The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds

By: Alexandra Bracken

Rating: *****

                When I first picked up this book I imagined a serial killer because the title The Darkest Minds brings to mind a psychotic killer. It only makes sense. After I opened the novel and began reading I was immediately shifted from modern day mystery to a science fiction about children obtaining powers and the government controlling every aspect of their lives. Alexandra Bracken has done an amazing job designing a novel based on the scientific aspects of the mind.              

                Ruby begins the novel as a young ten year old that lives with her parents. Shortly after her tenth birthday her parents mysteriously forget about Ruby’s existence as their daughter and call the police to get the strange child out of their house. While all of this is going on, children all over the United States are dying left and right from a mysterious ‘disease’ IAAN. The children left who haven’t perished are put into camps from fear of getting IAAN. Ruby is one of those children who are sent to a specific camp: Thurmond. Each child is then sorted by color; either red, orange, yellow, blue, or green, depending on what they can do with their minds. Each child possesses a specific ability from either moving things with their minds, the ability to crack codes and numbers, mutilating peoples thoughts and actions  and in Ruby’s case, the rare ability to make people forget about others just by looking and touching another person. Because of the rush to get her and other’s sorted into their colors, the doctor in charge skips over the fact that Ruby is an orange, and decides she is a green instead. In Thurmond, the reds, oranges, and the yellows disappear and from what Ruby believes, are killed outright because they are dangerous to the PSF’s in the camps.

                The PSF’s, or guards, in these camps let out a ‘calm control’ or a white noise that controls every kid, forcing them to the ground. This noise is used as a punishment when a group of kids decide the lunchroom has become fight club, or if someone uses their abilities.

                Six years pass and a strange white noise comes out into the garden where Ruby works, forcing her to her knees, blood coming from her eyes and nose. This calm control white noise is different from the others, a way to sort out any dangerous colors that have been skipped over in the past. Ruby ends up in the hospital because of this and meets a nice Doctor, Cate, who helps Ruby escape the camp. After the escape from camp Thurmond, Ruby runs off chasing a small Asian girl with yellow gloves over her hands and arms. After the small girl, Suzumme, stops running Ruby runs into Liam and Chubs who are travelling with Zu. The three of them have escaped a camp in northern Ohio where the conditions were a lot better than camp Thurmond. Liam immediately falls for Ruby, but Ruby only wishes to separate herself from the group because of her realization that she is, in fact an orange, a monster. Ruby joins them and they begin their descent to East River, a camp run by the Slip Kid, for kids who have escaped the government controlled camps. After they arrive Chubs soon comes to the realization that East River is an exact replica of the camps like Thurmond. The Slip Kid, or Clancy, begins to help Ruby control her abilities because he is another Orange, one of the only left alive.

                I could write about this book forever, it was that great.  At the beginning I wasn't a fan of the novel because of slow it went but as I came to the middle, putting the novel down became a near impossible feat for me. I had this desire to keep reading until I finished the book. Every character and plot twist inside of The Darkest Minds has been expertly designed with charm and beauty. This novel really makes you think about how much control the government actually has on our lives and how it controls everything without us even knowing. Congrats to you, Alexandra Bracken, you have created an epic novel.

Buy The Darkest Minds at:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-darkest-minds-alexandra-bracken/1108621279?ean=9781423157373
http://www.amazon.com/The-Darkest-Minds-Alexandra-Bracken/dp/1423157370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365357388&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Darkest+Minds