The Darkest Minds: Book 1 (The Darkest Minds, #1)

by Alexandra Bracken

The first book in the heart-stopping The Darkest Minds trilogy, also now a major movie, from the bestselling author of Lore.

Ruby is sixteen. She is dangerous. And she is alive. For now.

A mysterious disease has killed most of America's children. Ruby might have survived, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse than a virus: frightening abilities they cannot control. Pressured by the government, Ruby's parents sent her to Thurmond, a brutal state 'rehabilitation camp', where she has learned to fear and suppress her new power. But what if mastering it is a whole generation's only chance for survival?

'A riveting emotional read that kept me on the edge.' - Melissa Marr, author of Wicked Lovely

Alexandra Bracken is the New York Times bestselling author of Passenger, Wayfarer and The Darkest Minds series. Visit her online at www.alexandrabracken.com and on Twitter @alexbracken.

• ISBN10: 178654024X
• ISBN13: 9781786540249
• Publish Date: 17 November 2016 (first published 18 December 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Quercus Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

I’ve had The Darkest Minds sitting on my Kindle since it was free on Amazon back in November, and I had totally forgotten all about it until my partner for a TBR Pal group chose it for my April read. I’m glad someone nudged me in its direction because it turned out to be a great read.

The Darkest Minds reminds me a bit of a darker, grittier version of X-Men, where instead of having someone teaching you how to use your gifts people fear you and choose to imprison you (which does happen in X-men on occasion). Ruby is one of those with gifts, and at the start of the book she is stuck in one of those imprisonment camps, where she has learned to go unnoticed as much as possible in order to survive. I really love the whole idea of powers and that instead of their being a ton of different abilities there are about 5 types that manifest, and though they are basic in ideas the characters make them seem incredibly cool. I really love the struggle Ruby has with her powers, and how instead of completely feeling at ease with them she sees it as something to avoid using. I know I personally would be ecstatic, but it’s awesome to see a character who actively fights it but has to come to terms with it eventually. Despite her willingness to stand out or use her powers Ruby is still a fighter and purely independent , and I liked that she felt confident in her ability to protect herself and others.

I fell in love with the other three main characters as well. Suzumae (Zu) with her rubber gloves and infectious personality, Liam with his upbeat and quirky conversations, and Chubs…who is basically me in book form. He’s probably my favorite in fact. I love his intelligence and his sarcasm, I’m even fond of his lack of trust in others…because I totally understand that. There was one character I hated immediately, but I won’t say his name because of the risk of spoilers. I wanted to kick him…hard…probably numerous times just to get the point across…such a creep.

The pacing of this is fairly quick and quite the page-turner, with only a few slow moments here and there to help set a scene or give the characters a bit of time to breathe and recoup. I really like the way the story is going, though oddly enough I don’t really know what the overarching story is going to be for the series, so it should be a lot of fun to continue this one.

[pagingserenity]

The Darkest Minds was truly an awesome, unpredictable read. I loved the characters, though they had some flaws, and the relationships that developed between them. I loved the world building and how everything made sense at the end even though the ending was bittersweet.

To read my full review (it's longer and more detailed), visit Paging Serenity.

[neddieb]

entertaining

Loved the characters. I did find that sometimes I was lost, like the story was chopped up here and their, but I was able to understand those choppy parts I read as I continued to read.

[mary]

This high quality young-adult dystopian novel features relatable characters with believable relationships and writing that is generally engaging and occasionally lovely, despite there being some weak points.

My favorite part of the book is the world it is set in. It is set in a near-future dystopian America, in which a mysterious disease known as IAAN has ravaged the population. Apparently when children hit puberty they either die from the disease or survive with amazing brain powers. These children have been rounded up and are classified as a color bases on their powers. For instance Blues are telekinetic, Oranges have mind powers, yellows can manipulate electricity. Reds are the most dangerous, but we have yet to find out what their powers actually are. And Greens... I believe have an extremely high level of intelligence.

The children are put into what are effectively concentration camps, grouped according to color. Meanwhile, the rest of America has been isolated by the world and has fallen into economic disaster. Which I think are both very realistic things to happen if this world came true.

Now the protagonist of this novel, Ruby is an Orange with no control over her powers but she manages to use them inadvertently and is able to get herself classified as a Green. There is so much subtext in the world but we don't get to explore it as much as I would like, hopefully in the next two books to follow this world will be built up more.

