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Yet another book rewiew - The Darkest Minds

There is no denying that the Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Bracken is quite interesting. The plot is, for the most part, good, apart from the 100 pages in the middle of the third book; characters are developed well… the list goes on. This review will hopefully advise you as to whether you would enjoy reading it. 


 


Firstly, the plot is about a mysterious “virus”(read the book to find out why I put that in quotes) that killed most of the children in America, causing the economy to crash. The few surviving children  were put into concentration camps by the government, as they developed supernatural, frightening and potentially threatening skills. 


In particular, Bracken’s writing style was excellent. It plays with the reader’s mind, which is ironic because the main character, Ruby, also developed abilities to edit other people’s memories and push images and feelings into their minds.  


The blurbs at the back of the books are also interesting and even they play with the reader’s emotions. For example, the one on the first book, The Darkest Minds, is very helpful, especially as the book starts with total confusion and the reader only knows what they have been told when they read the summary on the back. However, the blurb on the sequel, Never Fade, was everything but helpful. It implies to the reader that terrible things have happened, while it was only wordplay and nothing disastrous to the scale hinted has happened. When I read it, I completely distrusted it and cautiously took everything told on the blurb in the third book (In the Afterlight) with a grain of salt, and I was rewarded with the plot being completely different from what the blurb suggested. 


Finally, I did not enjoy the 100 pages in the middle of the third book, which droned on a bit too long and was quite boring. I would actually prefer it,  if it didn’t exist at all. 


However, I would recommend this series to whoever over the age of ten that likes a thrilling read to dive into and explore when they have a long time. It is filled with deeper meanings and ironically and emotionally toying of the reader and I would not be surprised if it gets into next year’s GCSE English exams as it has a wealth of concealed information waiting for discovery.

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