Review of The Darkest Minds: In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken

Review of Alexandra Bracken's The Darkest Minds: In the Afterlight

Release Date: October 28th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

Ruby can't look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government's attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. With them is a prisoner: Clancy Gray, son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers. Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds.

They are armed only with a volatile secret: proof of a government conspiracy to cover up the real cause of IAAN, the disease that has killed most of America's children and left Ruby and others like her with powers the government will kill to keep contained. But internal strife may destroy their only chance to free the "rehabilitation camps" housing thousands of other Psi kids.

Meanwhile, reunited with Liam, the boy she would-and did-sacrifice everything for to keep alive, Ruby must face the painful repercussions of having tampered with his memories of her. She turns to Cole, his older brother, to provide the intense training she knows she will need to take down Gray and the government. But Cole has demons of his own, and one fatal mistake may be the spark that sets the world on fire.

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If I looked at all of the books I have read as a whole, you would think there is a growing commonality in many of them. There are the Dystopian books, the books about Aliens, the ones about Vampires, or Werewolves, or Ghost Hunters, or Witches, or Mermaids... and then there are the books about kids with powers. The Darkest Minds series definitely falls into one of the many categories of books I like. But when looked at with every other series with a similar topic, it stands out about & beyond them.

I remember my reaction to the treatment of the children at Thurmond when I first read The Darkest Minds. I was shocked and appalled, but I could definitely picture everything happening. I'm not sure if it is the way our world works now a days, with all of the shootings, murders, and physical abuse I hear about in the news, or if it is just the amazing writing style that Bracken uses, but I believe what she writes. I can imagine vividly what she writes and I can't say that about every book I read. I do read a lot.

This book is the conclusion of the trilogy and where many series give me an ending that I am unsatisfied with, I can not say that in this case. I am so happy with the ending that she has written that I still feel like I am on a high. That incredible book ending high. With every thing that these kids have dealt with, the government putting them into camps, being hunted down like animals for money, being turned in by their own parents for fear of what they can do, being killed off... you would think that a happy ending would unfeasible.

If you haven't read this series, you are surely missing out!