"Uglies" ($8, originally $13)
In this novel, Scott Westerfeld imagines a nightmarish society where beauty is the only thing that matters. Tally Youngblood lives in a postapocalyptic future world where teens, upon turning 16, receive a surgical procedure that makes them a "Pretty." Tally learns that the government nefariously uses these surgeries to brainwash its citizens to make them easier to control. Westerfeld's series also tells a coming-of-age story about a young woman protagonist, much like "The Hunger Games."
