation, students are put through an evaluation, to determined whether they can go to college or not. The government also pick four possible match candidate that students can marry based on the evaluation performance. Everything is orderly and safe, and everything is determined by the government. All cities are enclosed in electric fence, where beyond lies The Wild, a place people used to live before the cure. No one ever went into the Wild because it is forbidden.

Lena can’t wait for her own surgery in three months. She lives with her aunt and two cousins after her mother commits suicide rather than give up on love. Lena is always teased at school because of her mother. The only best friend she had is Hana, and her little cousin that won’t talk, Grace.

And then, at the day of her evaluation, she met a boy. A part-time guard at the laboratory where she took her evaluation. The boy, Alex, is nineteen, and he had the three dot mark on his neck, the sign of someone who’s gone through the surgery. Before she realize it, she began spending more and more time with him, and two months before her scheduled surgery, she realized something. She fell in love.

Let me tell you all the reason why I love this book. When I first read about this book, I knew instantly that I’m gonna like it. I love dystopian book. A book about a future world where everything is so right but so wrong always fascinates me. Granted, this premise has been done many times last year. The genre dystopian YA is huge right now. And I have read similar books, like The Giver by Lois Lowry (awesome book and my most favorite dystopian YA), Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld (more action than drama, but awesome), and the latest is Matched by Allie Condie (in which the heroine is matched with a boy through evaluation, just like this one, but she fell in love with another boy). I thought I have had enough of dystopian YA.

But it turns out that I like this book. A lot. What I like most is the way that the author, Lauren Oliver, writes. It’s beautiful, like a beautiful prose, and it’s haunting and sad at the same time. This is her second book. Her first book is Before I Fall, about a popular girl who’s in a car crash and gets to relive the day she died over and over again. I love that book, and I love this book too. I think I have become a fan of Lauren Oliver.

And I love the world building. Lena’s world is not that different from ours in some places, but it’s a lot different in others. Because there is no love, a mother holding her crying child is considered a disgrace. Even husband and wives that kiss too long, or hug to deeply, can be considered under suspicion. I love how the book portrays Lena. In a way, she’s just an ordinary girl. But underneath, she is brave. And when she said I love you for the first time, my heart breaks.

And the romantic interest. Alex is a rebel, a bad boy. And bad boys are always delicious. I love their romance. It’s bittersweet. Although I feel like Alex as a character is underdeveloped a little bit. But I like their interactions.

I always like dystopian book. And this book is nothing original. But I still like it, because of how beautiful the writing is. I love it. And what I remember most is a quote that’s still haunting my mind even after I finish reading it.

I love you. Remember it. They cannot take it.

Hex Hall

Hex Hall

a novel by Rachel Hawkins

Waktu edar : March 2nd 2010

Waktu membaca : Januari 2011

Media membaca : ebook di Stanza for iPhone

Hal paling berkesan : a different look at a wizarding school

I love books about school. I love books about normal school, like The St.Clair series by Enid Blyton about boarding school in England or Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar about a school for rich kids in New York. I love abnormal school too. Books that come to mind is Harry Potter of course, about magical school. A couple of other is Knightley Academy by Violet Haberdasher about a school of Knights, Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter about a school of spies, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead about boarding school for vampires, Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund about a school of teen space pilots, and even My So-Called Death by Stacey Jay about a school of teen zombies.

To say that I love books about school is an understatement. My love for these books is equal to my love of Post apocalyptic books and romance books. Why do I love these books exactly? It’s because I love school. I love looking through the curriculum. My lifelong dream at elementary school is that an owl would come at my house and delivered my Hogwarts acceptance letter. I even downloaded Yale College Guide just so I can browse through the classes, even though in a million years I could never got into Yale. I love school.

And this is one more book about school. Hex Hall is a book about a school of witches actually. I am actually a little bit wary, because magic school is something that belongs to Harry Potter, and no book can surpass that. I’m afraid that this is just some copycat of Harry Potter. BUT it turns out that this book is so much different than Harry Potter and that to me is very impressive. The concept of witch in this book is so much different than Harry Potter, and even though it still can’t surpass Harry, didn’t even come close, but this is a hell of a fun book.

The book is a story about Sophie. She is a witch, but she lives with her mom, who’s not a witch. Her dad is a warlock (boy witch) but they’re divorced so Sophie was raised only by her mom. Because of some accident about a love potion gone horribly wrong, Sophie is sent to Hecate School for Prodigium. Prodigium is magical beings, consisting of witches, warlock, faeries, shapeshifter, and a little bit of vampire. In there she met her roommate, which also happens to be the only vampire on campus, a gorgeous warlock which also happens to be the boyfriend of the most gorgeous girl on campus (and the most bitchy), and mysteries about a dead classmate and an organization that is intend to kill her.

