[BOOK REVIEW] The Darkest Minds

Title: The Darkest Minds
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Pages: 488
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Dystopian
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

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So I gave in to the hype and bought this book a couple months ago. I am here to tell you that it is just like every other Young Adult book-gone-movie. It is actually very reminiscent of The Fifth Wave. Because of this, it took me a bit to get into the book. But, after binge reading this book, I was left craving more. The ending had me hooked and it through me for a loop.

I accidentally finished this book in two days and one of them was my day off. How productive of me! I felt so accomplished since I usually waste my days away like a bum. I feel so pleased with that myself that I had to share.

This book is about a world where all children have developed superpowers in some way. They are taken to camps and separated into different categories depending on their abilities. Lo and behold our protagonist, Ruby Daly, is the rarest of them all. When she manages to break out of her camp, she learns just how different the real world has become.

Oh No’s

The repeated Lord of the Flies plot becomes very tiresome after a while. It literally just had to be done once. But, every time they met other kids and people on their journey, they all were evil.

The book had a very standard book opening. I felt like I was just reading a regular YA book. It was very predictable until the very end. It nabbed me before I even knew I was nabbed. Maybe when I binge read it, I somehow got caught in the trap.

The car travel. I hate when books travel in one spot like that. They did this in Paper Towns, as well. To me, it also didn’t make sense for them to still be using that black van. Every person who was after them knew what car to look for. All in all, it is just a very lazy, stable setting that I hate.

Yay’s

I loved the movement in dialogue between all four characters. Their bonding was really well thought-out and I thought the character development was really good. It is half the reason that I’m going to be getting the second book. That and to finding out that ending. Speaking of which…

That ending! It is the whole reason I had to binge read this book. Those last 90 pages had me rushing to find out how it ends. What was going to go wrong that I knew eventually would? The end was perfect and built up the end spectacularly. I felt things really came full circle and with the amount of characters dancing around, I’m happy everything fell into place.

I can’t stop thinking about this book. The world building was crazy good. I feel like the movie just wasn’t advertised accurately. It wasn’t until PolandBananasBooks did a summary of the book that I truly found interest. I do recommend giving it a read if you are a huge Young Adult book fan.

Click the link below to purchase this lovely book in all it’s glory.

The Darkest Minds (Bonus Content) (A Darkest Minds Novel)

-PM