In the Afterlight (The Darkest Minds, #3)

by Alexandra Bracken

[ladygrey]

I may have enjoyed this one the most in the series. Partly because I'd figured out to skip over the paragraphs of description and Ruby's musing. Partly because there were fewer paragraphs of setting description because they were (mostly) in one place. And partly because ruby's musing weren't so mind numbing - they were less repetitive (or I skipped over the repetitive parts) and more of the story was focused on the relationships of these kinds and the changing emotional reality as they made decisions and took control over their own fate.

Clancy wasn't as interesting as I wanted him to be. He was clever and cruel and powerful which meant he could have been a great villain or foil but he was pretty one note, only ever dominating everyone's mind - he never chose not to use his power or showed any different shades of being a character that would have made him so much more interesting.

And the power structure! Liam as a good leader because he listened to people and explained himself, what he was doing and why it mattered. Ruby and Cole were bad leaders because they didn't listen to anyone else, they didn't feel the need to help anyone else understand why or sway them to their side - they commanded rather than led and it was annoying that they then got so upset that no one wanted to follow them.

And Cole! What was the point - both from a narrative stand point and as an author? Why would Clancy send Cole off just to get him killed? What did he get out of it at all? Cole wasn't an enemy he needed to get rid of. It didn't get Clancy out of the sell or release the Reds to then run around doing his bidding. It would have made more sense to send Cole down there to get captured and trained. But just sending him off to die for no reason at all?
And as author, it didn't get her anything either. All of Liam's grief happened in like 1 page and then everything else was off screen. Ruby grieved a little but then everything got going and she barely looked back. There was a brief emotional hit but then what did Bracken get out of the reader by killing him? How did it improve the story? Was she just done with him and needed to move him off the board? Was she trying to raise the stakes? Because this was already established as a painful and brutal world - it didn't raise anything. Was it just because you're supposed to kill someone because it's unrealistic for everyone to survive in battle type stories like this? Blake's death had more of an impact because it moved the characters and their choices and it moved the story. Cole? he died for nothing.

Overall, I revisted the series because I'd read The Darkest Minds years ago and now that all the books were out I wanted to see where it went and how it ended. I didn't love the series but I've despised other things more. I like some of the characters enough to be glad I read the whole thing and if I watch the movie I'll have the context of the trilogy and it's nice to know how it all ended.