Okay, maybe the bit about organization that intends to kill her, bitchy and gorgeous classmate, and a hot guy is so cliche. But believe me when I say that the concept of witches in this book is original. The school doesn’t actually teach magic, because this is kind of a reformatory school. They teach boring subject like Magical History and Ancient Witch and Warlock of the 17th Century. But the school is portrayed really well and I like it, even though I personally want more description of the classes in the school. But I’m a school freak, so it’s different. Other people would have no problem about the descriptions.

Sophie, as a character, is not so memorable to me. That’s because I feel like I’ve read about characters like her a couple of times already. The world around her is the center of the story, but not her. I guess that’s why the book is titled Hex Hall I guess. Other characters, like the trio of gorgeous and bitchy girl, is just as unoriginal. It’s fun to read, but I’ve read dozens like them. The love interest, Archer Cross, is also that mysterious gorgeous bad boy, with a gorgeous bitchy girlfriend, that falls in love with the heroine eventually. Nothing original.Compared to other YA I’ve read recently, he falls flat. Wesley Rush from The Duff is as bad a boy can be, but he’s so damn hot because of his badness. Etienne St.Clair from Anna and the French Kiss meanwhile, is so nice and charming, and he’s hot because of how nice and charming he is. Archer Cross is kind of a cross between them, but because the author didn’t explore further about him, he’s kind of average in every way.

I guess this book falls above average. It’s even good, but it’s not very good. It’s a fun book, and I love the world building. But the character falls flat, and I didn’t exactly fall in love with the love interest. The book also have similarity with Jinx by Meg Cabot, but it’s distinct enough that I can enjoy it.

Overall, one more book I’ll add to my collection of books about school, and I’m looking forward to the sequel, Demonglass, coming out in 2011. But there’s a lot of better books out there, so if you want a quality read about witch and wizard, stick to rereading your Harry Potter book and you’ll be better off.

Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss

a novel by Stephanie Perkins


Waktu edar : 2 Desember 2010

Waktu menonton : Januari 2011

Media membaca : ebook di Stanza for iPhone

Hal paling berkesan : Etienne St. Clair! Such a gorgeous nice guy. Turns out not only bad boys can be hot, good boys can be equally as hot ;)

I never. NEVER. In all my years of reading, fallen completely in love with a character from a novel.

And I’ve read a LOT of romance books. I read mild ones, romance YA books, like The Princess Diaries or anything else by Meg Cabot. I love the hero in those books. I’ve read chicklits, like anything by Sophie Kinsella or Jennifer Crusie books. I love Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella, and I love the guy in the book. I’ve read steamy romance books too, like Harlequin or Historical Romance set in the English Victorian Era. I love the hero in Julia Quinn’s book. And even though I never did love the hero in harlequin books, because they’re too shallow for me, but I like them enough.

A couple months now, I have read a great many Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover type. And mostly it is YA, or Young Adult. Two books that I read and love is The Duff by Kody Keplinger and Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. Both are contemporary romance YA book, and both are absolutely delightful to read. But one thing they have in common is the amount of steamy scenes in them. Considering this is a YA book, it strikes me as unusual but overall I love these books and I love the heroes. I even gush never end about Wesley Rush on my review of The Duff.

But I NEVER fall completely in love with a book character like I did after I read Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I can’t even begin to start how delightful and charming Etienne St.Clair is. He’s just beyond word. A book character than can make someone melt, who knows?

I guess let’s start with the book before I start babbling about Etienne again.

Anna and the French Kiss is a book by debut author Stephanie Perkins, who’s been getting rave reviews everywhere on all my favorite book review blog. I put off reading this because a lot of the times contemporary YA lets me down. I prefer books about Post Apocalyptic World, or Fantasy nowadays.

Boy, am I missing out.

This book starts with something that is so cliche and so misguiding, because you must assume that this an average book just by reading the premise. Anna has been sent to a boarding school in Paris because her dad decides one day that she must be well cultured. In Paris, she meets a cute guy named Etienne St.Clair, and they flirt endlessly and play a game of will-they-won’t they. The problem is, he’s already got a girlfriend.

This has got to be the most cliche premise ever. It sounded like a premise for late night “Gala Sinema”.

BUT. Everything in this book has been put together perfectly. It may sound cliche on paper, but the execution is beautiful.

First up, Anna. She’s a wonderful person, not because she’s perfect, but because she’s flawed. She got on my nerve a couple times, but that’s how people are supposed to be. How she behave make me think that she’s my friend. One thing that I didn’t like so much is how they pictured Anna as beautiful though. Because I love a love story that thrive in spite of how usual or how bland the people look. That’s true love.

