Uglies is finally a movie!
Nearly 20 years after it was first published, Uglies has been adapted into a movie on Netflix! Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a young adult dystopian novel from 2005 which confronts the dangers with the beauty industry and how beauty culture negatively impacts teens’ self-esteem and health. In the world of Uglies, until you’re 16, you’re Ugly and live in dorms with all the other kids, but when you turn sixteen, you get to become Pretty. Becoming Pretty is a gift from the leaders of the city, a procedure where you are surgically made perfect and beautiful. Once you’re Pretty, you are allowed to live in The City and spend all your time partying and having fun. Tally can’t wait to become Pretty and spends her time waiting for her birthday and planning what she wants to look like in her new body. When her best friend runs away rather than become Pretty, she is given an ultimatum: find her friend and turn her in, or never become Pretty herself.
Here are four other dystopian novels from the 2000s that captured the attention of teen readers and would make excellent candidates for a movie adaptation.
Feed: Everyone has feeds, an implanted internet that lets them talk to friends (great!), look up whatever they want to know (useful!), shop whenever they want (convenient!) and shows them inescapable ads in their brain (annoying). On a trip to the moon, a virus infects Titus's friends, breaking their feeds (and their brains). Titus must find a way to stop it before he catches it too.
Gone: All the adults have vanished and the children and teens who are left are starting to develop strange powers. The kids build their own society where fights are getting bigger by the day, but when you turn 15, you disappear too.
Life as We Knew It: Miranda is living a normal life with her mom and brother when a meteor knocks the moon closer to Earth. That causes tsunamis that kill everyone on the coasts, earthquakes and volcanoes whose ash blots out the sun. Miranda’s family is living in their sunroom as society falls apart around them, but their stockpiled food is going to run out eventually.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox: In the not-too-distant future, Jenna Fox wakes up from a coma. She doesn’t remember anything at first, and as her memories return, she starts to doubt if they are really hers.
Which YA books do you want to see as a movie?
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