Rating: ★★★★
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. 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.
I went into The Darkest Minds with high expectations due to there being so much hype surrounding this series in the book community, and I can say that that the first book did not disappoint. Not really knowing much about the plot aside from the brief summaries I’ve seen, The Darkest Minds was not what I expected it to be at all, but in a really satisfying way. This book was the perfect thing to get me back into my curiosity for Dystopian worlds after dissociating myself away from them for a while.
The first and most important thing that should be mentioned about the book is the pacing throughout because some people might see this as a reason to be conflicted about their feelings towards this novel. From the first chapter, I was captivated to know more about what was going on this world because of the sudden action that opened up the first encounters with the main protagonist, Ruby, and the intense uncertainty of what was causing certain things to happen to the characters. However, the pacing of the story started to become slow burning as you got a few chapters in. At first it did feel like I had to push myself through some of the longer chapters, as it produced the vibe of a tense road trip between the characters rather than putting the characters into this Dystopian world. This slow pace was the main reason why I only gave this book four stars rather than five stars. Although the pace was slow at first, it picked itself up again to be thrilling and great about 240 pages in.
In my opinion, the best thing about this book are the characters that we were introduced to. Our main protagonist, Ruby, is portrayed as a strong and determined character who is willing to fight for the things she believes in, but throughout the book we also get to see a more fragile and lonely side to her that she tries her best to hide. A part of me believes that Ruby’s relationships with others, whether that be her friends or strangers, clouded her judgment to make problematic choices at times. Although she made some problematic choices, it didn’t stop me from really enjoying her presence as the main character. We are also introduced to three other somewhat main characters; Liam, Chubs and Zu. Liam and Chubs were by far my favourite characters because of their personalities and their close friendship with each other. Liam is an absolute sweetheart (yes I have fallen in love with him, I mean he says ‘darlin’ all the god damn time) who is very loving and protective towards the people he cares about. What I loved so much about his character was that he worked so hard to keep his small group as safe as he could, but never failed to make sure that his group stayed young – because in a world full of corruption, we have to remember that these are still young people trying to survive at the end of the day. Chubs and Zu were more sidelined characters, but their devotion to their relationship with each other and Chubs’ desire to be normal again was something that stuck with me throughout the novel. Alexandra did a really fantastic job at developing these characters over the course of one book by making them easy to connect with and easy to fall in love with.
Another element of this story that I really felt made the story enjoyable to read was the humor that was included. It’s very rare that a book actually has me laughing out loud, but this had so many strong humorous points that the laughter just came out naturally. The lighthearted humor and back and forth banter between the characters balanced out the action and darkness that the plot focused on, which is something that I needed in order to enjoy this book more.
Alexandra Bracken has an incredible writing style, which for me, made the world clearer to picture in my head and clearer to see development in the world as the story continued. The descriptions of the world that she gave created this strong image of a Dystopian America where there were dark settings, dangerous characters in the streets and attacks from out of nowhere. I was really intrigued by some of the themes that were included in the plot, such as romance, action, corrupt governments, terrorist organizations and kids with abilities.
Overall, I’m beyond glad that I picked up The Darkest Minds and glad that my reading experience with this book wasn’t a disappointment. The ending was shocking enough to make me want to go on and read more straight away. I have already read the second book in the series, Never Fade, and I loved that even more than this one so I should have a review for that one going up soon. I know that this series is being turned into movies so I really hope they don’t mess it up because I would really like to see a successful adaptation of this thrilling and dangerous world.
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