REVIEW: In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken

Title: In the Afterlight (The Darkest Minds #3)
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian.
Publication Date: November 1st 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Format: Paperback
Pages: 485
Rating: 5/5
Book Depository

Ruby can't look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government's attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. With them is a prisoner: Clancy Gray, son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers. Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds. They are armed only with a volatile secret: proof of a government conspiracy to cover up the real cause of IANN, the disease that has killed most of America's children and left Ruby and others like her with powers the government will kill to keep contained. But internal strife may destroy their only chance to free the rehabilitation camps housing thousands of other Psi kids. Meanwhile, reunited with Liam, the boy she would-and did-sacrifice everything for to keep alive, Ruby must face the painful repercussions of having tampered with his memories of her. She turns to Cole, his older brother, to provide the intense training she knows she will need to take down Gray and the government. But Cole has demons of his own, and one fatal mistake may be the spark that sets the world on fire.

The Darkest Minds is one of my all-time favourite trilogies, but as I’m sure you all know, the final book can really make or break a series. *cough* Allegiant. *cough* I was kind of terrified to read this one. This series really means a lot to me and I absolutely adore it and all of the characters. I didn’t want it to be terrible, and so I put this off for ages. I really didn’t have to worry, because this was phenomenal.

From the moment I entered this world, I loved it. Back when I started this series I was very heavily into YA dystopian and a lot of them just sort of mixed together, but this always stuck out. I like the darkness in dystopian world, and I especially love this one because of the fact that it could have me terrified and crying one page and then laughing my head off by the next page. I also loved that there was a sort of supernatural/superpower element to the story as well – it just really made it stand out to me.

The best thing, of course, is the characters. If you’ve been here a while or if you followed my updates on Goodreads while I was reading this, then I’m sure you’re aware of my love for Liam and Chubs. These two honestly made the series for me – I love their bromance, and how different they are from one another in a way that just totally works. They are probably my ultimate friendship – that’s how much I love them. In this book, they are honestly just as amazing, if not even a little better than in the previous two books. Anyway, let’s talk about some of the other characters. Ruby is brilliant, and she’s grown so much throughout the trilogy. In fact, all of the characters have grown and changed and I just feel like a proud mum because I want to snuggle them all. There were even a few characters that I didn’t think I cared about that ended up completely blowing me away.

You know what almost ruined me? The Liam/Ruby relationship in this book. I can’t even begin to describe the feels. If you’ve read The Darkest Minds (and Never Fade) then you probably understand. If you haven’t, well, ‘bumpy’ doesn’t even begin to describe them. There were times where I honestly couldn’t breathe because they weren’t happy and I needed them to be. I actually had to put the book down a few times so I could walk around my room and scream at them to work it out before I killed them. I’m a little too invested in this ship.

I’ll admit that this book isn’t perfect. The whole trilogy can be a little slow in parts. There’s a lot of world building and character driven events that tend to slow down the story, but I just love them so much that I don’t mind slugging through those bits to get to the good parts. I know this turns a lot of people off the series, but they really are worth giving a go. So despite those slow bits, I really liked the plot of this one. I think it ended really well and I just loved how everything was tied up.

It’s just hit me that this series is over. There won’t be any more Ruby and Liam moments to gush over, or any more Chubs quotes to laugh at. I feel kind of hollow inside now. What am I supposed to do now? Suppose it’s time for a re-read!

REVIEW: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Title: The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds #1)

Author: Alexandra Bracken

Publication Date: December 11^th 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.

REVIEW: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Title: The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds #1)

Author: Alexandra Bracken

Publication Date: December 11^th 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Format: Paperback

Pages: 488

Rating: 5/5
Blurb: 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.

Review: ‘The Darkest Minds’ is one of those books which is just surrounded by hype, therefore I felt a little bit nervous about actually reading it. It took me a while to actually pick it up, but once I did I finished the whole book in the space of a couple of hours. It was completely not what I was expecting it to be. I had ideas of what I thought it was but it exceeds most of my expectations.

I loved how everything was done. I especially liked the world- it was different. Dystopic without being too dystopic, there was still that connection to our world that I think sometimes gets lost in other books of this genre. I liked learning about all the different groups- like the ‘reds’ and the ‘greens’ etc. and I thought that was really nicely done.  The plot itself was awesome- I liked how there were the setbacks and difficulties in the character’s journey rather than just making it simple. This being said, there were a few moments where it felt like the story was dragging on a bit or lacked action or seemed to be irrelevant to the actual story but all in all I think the pacing was done reasonably well.  

As for the characters... I liked Ruby well enough. I really liked how she developed through the story- it wasn’t like she was suddenly a new person as soon as the main plot of the story kicked in, she grew as the story did. Liam was just. In a way, he kind of reminds me a bit of an Adam-like character (from Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi), but in other ways he was completely different. It was nice how he looked after Ruby, Chubs and Zu and treated them all with respect. I think that’s not often something you see in a YA love interest, especially in dystopia. I just feel like he was a well-rounded character and incredibly realistic. Chubs, of course, is just some kind of awesome human being. I loved seeing the friendship between him and Ruby grow and he is honestly someone you want as a best friend!

But that ending. Look, I absolutely hate what happened because ALL THE FEELS but at the same time, my brain is like OMG, SO EXCITED! I can’t wait to see how everything is dealt with in the sequel.