tldr; holy moly.
possible spoilers under the cut, view at own discretion!
✽ the statsbook: the darkest minds
author: alexandra bracken
genre(s): fantasy, dystopian, romance
year published: 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.
the darkest minds is told by the female protagonist. the author seemed to separate from detailed descriptions of the scenery to the extent where sometimes i couldn’t quite place the characters. instead, she appeared to trade pushing me into the scene itself for pushing me into the mind of the protagonist which, considering the context of the story, was fitting.
maybe it’s because i’m left reeling from penryn & the end of days but i think use of stronger descriptions may have helped to bolster the female protagonist’s fear or send alarm bells through my head. i felt this was somewhat missing but then again, i think if i were to reread this novel after having read something lighter and fluffier, my opinion may probably change. the degree of horror was just small in comparison to nightmares in angelfall.
(also some of the sentences had potential to be something deep and powerful but the second half of the sentence meant that the thing as a whole literally didn’t make sense)
as for the title, it is fitting for the themes in this first novel in the series!
✽ the charactersour protagonist is sixteen-year-old ruby. she is afraid, pretty self-absorbed and always seems to be overthinking – pretty understandable given her experiences but not really any less irritating. she was so reluctant and it was frustrating! i feel that especially at the beginning, we didn’t really know exactly how she perceived the other characters. her feelings for the male support were lukewarm at best throughout and suddenly skyrocketed – there wasn’t that logical progression. ruby was confusing! very different from the badass girls in typical YA novels and her progress was so, so slow. i couldn’t really agree with her decisions either.
onto the squad! liam is your Angel of Good, hero-complex nice boy. despite this, i didn’t feel as though he really shined in the story. i was way too preoccupied with ruby and the absence of her thoughts of him further pushed me away. added to the fact that ruby wasn’t suspicious of him despite his perpetually optimistic, caring and happy appearance; he just didn’t seem like a very complex character.. or perhaps i was being led on? on the other hand, i felt as though i understood chubs better. we could see his perception of ruby change throughout the story and it was believable – not like suddenly a switch was flipped and he started to like her; it was gradual and progressive. in contrast, the switch flipping seemed to happen with zu. there was such a drastic change in such a short amount of time, i wasn’t sure if it was very believable. despite these ambiguities, the team dynamic was relatively clear and i didn’t really dislike the bunch!
“Liam was a great many things, but mysterious and unpredictable weren’t included in that deck of cards.” – The Darkest Minds
in books i’ve read previously, even when characters had experienced events and circumstances beyond what was typical in the modern day, it was somewhat simpler to relate to them. i felt more passionate and supportive of their causes. perhaps it’s that the extent of the damage done on the characters was so extreme that i struggled to relate to the characters here. rather than igniting sympathy towards them, i just felt frustrated.
✽ the universeholes. lots of holes. i still don’t have a good picture of the universe they live in. it’s confusing. the imagery paints a picture of a deserted, post-apocalyptic america but then the government is relatively intact and really only the kids are missing. what happened to the rest of the population? we got a pretty good description of the environment within the camps, but when the story moved out of these establishments, it dissolved.
i think overall, the premise had potential. a world where children developed one of five powers at the onset of puberty. a world where these children are feared and taken away for rehabilitation, only that there are serious conspiracies and instead almost 2% of the population in that age range still live. there was definitely potential!
✽ the story“ “But hey, what’s life without a little adversity?”
That had to have been the fakest attempt at optimism since my fourth grade teacher tried reasoning that we were better off without the dead kids in our class because it’d mean more turns on the playground swings for the rest of us.” – The Darkest Minds
added to the lack of depth of the characters, i felt this book betrayed its potential as the story progressed really slowly – to the point where i was constantly distracted during my reading and almost restless! and we end up almost exactly(!!!!!) where the book started. i think this would have been vaguely forgivable if we had seen drastic developments in the characters, but we didn’t really!
moreover, the climax was so.. anticlimactic? considering the earlier fight scene (which was pretty good!) there was potential for a big fight scene at the end but it just wasn’t there and it passed so quickly.
✽ the bottom linethere didn’t seem to be a real central theme but if i were to identify one, it would be societal corruption. i felt as though the darkest days could have really explored the theme in great depth. there was potential for this to really drive the setting for the plot. added to this, character-based themes like fear or loneliness could have also been at the forefront and hashed out more to give ruby some depth. i understand that given her circumstances and that’s she’s pretty much alone, it makes sense for her to be quite self-absorbed, but i hope that as the series progresses, she also progresses and develops as a character!
considering it has been translated for a film to be released later this year, i had really high hopes! i think i will still go to watch the movie to see what the film team’s take on the story was (and also the cast because mandy moore and amandla stenberg!!) but having finished this first book, i’m unfortunately leaning towards not continuing with the series.
“We’ll just have to try to make better mistakes tomorrow.” – The Darkest Minds
