The Darkest Minds

Darkest Minds, Book 1

By: Alexandra Bracken

Narrated by: Amy McFadden

Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Book one in the blockbuster Darkest Minds series—now with cover art from the major motion picture!

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 got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government "rehabilitation camp." She might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America's children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

But when the truth about Ruby's abilities—the truth she's hidden from everyone, even the camp authorities—comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. On the run, she joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp: Zu, a young girl haunted by her past; Chubs, a standoffish brainiac; and Liam, their fearless leader, who 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.

While they journey to find the one safe haven left for kids like them—East River—they must evade their determined pursuers, including an organization that will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. But as they get closer to grasping the things they've dreamed of, Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

©2012 Alexandra Bracken (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

cant wait to watch this!

loved it! cant wait to watch the movie here in a bit. Had to finish this audiobook first.

great!

loved it! narrator good. story line kept me interested through the whole story. thank you.

Great story

This book reminded me a lot of Unwind. And I consider that to be a great honor.

Intense and intricate

I really like YA dystopian settings, and this one was really interesting. I'm so curious about why children were/are developing their abilities. At the beginning, I was surprised that they weren't being militarized, but it made sense that at least some of them were, especially given that it takes place in America. Obviously Ruby wouldn't know why the specific colors were chosen to correspond with certain abilities, and neither would most-if any- of her friends; it doesn't actually affect the story or my enjoyment of it, but I'm just curious because I'm interested in art and color theory.

I'm a little confused about why Bracken chose to connect this piece to "Watership Down" since the author of that has stated it wasn't any sort of allegory. Obviously in this, Bracken has created a parallel and an allegory but the source material isn't an allegory, so to me that's just a little bit of a weird hiccup stuck in my brain. The parallel works though, so it's moot.

I love Chubs; he is my favorite. I wish we could have gotten a bit less of a know-it-all trope with him, since his high intelligence wasn't like that important to other people (even though they occasionally relied on him for his vast knowledge, such as medically). I feel like his understandable caution was always sort of downplayed and the other characters sort of continually joked about his very solid reasoning. It's very surprising that Liam didn't rely on Chubs' judgement more than he does. Chubs doesn't try to push Liam into allowing him to be a bigger part of the decision-making processes, which is more understandable, given how charismatic and what a natural leader Liam is along with the fact that Chubs admires these traits and loves Liam, but I still would have expected that he would have worked to have Liam listen to his opinion more.

It's obvious that Ruby was really scared and traumatized by her past and it was reflected well in the way she was written. She was very defensive, yet completely desperate for companionship and trust. Her intensely traumatic reaction towards what happened with her parents when she turned ten, as well as the repeated incident with Sam, explains her wanting to be always be completely on-guard while being so willing to allow people into her life and heart, as she really craves. So much of Ruby's motivations come from a place of fear.
Ruby only wanted to protect her friends, which is why she did what she did at the every end of the novel, though I absolutely hate when characters decide to do something drastic for the good of a loved one without talking to that person at all.

I didn't need a "love triangle" between Liam and Clancy vying for Ruby's attention. I'm really bored of love triangles.
Ruby seemed like she would be paranoid enough to have at least suspected Clancy of messing with her mind when she was getting strong emotional responses and mental images (that she hadn't had any inclination towards beforehand) only when she was with him?

I wish we got to see more of Liam's character flaws; he was too perfect because we perceived him through Ruby's narration. I wish we could have gotten a more realistic view of him, probably though Chubs, since, even though he loves Liam like family, Chubs would be more honest about Liam and his weaknesses without being blinded by his love for Liam. Liam's charisma was his strongest attribute and I feel like that was almost overlooked. Ruby said that Liam makes friends easily, but it's more than that since he just sort of becomes an integral part of any group he's placed in and his peers look at him as a leader, which is really impressive and powerful.
Liam was similar to Ruby in the way that they would both suffer immensely to save a loved one from even slight suffering.

I feel like Zu was the stereotypical Sweet Perfect Little Sister Figure that we see constantly in media, specifically in YA and very specifically in dystopian YA, such as "Hunger Games." I was surprised when she went with her other friends and cousin, but it was obviously Clancy's scheme to try to make Ruby feel isolated so that she would have to turn to him only and the fact that Ruby suspected nothing is mildly shocking, but I can understand given her past trauma. Zu's honest and straightforward love and connection really helped Ruby feel more able in the most basic sense to have any sort of connection.

I was a bit disappointed in how Clancy's characterization ended up. The "sick and twist" evil guy is just so boring to me right now as well as the fact that I'm really unsure about his goals and motivations? If he wants to take over the world, he doesn't seem to be in the best position to do so? He clearly doesn't have pure or altruistic intentions. He wanted Ruby to help him in his ...... scheme, whatever it is, and to keep himself from feeling completely alone, which I think is a big motivator from the little I can glean at this point. I'm really curious as to where it will go in the next books!

Took a While

Took a while to get into it. Speed only picked up the last hour of the book.

All good and fun story

All good and fun story... good story and we'll read .. all well and good

pretty good

I wasn't really feeling the quasi-love triangle.. but the rest of the book was good.

Well done

Ignore the “feminist’s” rambling diatribe some people are not happy unless they are tearing down others works. This is a very well crafted book and it deserves your time. Love the audio book.

To the feminist. Write your own stuff if you are so bent on being a critic. Then we can give our opinion of your writings.

loved it

awsome storyline can't wait to read the next book. I hope it goes into more detail! what a great read

Great read!

Kids with powers, segregations between “colors”, orange most powerful. Girl has memory powers. 3 enemies: government, league, surprise. All against each other.