Darkest Minds, The-A Darkest Minds Novel, Book 1 (The Darkest Minds, #1)

by Alexandra Bracken

[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.