Title: The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds #1)
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publication Date: December 11th 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Format: Paperback
Pages: 488
Rating: 5/5
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 government ′rehabilitation camp′. Ruby
might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America′s children, but she and the others had 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. Now on the run,
she is desperate to find East River, the only safe haven left for kids like
her, and she joins a group of other runaways who have escaped their own camps.
Liam, their brave leader, is falling for Ruby, but she 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 Liam. But there are
also 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 - and one that may mean giving up her only
chance at having a life worth living.
First
of all, I’m giving this book a five out of five star rating because it was
genuinely a nice read. Adventure seems to be missing from a lot of YA books
lately and I just loved the idea of all seriousness being turned down a notch
in this book. It was fun, enjoyable and there was humour! I KNOW. SURPRISE
SURPRISE. I find it so hard to find any humour in Dystopian books but this book
punched me in the face and said “suck on that Chami.” I mean, come on, when you’re
living in such a dark dreary world there has got to be some uplift in that life
of yours!
Another
thing that I loved about this book is the not so obviousness of the dystopian
world. It didn’t suffocate under that genre title and that’s what made it great
in that aspect. I liked not having to hear about degenerating world all the
time and the “oh so importance” of the government and all that shiz. Sometimes,
Dystopian’s can be so utterly consuming and drive you nuts. This book did that
to a less of an extent.
Liam
is the likeable version of Adam from Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. HE was
genuinely someone with a good heart but not in a cheesy way. Like I didn’t want
to destroy him like I normally do with the goody goody characters. He is a very
real and down to earth character. Goofy, as well. I love when boys sing along
and dance weirdly...and he was that guy!
By the
way Ely, you lied to me. Clancy is so not like Warner in anyway I can imagine.
Warner was never deceivingly nice hahaha.
Can we
just stop and allow me to adopt Liam, Chubs and zu? Like please. They are kind
of amazing.
Anyway,
about the bad things. (Yeah, sadly there were bad things)
Pacing:
Felt like it was a bit too slow and some parts.
Writing:
Felt like it was a bit disjointed and confusing. Sometimes things just happened
in one line that was totally different from where the characterts were in the
last line. It wasn’t even a pacing change (which Marie Lu of the Legend series
does beautifully), it was just confusion.
Okay,
I'm going to be completely honest. The ending I was not so happy with. I feel
like we see those types of endings every day in young adult and I'm sick to the
throat of them. I've been having a bad dystopian streak with endings that are
exactly the same and it just does not sit well with me. That aside, I
completely agree with everything Ely said in her review. Like I'm not even
kidding. She somehow read my mind.
Overall, that was a good read (haha see what I did there)
however I'm not sure if I will immediately read the second one as those last
few pages didn't leave me too happy. I will, however, read it eventually.
Did
I expect more? Just of the last pages. But that is also my fault for reading
other books with similar endings.
