The Darkest Minds (2012)
The Darkest Minds is a 2012 juvenile fiction book written by Alexandra Bracken.
A disease sweeps through America and kills most of its children. The survivors come back altered, sorted by color for the strange abilities they now carry, then shipped to government camps. Ruby survived, and her power frightens even her, so she buries it. At sixteen she breaks out of Thurmond and falls in with three other runaways: quiet Zu, sharp-tongued Chubs, and Liam, who leads them and starts to fall for her. Alexandra Bracken keeps the road tense and the feelings tender, with Ruby's hidden secret the fault line under everything.
Quick answers
What is The Darkest Minds about?
A disease sweeps through America and kills most of its children. The survivors come back altered, sorted by color for the strange abilities they now carry, then shipped to government camps. Ruby survived, and her power frightens even her, so she buries it. At sixteen she breaks out of Thurmond and falls in with three other runaways: quiet Zu, sharp-tongued Chubs, and Liam, who leads them and starts to fall for her. Alexandra Bracken keeps the road tense and the feelings tender, with Ruby's hidden secret the fault line under everything.
When was The Darkest Minds published?
The Darkest Minds was published on 18 December 2012.
Who made The Darkest Minds?
The Darkest Minds was written by Alexandra Bracken.
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The Darkest Minds in our writing
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A few thoughts on The Darkest Minds
Fans should try the X-Men films, where feared young people with uncanny gifts are hunted and herded. Stranger Things shares the lab-kids-on-the-run pulse and the ache of a chosen family. The Darkest Minds reached screen in 2018 with Amandla Stenberg as Ruby, a faithful entry point to Bracken's world.
If your powers get you sent away, not celebrated
The Darkest Minds sorts its surviving kids by the color of a power that terrifies the adults meant to protect them, then locks them away instead of helping them. Stranger Things, Firestarter, the film version of this same story and Shadow and Bone all trace that same fear, young people whose abilities turn them into assets or threats, never just kids.
Runaway crew fighting the people who caged them
Ruby's escape from Thurmond only works because Zu, Chubs and Liam become her family on the road, a unit built to survive the people hunting them. The Scorch Trials, The Maze Runner, The 5th Wave, Chaos Walking and Legend all follow that same shape, a small band of teenagers who trust each other because no adult ever earned it.
Falling in love while everything tries to kill you
Ruby spends most of The Darkest Minds convinced her power makes her impossible to love, which is what makes Liam's patience with her the real suspense. The Hunger Games, Divergent, Twilight, Shadowhunters and Beautiful Creatures all build the same kind of tension, a romance forced to grow in the gaps between danger.
Sorted, ranked, and told who you're allowed to be
Every child in The Darkest Minds gets a color the moment their ability manifests, and that color decides whether they live free or disappear into a camp. Divergent, The Selection, Uglies, Matched and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone all sort their young characters just as coldly, a label assigned before anyone asks if it fits.