Title: The Darkest Minds
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Release Date: December 18th, 2012
When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that had killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control.
Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. She is on the run, desperate to find the only safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who have escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at having a life worth living.’
Summary from Goodreads.com
My Review: I picked up the Darkest Minds because I saw the news that is was going to be made into a movie, which always intrigues me, and I loved Passenger by Alexander Bracken, and wanted to see what some of her other books were like. The concept is quite interesting and heartbreaking at the same time. All of these poor children, who have survived a massive plague, only to be ripped from their families and put into camps where they are tortured and killed is not an easy thing to read about. Our main character, Ruby, was an amazing heroine. She has been put through hell, and when she comes out of it, she reacts realistically to situations. She does not magically transform and become better, but slowly comes into her own and gets her strength from within. I loved her, I loved how she matured and grew through this book and came to understand how strong she truly is.
There is a slow building romance in this book between Ruby and Liam, which was pretty adorable. I loved Liam, he tries so hard to take care of everyone around him first, but he has it bad for Ruby. It is pretty apparent from the beginning, but she is just too traumatized from everything going on to let that fire burn too quickly, which I appreciated. Ruby has been through a lot, and she needed to sort through many issues on her own before she could let someone else in to her world.
I absolutely loved the secondary characters as well, Chubs and Zu, they added comic relief in very tense moments, but were also well developed. I thought they made such an impact on the story and I loved all the page time that both of them got.
The only thing I would say negatively is that I thought it was a little too long. At almost 500 pages, it is a longer book and I do not think it needed to be that long to get across everything that was portrayed. I will be interested to see what it looks like when it is made into a movie, because I think it will speed up the plot and help move things along at a better pace.
Overall, I liked the Darkest Minds. I thought it was a good read and honestly I have already finished the series, so while I may have minor issues with it, I did enjoy the series as a whole. I wish someone had picked out a better cover for this series though, because you really have no idea what kind of book you are getting with this cover and it does not do the contents of the book justice at all. Now that I have finished with this series, I will be anxiously awaiting whatever Bracken will be writing next.
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