Uglies -- Scott Westerfeld

Everyone wants to be pretty. And in Tally's society, everyone gets to be. At age 16, everyone in Uglyville undergoes a surgery to turn them pretty -- a term defined over years and by determining the "ideal" look -- and they move into New Pretty Town where life is one big party. Nobody in New Pretty Town is jealous of anyone else, because everyone is pretty and nobody is ugly. And Tally can't wait to be turned pretty and make her move into New Pretty Town where she can join her best friend Peris who turned 16 a few months before she did. But then Tally meets Shay -- another Ugly who shares her same birthday. And Shay doesn't want to be pretty. Shay wants to be herself. And Shay wants to escape to the place called The Smoke, the place of legend where Uglies have run to in order to avoid the surgery to become pretty and where no one is "ugly" because no one is "pretty". When Shay leaves and invites Tally to join her, Tally is confused and frustrated that her new best friend wouldn't want to become pretty, and Tally turns her down. As Tally counts down the few remaining days toward becoming pretty, she misses Shay and their adventures, but she eagerly awaits her reunion with the now-Pretty Peris.

Tally's 16th birthday, which should have brought the coveted surgery, instead brings a thing of dread. Tally is transported to Special Circumstances and given her worst fate: a lifetime of ugly if she doesn't travel to The Smoke and betray Shay. With her life-long dream on the line, Tally determines to bring Shay back to Uglyville so that she can be turned pretty, but when she reaches The Smoke, she learns that her whole life back in the city has been full of half-truths and deceit. And she learns horrible truths about what all the surgery entails, and what all is changed on the people who become pretty. And she no longer knows if she wants to become pretty, because with the help of her new friend David, she realizes that, maybe, she already is.