Next we have the setting itself. We don’t see much of Paris actually, because Anna prefer to do something else beside sightseeing. And I love that about her, because it’s her character. But the result is this book feels like it could be set anywhere. Maybe a boarding school in England or in America. It doesn’t matter, because the Paris setting wasn’t explored further, and it’s a huge loss for me. Paris is definitely a place that I want to explore further.

The last thing about Anna that I love is, she’s a film critic wannabe. She loves movie, she have her own blog, and she took freaking FILM THEORY AND CRITICS for her major in college. How awesome is that? Even I want to study that, it sounds awesome.

And the romance. Ooooh the romance. I love tension. Sexual tension or romance tension in books make me swoon the more when they finally get together. And this book got plenty of it. The relationship develop overtime, over some little things or over big things too. And the kiss is perfect. It’s swoon-worthy, and sounds so delicious. It’s just perfect. And just the right amount of steamy scene, which is no sex at all. They even have this sleepover together, which is basically they LITERALLY sleep together. It’s very cute and sweet.

The final thing about this book is of course Etienne St. Clair. He’s the most swoon-worthy guy I’ve ever read. I usually don’t like beautiful people cliche, but he’s the exception. He’s handsome, got great hair, nice and charming, everyone love him. Even Anna said he’s beautiful dozens of time in the book. Usually I hate this type of character. It’s vomit-inducing. But Etienne is just so charming, and so cute that I didn’t care. I still don’t like that Anna tell us he’s beautiful again and again though.

Because we’ve seen the relationship grow from little things, we saw Etienne and how great a guy he is. Even though one flaw of him that I hate is he had a girlfriend! I hate cheating people but OMG Etienne is so hot and charming that he made me overlook that.

Bottom line, this is a cliche book done right. You won’t find an original plot here. You won’t find some heavy book. This is a light romance, with a hero that can make you swoon, and characters you’d be delighted to have as your friend. And don’t forget the very delicious romance ;)

The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

A novel by Kody Keplinger

Waktu edar : 7 September 2010

Waktu menonton : November 2010

Media membaca : ebook di Stanza for iPhone

Hal paling berkesan : The adorable bad boy, Wesley Rush :)

The DUFF. Designated Ugly Fat Friend.

Do you ever feel like you’re the ugly one among your friends? It’s not that you’re ugly or fat, it’s just that your UGLIER and FATTER than all your BFFs. A lot of people have days like that. Days when you feel like crap and just felt ugly. I’m sure most girls have days like that. Your thigh are as big as a cow, you have a zit in your face, or you look just plain ugly. I’m sure that no matter how beautiful you are, at least once in your life, you’ve had days like that. Days when you feel like crap.

Bianca had days like that too. Her friends are all skinnier and prettier than her. She’s not unactractive, but let’s just say she’s not gonna attract attention when she’s with her friends.

One night when she’s out with her oh-so-gorgeous friends, the notorious womanizer Wesley Rush came to her and explain that to him, she’s a DUFF. Designated Ugly Fat Friend. The one that every group of friends had. The one who’s uglier and fatter than any of them. And she replied with pouring her coke on his face.

And that’s what’s good about this book.

Okay, let’s rewind.

This is a YA book, or Young Adult book. It’s one of my guilty pleasure to read YA book, but I mostly read fantasy or supernatural. Only a couple books and a couple of authors that I read and enjoyed in the contemporary genre. And this book, I enjoyed. Very much so.

This book, at first glance, is just a typical book. The bad boy who’s so irresistibly handsome. The girl who made him change. It all sounds like a premise of your typical romance book. Oh, but it’s so much more.

For starter, Bianca is not your typical heroine. She’s smart, cynical, snarky, and she doesn’t let anyone treat her like crap. She stands up for herself. And maybe more conventional reader will argue with the choices she made, but I understand perfectly. Sometimes life just gets unbearably hard, and you just got to run away for a while.

And next, the friends. The oh-so-gorgeous friends. They’re not bitchy, they’re not shallow. They’re nice. They love Bianca. And they’re genuinely good friends. Really good friends. When I read it, it reminds me of my friends. My true friends, the one that knew my deepest darkest secret and still love me for it anyway.

And here comes the love interest. Wesley Rush. WOW. He’s everything you wanted in a bad boy. Reading this, I realize once again why a lot of girls fall for bad boy. They’re just so.. irresistible. It’s like a car crash. A car crash is messy and dangerous, but when you encounter car crash on the road, you just can’t resist to look. And this bad boy turned good.. WOW. I think I may be falling in love a bit with a character from a book. It reminds me of bad boys in my past. Bad boys is dangerous… but they’re exciting as hell.

