The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken - review

I know, I know, I am SUPER late to this bandwagon. Ever since discovering booktube I have heard so much hype surrounding this series, and now I completely understand why. I was blown away.

NON-SPOILERY REVIEW:
For those of you who are even further behind the times than me, The Darkest Minds is a young adult dystopian novel. It follows the story of Ruby, a teenage girl living in future America. When she younger, an epidemic broke out among children around the ages 8-12, causing them to suddenly drop dead. However, those who did not die as a result of the illness were taken by the government to camps, as they had special powers which were deemed dangerous. Ruby is one of these, and she must endure the hardships of the camp and attempting to understand and control her powers.

Alexandra Bracken's writing flows so well, she immediately pulls the reader into the story. In the style of YA, the novel is easy to read, however has loads of underlying messages and comments about society which I found extremely interesting. For those of you who love dystopian, you will absolutely adore The Darkest Minds!!

Rating: 5/5, SOOOO GOOD

SPOILERY STUFF:
Okay, first of all can I just say Liam. Liam is so freaking beautiful! One of my favourite characters ever, for sure. And possibly one of my favourite books ever. I adored every one of Bracken's characters, especially Ruby, Liam, Chubs and Zu. Each of them were so well fleshed out, and we got just enough backstory of each.

Can I just say, there are literally so many bad guys in this book! First we get all excited that Ruby's escaped the camp. Then, oh no, the Children's League is evil. Then we finally find the slip kid, wooo. Oh wait, no, don't get too excited, he's evil too. Can we trust anyone?!?! By the way, whilst I'm mentioning the slip kid, did anyone else figure out really early that he was the president's son? Even before I got there I was betting that it was either him or the orange that Ruby first saw when she arrived at the camp, if he had managed to escape. Super cool twist anyway!

What I really really really want to talk about is that ending. THAT ENDING. This was one of the most emotional endings I have ever read. I was literally lying in bed just staring at my wall saying "no" over and over again for a good five minutes. First we're all excited because the gang are free and going to achieve what they set out to. Then holy cow, Chubs is shot. Then Ruby presses the panic button and lo and behold she's back in the position she was trying to escape this whole time, except now Liam and Chubs are there too!!! And finally, Ruby wiping Liam's memory. All. The. Feels. I don't know if anyone else saw this coming, but I sure did not. My heart is aching just thinking about it. I haven't got the next two books in this series yet, but if Liam doesn't somehow get his memories back I am going to be so so so upset.

Let me know if you've read this book, and what your thoughts were. Were you as shocked at the ending as I was?

Love always,

Ari