I also really enjoyed the characters in this book, especially the group of kids that Ruby ends up with. Liam, Chubs, and Zu are a little crew of misfits and I found all of them totally endearing. Of the three, I think Chubs was my favorite. Zu was absolutely heartbreaking once we found out her story and Liam was gallant and heroic. But I really enjoyed Chubs realism and love for knowledge. I was less fond of Ruby, I enjoyed the journey she goes on, but I didn't feel true attachment for her until the end, when her story was revealed. Then it made sense of why in the beginning she was full of hesitation and doubt, I can't imagine the pain of what she went through at such a young age. With anything traumatic that happens, it takes time to heal, especially considering these are children. But of course she becomes a strong character at the end of the book and I'm excited to see how she grows throughout the series.

Overall this novel revolves around these characters finding the Slip Kid, a sort of mythic figure who runs a camp for the kids that the government isn't involved in. I was completely engaged in this quest and of course the ending of this novel was very action packed.

I thinks this novel has a great dystopian foundation (one of my favorite genres) and I hope the author really develops the world. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series very soon.

[jnikkir]

Review: THE DARKEST MINDS by Alexandra Bracken Wow… what took me so long to pick this one up, I ask you? But that seems to be the trend with me and books lately – either I’m reading one that’s brand new, or I’m reading one that has been out for what seems like forever and am the last one to jump on the hype. I mean, I’m not pulling my hair out that I waited this long – the book was really good, but it wasn’t perfect for me. I am sort of glad I waited, because now I don’t have to wait very long for book 2 – which is a very good thing.
 
The Darkest Minds follows Ruby, a 16-year-old girl living in a country (the US) which has been subjected to a terrible disease that killed most of the country’s children – and left the rest of them with powers that terrify the adults who are left. She and all of the other kids have been put into “rehabilitation” camps that are supposedly helping the kids (spoiler: they’re not). But she’s given a split second to escape the camp she’s in (Thurmond), and she takes it – luckily running into a few other kids who are on their way to an almost legendary safe haven for people like them, called East River.
 
( Continue reading... )

[Stephanie]

The best thing about the Darkest Minds was that no one suggested it to me. I had no predisposition about what I would find behind its pages. No lofty goals it would have to meet. Even better, it wasn’t toted around as the ‘next Twilight’ or the next ‘Hunger Games’. I also have never read anything else by Alexandra Bracken, so there was nothing to compare it to. It had everything I wanted visually — a catchy cover, and more intriguing synopsis. So while the Darkest Minds had no expectations to hit, it seemed to surpass them with flying colors (You’ll eventually get why that is funny later.)

Set in a future America, children are the target of an unseen virus. Between the ages of eight and twelve, the virus can kill a child with no warning. But those who are not infected, the children who don’t suffer some horrible death, develop psychic abilities (also known as Psi). Human nature tends to make people crazy for things they don’t understand and of course, no one knows how to handle the Psi — instead, their idea is to place them in work camps for experiments!

Meanwhile, America is on an economic downward spiral.. We are past recessions, folks. We are in straight up metamorphosis into a third-world country that even Canada has closed itself off from. You know we’re in trouble now.

More at BOOKISH reviews

[ladygrey]

2nd Reading********
I decided to reread The Darkest Minds for a couple of reasons. First, to finish the series since the 4th book is finally out. Second, because the movie came out this summer and so it seemed like a good time to refresh my memory.

Color me unimpressed. I think in part because I knew what was going to happen and since I wasn't rushing headlong into the story to find out what happens next I noticed things I didn't the first time around.

The writing wasn't great. It wasn't awful. There were a few attempts at some nice description here and there. But the settings were overly descriptive which bored me. And there were paragraphs of introspection in between lines of dialog which fractured the whole conversation and made me reread pages a couple of times. It's hard to get into a story when you have to keep going back to figure out what the author is saying. Also, it's hard to get into a story when the action doesn't make any sense. Like someone puts on a baseball cap then leans their head against a car window - except the bill would get in the way so how is that supposed to happen. Or it'll say something doesn't do something but then the next paragraph is what they're doing with them. There were at least a dozen places where I had to reread the action because it didn't make sense and finally I'd give up and move on.

The references to Watership Down were too much - like get your own theme. And the constant name dropping of songs and bands felt like it was trying too hard to be cool. To be fair, I’m tired and my patience is shot.

And the references to Watership Down made it feel unoriginal - like get your own theme. And the constant name dropping of songs and bands felt like it was trying to hard to be cool. To be fair, I’m tired and completely out of patience.

