Books like Uglies
What should you read after Scott Westerfeld’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Scott Westerfeld
- 2005
- Young adult dystopia
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Uglies
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchDivergent
Veronica Roth
A city that sorts teenagers into permanent categories and a girl who does not fit the test. The same premise engine — a rite of passage that is really a control system.
- Mandatory beauty surgery at sixteen
- Prose that moves fast
- A society that edits your brain
- Faction system strains logic
Great matchThe Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
The book that made this whole shelf possible: a state that uses spectacle to keep everyone docile, and a girl who stops playing. Better written than most of its imitators.
- Prose that moves fast
- A society that edits your brain
- Body image treated as politics
- Much more violent
Best for the idea underneathThe Giver
Lois Lowry
A community that has removed pain by removing everything else, and a boy who starts to see colour. Uglies' central argument, made forty years earlier and in half the pages.
- A society that edits your brain
- Mandatory beauty surgery at sixteen
- Escaping to the Smoke
- Middle-grade voice throughout
Great matchDelirium
Lauren Oliver
A surgical procedure at a fixed age, performed for your own good, which removes something essential. Structurally the closest match in this list.
- Mandatory beauty surgery at sixteen
- A society that edits your brain
- Escaping to the Smoke
- Romance is the whole engine
Great matchMatched
Ally Condie
A society that assigns your partner, your work and your death date, and a girl who sees a second face flicker on her screen. Gentle, and very much in this tradition.
- A society that edits your brain
- Mandatory beauty surgery at sixteen
- Very little action anywhere
Worth a look — with a warningThe Maze Runner
James Dashner
Teenagers inside an engineered environment run by adults conducting an experiment. Faster than Uglies and considerably less interested in ideas.
- Prose that moves fast
- A society that edits your brain
- Prose is basic
Great matchLegend
Marie Lu
Two prodigies on opposite sides of a militarised state, one of whom has been lied to her whole life. Tight, well-plotted and quick.
- A society that edits your brain
- Prose that moves fast
- Betraying a friend to survive
- More thriller than dystopia
Worth a look — with a warningThe Selection
Kiera Cass
Competitive courtship in a caste-divided kingdom, dressed as dystopia. If beauty-as-currency was your hook, it is here; if you wanted the critique, it is not.
- Mandatory beauty surgery at sixteen
- Body image treated as politics
- Dystopian setting is decorative
Great matchThe 5th Wave
Rick Yancey
Trust is the weapon here rather than surgery, but the beat where a girl realises the person beside her was sent to use her is straight out of Tally's story.
- Betraying a friend to survive
- Prose that moves fast
- Alien invasion, not social control
Great matchRed Queen
Victoria Aveyard
A rigid hierarchy written into the body itself, and a girl who has to pretend to be something she is not while informing on people. Betrayal everywhere.
- Betraying a friend to survive
- A society that edits your brain
- Very familiar genre furniture
Great matchThe Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken
Teenagers with abilities the state has decided to warehouse, and a girl who cannot let anyone get close. Road-trip structure, strong emotional core.
- Escaping to the Smoke
- A society that edits your brain
- Darker than Uglies
Worth a look — with a warningThe Knife of Never Letting Go
Patrick Ness
A boy in a town where every thought is audible, discovering his whole history is a lie. The smartest book on this list and the most upsetting.
- A society that edits your brain
- Escaping to the Smoke
- Betraying a friend to survive
- An early animal death guts readers
What should you read after Uglies?
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is Divergent by Veronica Roth — a city that sorts teenagers into permanent categories and a girl who does not fit the test. The same premise engine — a rite of passage that is really a control system.
If what stayed with you was prose that moves fast, read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins instead: the book that made this whole shelf possible: a state that uses spectacle to keep everyone docile, and a girl who stops playing. Better written than most of its imitators. The Giver by Lois Lowry is the other strong option — a community that has removed pain by removing everything else, and a boy who starts to see colour. Uglies' central argument, made forty years earlier and in half the pages.
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