Uglies
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50 free Uglies trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Scott Westerfeld's Uglies imagines a future city where every teenager is promised a new face, and where almost nobody asks what the promise costs. Tally Youngblood wants that new face more than anything, until a new friend called Shay starts asking awkward questions and then disappears. What Tally learns when she goes after her turns a story about looks into a story about freedom. This quiz covers the whole novel: the first part of the story, set in Tally's home city, then her journey and her weeks in the Smoke, and finally the rescue and the choice she makes on the last page. A handful of questions cover how the book came to be written, the later books in the series and the film adaptation. It is written as a multiple-choice comprehension check, so it works for a reader finishing the book, a class reviewing before a test, or a group that wants to quiz each other chapter by chapter. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Uglies, what hidden side effect of the pretty operation do David's parents reveal to Tally?
Lesions in the brain
Lesions in the brain leave most pretties placid and easy to control, while people whose jobs demand quick thinking are left without them.
Q 02In Uglies, which piece of jewelry given to Tally by Special Circumstances hides a tracking device?
A heart-shaped pendant
A heart-shaped pendant travels with Tally to the Smoke, and it is meant to reveal the hideout's location once she switches it on.
Q 03In Uglies, what does Tally do with her tracker that accidentally brings the Specials to the Smoke?
Throws it into a fire
Tally throws it into a fire to destroy it for good, but the heat of the flames switches the device on and gives the Smoke away.
Q 04In Uglies, what abandoned structure in the ruins does Shay teach Tally to ride on a hoverboard?
A roller coaster
A roller coaster in the dead city has a gap in its track, and Shay lets Tally reach the missing stretch without warning her.
Q 05In Uglies, what scornful name do people in Tally's time give those who lived before the collapse?
Rusties
Rusties is a term of contempt for the people of the distant past, who are in fact the book's own readers.
Q 06In Uglies, why does Tally give herself up and become pretty at the end of the book?
To test the cure
To test the cure, the Smokies need a willing volunteer, and Tally offers herself because she feels responsible for what her betrayal cost them.
Q 07In Uglies, at what age does every citizen receive the operation that turns an ugly into a pretty?
Sixteen
Sixteen is the age of the first operation, and further operations follow later in life as pretties grow older.
Q 08Which actress plays Tally Youngblood in the 2024 film of Uglies and was also its executive producer?
Joey King
Joey King was already a fan of the books before she signed on to star in the film.
Q 09In Uglies, what is the official reason Tally's society gives for making everyone pretty?
Equality
Equality is the official reason: if everyone looks alike, the thinking goes, nobody can be judged or favoured for their appearance.
Q 10In Uglies, which best friend of Tally has already been made pretty when the story begins?
Peris
Peris is three months older than Tally, so he had the operation first and moved across the river without her.
Q 11In Uglies, what awaits new pretties once they cross the river after the operation?
A life of parties
A life of parties with no duties at all is the reward, and it lasts until a second operation turns new pretties into working adults.
Q 12Which streaming service released the long-delayed film adaptation of Uglies in September 2024?
Netflix
Netflix picked up the rights in 2020, fourteen years after a Hollywood studio first bought them and the project stalled.
Q 13In Uglies, what must Tally agree to do before Special Circumstances will let her have the operation?
Lead them to Shay
Q 21In Uglies, what token of their bond does Tally keep after her best friend's operation erases his?
A scar on the palm
A scar on the palm marks the blood pact the two made to stick together, and his vanished when the operation gave him new skin.
Q 22In Uglies, what must lie beneath a hoverboard for it to stay in the air outside the city?
Metal in the ground
Metal in the ground is what keeps the boards up, so riders have to walk wherever there is none; the city itself sits on a steel grid.
Q 23In Uglies, how are the faces of the Specials designed to make ordinary people feel?
Afraid
Afraid is the intended effect: Specials are rebuilt to look beautiful in a predatory way, and their bodies are given superhuman abilities.
Lead them to Shay, or stay ugly for life: that is the deal, and it turns Tally into a spy inside the Smoke.
Q 14In Uglies, who runs Special Circumstances and denies Tally her operation until she cooperates?
Dr. Cable
Dr. Cable heads the agency, and it is she who later sends the Specials to destroy the Smoke.
Q 15In Uglies, what sets David apart from the runaway teenagers living around him in the Smoke?
He was born in the wild
He was born in the wild, the son of the two people who founded the Smoke, and has never lived in any of the cities.
Q 16In Uglies, what does the newly pretty Shay do when offered pills to undo the operation's effects?
Refuses to take them
Shay refuses to take them, saying she is happy as she is, and David's mother will not treat anyone who has not agreed to it.
Q 17In Uglies, what safety device lets Tally leap from a rooftop to escape a dorm in New Pretty Town?
A bungee jacket
A bungee jacket catches her just before she lands, but she can only get hold of one by setting off the building's alarm.
Q 18In Uglies, what unflattering nickname do other uglies use for Tally instead of her real name?
Squint
Squint is Tally's ugly nickname, part of a custom that keeps teenagers fixed on their flaws, though Shay prefers to use real names.
Q 19In Uglies, what coincidence do Tally and Shay discover while Shay is teaching her to hoverboard?
The same birthday
The same birthday means the two new friends are due to have the operation on the very same day.
Q 20In Uglies, what does Shay leave with Tally before running away, in case Tally decides to follow?
A coded note
A coded note gives the route as a string of riddles, and Special Circumstances believes only Tally can work them out.
Q 24In Uglies, what catastrophe ended the car-driving civilization whose ruins lie near Tally's city?
Oil-infecting bacteria
Oil-infecting bacteria made the world's petroleum unstable, so cars and oil fields exploded and food could no longer be transported.
Q 25In Uglies, which founder of the Smoke dies after being taken prisoner by Special Circumstances?
Az
Az was David's father, and David only learns of the death from his mother as the freed Smokies make their escape.
Q 26In Uglies, which animal's face is on the mask Tally wears to slip through New Pretty Town?
A pig
A pig mask spat out by a passing parade machine is her disguise, and it only draws stares because everyone else is in formal dress.
Q 27In Uglies, what does Tally take off before sneaking out at night so that the city cannot track her?
Her interface ring
Without her interface ring the city loses sight of Tally, but elevators also ignore her and traffic cannot sense that she is there.
Q 28In Uglies, what slang name is used for late pretties, the oldest of the city's age groups?
Crumblies
Crumblies is what their own children call late pretties, who can have further treatments that stretch their lives far beyond a normal span.
Q 29In Uglies, which engineered flower spreads like a weed and is burned back before it kills all else?
White tiger orchids
White tiger orchids were once rare and precious, until someone altered them to grow easily and they smothered whole landscapes.
Q 30In Uglies, who rescues Tally from a burning field of flowers on her journey to the Smoke?
Rangers from another city
Rangers from another city lit the blaze themselves to hold back an invasive weed, and they are on friendly terms with the Smokies.