I feel like the whole story could have been more concise - which perhaps is about the editor more than the author.

The biggest disappoint, though, is what is becoming more and more of a common problem - I don't particularly like the heroine. I don't dislike Ruby, but I'm severely unimpressed with her. And as is also common, the supporting characters are what make the book interesting. Liam, Chubs, even Clancy is a compelling 'character' that I'd like to see more of in future books.

But as much as I criticize, I didn't despise this book. There were a few scenes I liked - Liam and Ruby in the van that night when he said he wasn't mad - in the forest when he gets her memory - the whole thing about no lies in the space between them.
And I'm curious to see what happens next - if Bracken will pay off Ruby's 'plan' at the end because I'm not sure she's as smart or intentional as she tries to come across in the last few pages. We'll see. Because, of course, impressed or not I'm going to read the rest of the series.

1st Reading********
This is actually a remarkably good book. And I only seem surprised because I didn't think so at first.

In some ways the story doesn't really get going until a hundred pages in or more. All the early stuff is important world and character building but its kind of slow. The interment camp is well portrayed and dark and there's no humanity in it; which is not generally the sort of thing I enjoy. Then it's all confusion and action for a bit. And then it gets interesting.

The primary characters are well developed and interesting. The plotting and pacing is fantastic. Even though it took me days to read I never got bored or was waiting for something to happen. The story turned unexpectedly and changed and gave the characters room to grow.

Ruby, especially, progresses so much through the course of the novel. But almost imperceptibly so you don't even realize until the end how very different she is from the beginning. And Liam. Such a good guy and a good, realistic, flawed hero. And Chubs was awesome too. The ending was just so good and gave meaning to different things in the story which is what a good climax is supposed to do. Oh, the ending! So astute and so perfect and I didn't see it coming. It was kind of awful.

And I really liked the friendships, especially that the romance grew believably out of a good friendship. I liked how real they were - that they fought with each other and protected each other. Good friendships are hard to find in YA.

It's interesting because I didn't think I was loving the characters or the plot until I finished it and recognized that its such a well constructed story. I'm just left impressed with how well told it was and how much I did enjoy the characters without even realizing it.

[kimbacaffeinate]

One of the reasons I began reading young adult novels was because of my love of the dystopian genre. When I read the synopsis for the Darkest Minds I knew I had to read it. Bracken has written a clever tale intertwined with paranormal and science fiction elements. Creating a horrifying dystopian world where children are feared and most of America is brainwashed into believing the government is helping their children. This was a brilliant read with fleshed out characters that held me captive.

A rare virus is killing children around their tenth birthday. The government and schools have sent home letters with warning signs. They encourage parents to register if they notice any symptoms. What they don’t tell them is that they don’t care about the ones who die but the ones who live. When Ruby awakes on her tenth birthday, something horrible has happened and her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. She ends up being taken to a rehabilitation camp and the tale that unfolds held me captive till the last page.
I really became immersed in the tale and a lot of that had to do with the characters themselves. Ruby, Liam, Chubby and Zu were all unique and so fleshed out that they became very real to me. I love when that happens and I found myself swept up in what happens to them. Bracken slowly revealed each character to us, peeling back their layers to expose their raw feelings, fears and personalities. The way the characters interacted and drew strength from each other was so well done and believable. The romance was sweet, tender and tore my heart up.

World building is so important to me, and Bracken did a fantastic job. She reveals the world to us as the tale unfolds. She utilizes the show don’t tell method that I prefer as this allows me to knit the pieces together creating the world in my mind and breathing life into the pages. I loved the dark, gritty, violent world she has created and want to know more. The characters pop against this backdrop, making their experience all the more real. The ending flat out made me cry, no lie and I cannot wait to get my hands on book two as this tale is far from over.

Fans of dark dystopians and fleshed out characters who like a little paranormal woo-woo weaved into their tale are going to flip over The Darkest Minds. Book two and three have yet to be titled but are scheduled to release in 2013 and 2014. I look forward to reading more of Bracken’s work.
Copy received in exchange for unbiased review and originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[Ashley]

Book Nook — Young Adult book reviews

My journey with The Darkest Minds was a strange and complex one. My enjoyment was all over the place: up, down, and everywhere in between. Since I'm a nerd, I don't have funny GIFs for you; instead, I have a graph:

My Enjoyment Levels — Monitored


The book started out pretty awesome. It put us right into the midst of things, it held back details to keep me interested.. it was great. But somewhere at the end of the beginning, my interest dropped off pretty hard. I felt like nothing was happening, it seemed like just a glorified road trip, I couldn't tell where the relationships were headed—or even where the plot was headed, and I didn't mind putting down the book. But at the end of the middle, things started picking up and getting intense again!

