Murderous Minds

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

* ARC received from NetGalley for review

5 out of 5 gnomes

A truly mad world, is what the characters in this story have to live with. Kids all over the world begin dropping dead.  This new disease, “Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration—IANN for short,” only has an effect on children.  There’s only one of two outcomes though, you either die or gain a variety of powers.  A cure is supposedly being looked for but the kids who are left are basically being sent to prison camps if they exhibit powers.

The kids with powers are grouped like so: Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, and Orange.  Blue can move things with their minds, Green are crazy good at sorting and codes, Yellow can control electricity, Red can control fire, and Orange’s all have some kind of powers having to do with the mind or mind control.  As you can see this means that there’s a wide range of powers and some kids are better at controlling their powers than others. The Blues and Greens are seen as relatively safe while the Yellows are more towards the unsafe end of the spectrum.  The Reds and Oranges are portrayed as being the most dangerous.  

Ruby has had one heck of a hard knock life.  Everything was going pretty great until her tenth birthday, that’s when everything changed.  At the age of ten she was taken away and put into one of the camps.  These camps aren’t exactly nice places and Ruby tries to blend in by not causing trouble or acknowledging her true nature.  After about six years though new problems arise and Ruby sees a potential way to get her freedom.

The group that Ruby becomes a part of gives the reader another glimpse of the world and just how it's changed. The group is composed of very different people but they become as close as a family over the course of the story.  I LOVE that Ruby and Liam don’t have that whole instant love connection but actually build towards something.  At first the relationship treated most seriously is that between the whole group that she meets and quickly becomes a part of.  It was a breath of fresh air to see the group dynamic as more important because it lets you see more of all the characters instead of just the happy couple.

This book is dark, twisty, and just the right amount angsty.  There is just so much going on in this book and so much happens.  The atmosphere and characters grab you right away and just never let go. Plus the ENDING, it’s one of those that kind of makes perfect sense for the book but still make you want to curse/shout at the same time.  I don't think I've ever been so happy to know that a book is part of a trilogy, I truly am looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here.