Probably the most controversial one, is the level of sex and profanity in here. It’s a YA book, but it’s for older YA. There’s a lot of sex scene in here. And I’m saying A LOT. People who took offense in that kind of thing would surely be put off by this book. A lot of reviews I read said that the depiction of teenage sex in this book is really realistic. Maybe it is in America, but it sure as hell not in Indonesia. And the constant swearing. Fuck. Damn. Shit. Personally, I didn’t took offense about this in the book, mostly because I think that it is appropriately placed. But it’s just me.

This book really spoke to me in a lot of way. When I think about it, we are all DUFFs. This book never really said literally that Bianca is fat and ugly. This book only said that she FEELS fat and ugly. And God knows how many times I feel fat and ugly beside my friends. My friends that, doesn’t matter how gorgeous and prettier and skinnier they are, is my best friends. The one who stood by me no matter what I told them, or what I’ve done. They’re just there for me, no questions asked.

And a lot of us knew what it’s like to fall in love with a bad boy. A boy who treats you all wrong, but there’s something. Something that draws us near. We hoped that we’re the girl who’s gonna change this bad boy, but what we got is a broken heart. Okay maybe it’s getting too personal for me, but what I’m saying is, in a way, a lot of girls feel that they’re DUFFs.

And actually, how can you not melt when a cute bad boy says

Wesley Rush doesn’t chase girls, but I’m chasing you.

Uglies

Waktu edar : 8 Februari 2005

Waktu membaca : Setahun yang lalu

Media Membaca : Ebook

Hal paling berkesan : Gambaran dystopian future disini. Dunia dimana semua orang cantik itu disturbing tapi keren.


Is it not good to make society full of beautiful people?


Salah satu buku science fiction favorit saya. Jangan tertipu dengan labelnya, YA ( young adult) karena buku ini adalah salah satu buku dengan implementasi ide yang sangat hebat dan dunia yang menyeramkan tapi bagus yang pernah saya baca.

Buku ini bercerita tentang Tally Youngblood, seorang remaja yang hidup di sebuah dunia dimana setiap seseorang berumur 16 tahun, dia menjalani operasi yang mengubah dia menjadi 'Pretties' yang memiliki wajah dan tubuh sempurna tetapi sama. Sebelum berumur 16 tahun, setiap orang adalah 'Uglies' dan bertempat tinggal di Uglyville sedangkan para 'Pretties' bertempat tinggal di New Pretty Town. Sejak kecil Tally menantikan datangnya hari dimana dia menjalani operasi untuk menjadi 'Pretty'. Sebulan sebelum dia menjalani operasi itu, dia mendapat teman baru bernama Shay, yang anehnya tidak mau menjadi Pretty. Shay mengajak Tally untuk pergi ke markas para pemberontak. Ketika suatu kejadian memaksa Tally untuk mencari markas persembunyian pemberontak itu, Tally menemukan sesuatu yang akan mengubah pandangannya tentang Ugly dan Pretty selamanya.

Yang membuat saya sangat terpana dengan buku ini adalah dunia dimana Tally tinggal. Sedikit demi sedikit, kita bisa melihat seperti apa dunia dimana Tally tinggal. Kita diajak mengendap - endap mengelilingi New Pretty Town, menjelajahi dunia luar dimana kita diperlihatkan puing puing dari kehidupan yang lalu, yang menyadarkan kita bahwa dunia Tally berada pada dunia yang sama dengan kita. Dunia Tally yang diperlihatkan dalam novel ini benar - benar detail dan menarik.

Dalam buku ini ada beberapa momen menegangkan, momen lucu, dan juga banyak momen yang membuat kita berpikir. Tema yang diangkat buku ini, tentang apakah menjadi cantik memang sepenting itukah, sangat relevan.

Pada dasarnya buku ini memang buku teenlit. Tapi menurut saya buku ini lebih baik jika dikategorikan science fiction. Dunia yang dibangun di novel ini menggugah rasa ingin tau saya dan menahan saya untuk tetap membaca sampai akhir.

Ide cerita novel ini sebenarnya diambil dari sebuah episode The Twilight Zone yang berjudul In The Eye of the Beholder. Jadi sebenarnya idenya tidak seoriginal itu. Tapi implementasi dari ide itu, dengan dunia yang benar - benar hidup, membuat saya terpukau.

Buku ini adalah buku pertama dari sebuah seri yang dilanjutkan dengan Pretties, Specials, dan Extras. It's a great series, dan untuk saya tidak rugi untuk dibaca. Tapi jika ingin mencoba dulu, baca saja yang pertama, Uglies. I assure you, you won't be disappointed.