So let's try to break this down...

My first problem with the book is that we have very little back story. Or more accurately: it's there but it's never explained. We know that a disease killed off most of the child population. We know that the survivors have strange powers. We know that the government put those survivors in "rehabilitation" camps that were like prisons. The entire story is focused around these gifted children—Psi—seeking freedom and rights, but no one seems to question or wonder how they got those powers in the first place. And to be honest, that was my very first question. It's just like "Okay, so we all have these super crazy powers, we need freedom. That's all." Does no one care where they came from? Is no one curious as to how the heck these kids developed those powers?? We don't even get a hint that this question will be answered in the future; it was just ignored.

Also, one more quick note, the powers were honestly a bit confusing because kids are classified by colour: green, blue, yellow, orange, and red. I came to understand that the higher the colour, the more dangerous the powers, but it was never clearly explained what each colour is. It was vaguely hinted that certain powers had a certain colour (i.e. telekinesis = blue; something with electricity = yellow; power over the mind = orange;), but I would have liked a clearer explanation of each rank. Unless I'm retarded and somehow missed those explanations during one of the "enjoyment low points" when my concentration was off...

Moving on, I did not like the main character at all. Ruby was all about the pity parties. Her inner dialogue was constantly going on about how she's evil, she's dangerous, she's one of the bad ones, if her friends knew they would HATE HER, if anyone knew they would OUTCAST HER. Poor, poor Ruby. I'm trying hard to not sound like a bitch here, but oh my god, it drove me totally insane. And I felt like the 'big reveal' wasn't even that big of a deal. I mean, yeah it was scary and weird and okay, she's powerful.. but come on. We had a front row seat to her pity party every single chapter. It got old after a while and I just wanted to sew her inner dialogue's mouth shut.

My last complain before we move onto the good stuff: the romance. The romance in this book had zero build up, and then it popped up out of nowhere. I guess it wasn't quite insta-love because Ruby and Liam were travelling together for a while, but they spent all that time travelling with next to zero flirtation or sexual tension, and then they were suddenly like, "Oh darlin', I've wanted you all along!" (Yes, he says "darlin'", I thought that was weird too.) To be fair, it wasn't horrible, it just could have had more build up. If the build up was better, I think it would have made an okay romance, especially because Liam is quite a likeable character (except for the "darlin'" thing, which made me feel like he was an 80 year old grandfather).

This is all starting to feel depressing, so let's talk about the good stuff! The overall story behind The Darkest Minds is really interesting; we have powers, mind control, manipulation, government agents, conspiracy, and more! My love of the plot is one of the reasons that I'm dying to know more about the back story.

Unfortunately, my favourite character is introduced towards the end so I'm hesitant to talk about him much, and my favourite part of him isn't even revealed until the very end! So I guess just know that there are a very wide variety of interesting and different characters. Some are annoying (like Ruby), but a lot of them have interesting personalities and they easily stand out from each other. Liam is sweet, determined, and a good leader—but he has flaws that you'll grow to love in some weird way. Chubs is totally weird and sometimes annoying, but he'll also grow on you.. especially near the end. And Zu is the most adorable character ever! I wanted to hold her, hug her, squeeze her, and protect her from the world.

I know I hated Ruby at the beginning, but to be fair, she did have some good character development. It kicked in really late, but by the end of the book, Ruby really turned around and became a powerful ass-kicker. Maybe not physically, but mentally.. if that makes sense. She accomplishes a lot and becomes a much stronger character. I really hope her new attitude carries through to the second book because she really turned into a character that I could easily love!

Overall, The Darkest Minds wasn't a bad book—I just wanted to see more from it. I wanted more explanations, more detail, and more answers. The story left off in a REALLY great place (and by "great" I mean it hooked me in and I want to keep reading), so that's very promising. I have some high hopes for book #2! The ending was set up in such a way that the second book could quite easily not be a 'filler'. Fingers crossed!

[Kelly]

10 stars!
I absolutely LOVED The Darkest Minds. From the first moment, I felt completely immersed and could barely put this book down. Incredibly addictive. It was breathtaking, devastating and beautifully written. I'm already eagerly awaiting the second book already... The ending! Oh bloody hell, it's killing me!