
We don't get to see a lot of the Specials Dr. The Special operation had given them more than just terrible faces" (33.9). We see this pretty clearly during the invasion of the Smoke when we find out that"they were superhumanly fast and strong. The Specials are a special case (oh, we hate ourselves for saying that). Boy, the future is totally unlike the present, right? The System: Specials So that's the big breakdown between these two types of characters: uglies spend their time pulling tricks (breaking the system in some way) while pretties spend their time partying (within the system) and being mean to kids who don't fit in. And then the pretties hunt her down while yelling "Piggy." And that is never a good sign. Pointing at the weird-looking kid is a sure sign of jerkhood.


When Tally crashes a fancy dress party with her pig mask, she sees,"Nothing but surprised looks and pointed fingers, and pretty faces" (2.22). Sure, they may be having fun (how can you not have fun with "safety fireworks" and bungee jackets?), but they don't seem so nice.

For instance, when we see post-surgery Shay, she's just come from a party-but not her first one: "This is not my first party tonight, you know" (46.25). In other words, she'd better do it now.Īnd then there are the new pretties, like Peris, who spend their days at parties instead of pulling tricks. As Tally tells Shay, "when you're pretty you might not need to play tricks and mess things up" (10.80). We might even say that tricks define uglies for instance, when the young uglies move in to the dorm and Tally is almost the last old ugly, she teaches them all her old tricks (11.5).

Almost all the older uglies we see in this book are trick-pulling pranksters, whether they know about the Smoke or not. Ready for a look into the Shmoop brain? Our real favorite characters are Sussy, An, and Dex, for one simple reason: no one remembers who they are, so it makes a devilishly hard quiz question.įine, we'll tell you: Sussy, An, and Dex are three uglies who help out the Smoke by pulling off (and getting other tricky uglies to pull off) a big distraction during the break-in at Special Circumstances. You could argue that the real important division in this book isn't between individual characters, but between different groups of characters: the uglies (who haven't yet been operated on), the pretties (who have been operated on), and the Specials (the law enforcers).
