“The darkest minds tend to hide behind the most unlikely faces”
The Darkest Minds follows a young girl named Ruby. Children all across America are getting ill and dying form a mysterious illness – but they’re not the ones everyone is concerned about.
It’s the children who aren’t sick. The ones who aren’t dying. These children develop abilities they cannot control and are sent to camps. Parents believe they’re rehabilitation camps, but the children are treated more like prisoners.
With some help Ruby escapes. While on the run Ruby is forced to use the abilities she’s tried so hard to suppress and wonders whether it would have been safer for her to remain on the inside, where no-one knew her secret.
My Thoughts
“We’ll just have to try and make better mistakes tomorrow”
Where do I even begin?
First and foremost, this book is very similar to The Maze Runner.
Kids get sick, they’re all rounded up and put somewhere. People help some of them escape, but then the kids have to escape from their rescuers. If I remember right, a couple of kids from The Maze Runner had some sort of ability and some of the character storylines are incredibly similar.
However, having said all of that, what I will also say is that while there are some similarities, I still enjoyed this book for the most part.
Thurmond
I understand I’m not supposed to like Thurmond. What is advertised as a rehabilitation camp is more like a prison. A prison where some of them are forced into labour. We learn that some kids were experimented on, some were forced out in the middle of the night and presumed killed – or worse. I know it was meant to do so, but I always felt really uncomfortable when Thurmond or the other camps were mentioned. However, I appreciate the author did really well in making me feel that way.
Characters
Mostly I didn’t have an issue with the characters. I liked the ones I was meant to like. I was usually correct in my weariness of others. The main character Ruby frustrated me. I understood the choices she made were, at times, made out of mistrust or fear however, there were definitely moments where I wised she would step up when needed. I will say that it made the moments she did great, and her character development was really well done, but it felt long getting there.
The Ending
Yes, I get what the author is trying to do. Give the reader an unsatisfying ending so that they just have to read the next book. I imagine I will pick it up one day.
Conclusion
The story was engaging and entertaining the entire way through. There were lots of twists and turns and it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I loved the characters Liam and Suzume in their own ways. They’re both sweet and like beacons of light in this story. There are some great villains and antagonists in this story as well – I liked that most of the time you know who you can and cannot trust however, there are some you just can’t pin down.
“Let’s carpe the hell out of this diem”
