The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken is definitely aimed at those that love The Hunger Games as both series have very similar vibes – but The Darkest Minds brings an element of fantasy which The Hunger Games does not have.
I've put off writing this review for weeks because I found the prospect of it quite daunting, I was unsure as to how many stars I should give and just how negative should you go with a review? Today I've sat down with the closure that I should just write how I feel because honesty is the best policy right?
The children of the United States of America are dying, and no-one quite knows why. When Ruby wakes up on her 10th birthday, she is collected by a group of policemen and taken to a camp. Here, Ruby discovers that the children of America that haven't died are being sent to camps just like hers - as they have powers that no-one can explain. To be a blue or a green, while hated you are not considered as dangerous. To be a red or a yellow strikes fear into the population of America. And if you're an orange, you will simply not be allowed to live. Thankfully Ruby is diagnosed as a green - but what will they do when she finds out she's not?
First, I'll start with my few positives from the book. The character of Chubbs I absolutely loved, I found him well rounded and I often found myself cheering him on as he pointed out some of the ridiculousness of the plot points that surround this book. I also did like Liam as well, he kind of disappeared mid-way through the book (more of this later) which was strange and irritating, but overall I did like him. I even enjoyed the concept of the book, how these random children were given powers and how they were identified through the colour system. That in addition to the camp system and the hierarchies of organisations surrounding the Psi (children with powers) was a twist on the usual dystopian type book.
Perhaps my biggest pet peeve, aside from the many spelling and grammar mistakes throughout, was that I believe the book followed the wrong time-line. Ruby's time prior to camp and her whole camp experience is whittled down to roughly 80 pages of the first book, which maybe you think is a good amount of time? Well Ruby is in camp for 6 years, and the 80 pages very much jump huge time frames of her life to bring together maybe 5 key moments throughout those years. Personally, I would have liked to have seen at least half of the book dedicated to Ruby's time at camp. The reader is meant to feel the trauma and cruelty that Ruby faced at camp, I believe this is where we would have started to root for her and then the connection to the character would have occurred. But due to the snappiness of the scenes and the overall lack of time taken to build Ruby's camp experience - I simply was not connected to her. A key example of this was Ruby's friendship with Sam, during her time at camp Ruby develops a strong relationship with Sam which she then loses. This was both the centrepiece of some of the happiest memories for Ruby at camp as well as one of the most heartbreaking moments for her - so much so that the friendship break-down between the two further effects Ruby's relationships in the future. But because of the lack of development and time spent instilling their friendship, this key moment does not get the same level of pay-off that it should.
Once we leave camp and meet more people, I will say I enjoyed the pacing here and this section of time was my favourite throughout the book. I started to like Ruby here because of her blossoming relationship with Liam, I was definitely rooting for them, and I also enjoyed the extra characters added to the cast. This enjoyment, however, was not destined to last. Due to Liam, Chubbs and Zu's prior mission before they came across Ruby - the group finally found the 'Slip Kid'. This led to such an obvious revelation that I'm angry at myself that I didn't see it fully coming. But I was surprised so I'll allow, what I will not allow is what came next.
How can Liam and Ruby go from being completely infatuated with each other one minute, to not seeing each other for weeks? This change happened overnight, and don't even get me started on the unnecessary love triangle. Not only did Ruby state, throughout the chapters they were with the Slip Kid, that she did not like the Slip Kid - so it was clear nothing would develop there. But the addition of the love triangle only discredited the genuine connection between Liam and Ruby that the reader could root for!
I don't even really know what to say when it comes to 'the villain of the piece' because I genuinely don't really know where to start. We, obviously, had the surprise villain - that the reader could easily identify but Ruby could not. Which led to a lot of irritation because it was so obvious. Then we had the camp workers, had they been given more time to develop in the beginning I felt like they could have been a greater threat to our heroes. There are other, potential, threats and villains to the main characters but due to the fact that this is the first book in the series - they weren't fully developed. Which, I suppose, you could say is understandable - but The Hunger Games series didn't suffer with such an issue so I don't see why The Darkest Minds have.
Overall, this one wasn't for me. The pacing was too jarring, I felt that the first book in the series was focused on the wrong element of the story - I definitely would have preferred half the book to have been focused on Ruby's formative years at camp. I will not be continuing the series.
Thanks for reading,
Rhi
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