[Review] The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
The Darkest Minds #1
Published December 18th, 2012.
Disney Hyperion.
Young Adult Paranormal Dystopia

Premise: When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control. 

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby 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 its mysterious leader. But there are 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, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

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Review

My thoughts: 

OMG! My feels! This book… God! I loved it so much and that ending… Way to break someone’s heart in like million pieces!

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a while and I don’t even know why I waited so long to read it.

I really loved the writing. The characters are a perfect combination of strengths and weaknesses, extremely well-built and very realistic. Ruby, the main character, is so complex and with so many layers that she seems like a real person. I love how she was the damsel in distress AND the heroine at the same time, multiple times. Liam, the other main character/love interest, was amazingly built too. I love how sweet and genuinely nice he was, it was kind of refreshing to find a love interest that is not a sexy bad boy, but manages to steal my heart out of sheer kindness. I loved the relationship he and Ruby had, it didn’t seem rushed, they never said “I love you” and then made excuses about how the circumstances make up for the little time they got to spend together (which happens in way too many other book from this genre). I loved how real everything was between them.

The amazing cast of secondary characters was great too and really gave life to the entire story. They were a lot and it will never cease to amaze me how well-developed were most of them. Zu and Chubbs and even the antagonists (which I won’t name for the sake of the plot) were rich and rounded and the ones we don’t fully understand yet will be most likely explained in the next books.

The whole world Bracken created is amazing and has a great amount of details and everything is well explained. I really liked that everything had its place and that there weren’t facts or events hanging around without a connection. Even at the end, we know there’s another book and everything, but the ending closed a part of the story and set the path for the next book nicely… Even if it broke my heart, I have to acknowledge that it was kind of perfect for this first book in the series.

Overall, I don’t think I could be more pleased with this book… It was kind of long I guess, but I didn’t feel it that much because I was so engrossed in the story that I flew through the pages in no time.

This might be my favorite first installment in the whole dystopian genre right now. It was just that amazing.

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About the author

Alexandra Bracken is a New York Times bestselling American author. She was raised in Arizona and currently lives in New York City. She writes about telekinetic teens and floppy-haired wizards. She loves Star Wars, classic rock, and 18th century gentlemen. When she's not up at 4 AM writing, you can find her running around New York City. Her debut novel, Brightly Woven, was published by EgmontUSA in 2010. She's also the author of the highly successful series The Darkest Minds. Her next book Passenger will hit the stores on January 6th, 2016.