Darkest Minds, The (The Darkest Minds series Book 1) Kindle Edition

I first read THE DARKEST MINDS in December of 2014. I stumbled across it in an Epic Reads list of books featuring road trips. I really enjoy taking road trips and the title and cover of this book intrigued me so I had to pick it up! I have to say that that might have been the best decision I've ever made.When I picked up the audiobook of this one to do a reread, a little part of me was worried that I wouldn't love this book as much the second time. Thankfully, this was not the case. In fact, I think I may have loved it even more this time around!When I first started listening to this, I wasn't 100% sure what I thought of the narrator, but I really grew to like her. I love all the different voices for the different characters. I think that this audio was about 11-ish hours and it was easy to listen to this narrator talk for that long.This book is a little bit dystopia, a little bit science fiction, a LOT awesome. It has an amazing romance, adventure, high stakes, heartbreak, betrayal, and a wonderful friendship.The book follows Ruby Daly. She was sent to a camp on her 10th birthday. She used her abilities to convince the person running the sorting test that she was a green rather than an orange. She spent the next six years terrified of what she can do. When she gets sprung from camp, she realizes that the people helping her aren't what they seem and she runs away, right into a group of kids who are in about the same predicament as she is. Together, they roam West Virginia, searching for the safe haven of East River.Ruby is probably my favorite book heroine ever. She goes through some really fantastic character growth in this book. In the beginning, she's basically scared of her own shadow. She won't let anyone close to her, afraid that her won't be able to control her abilities and they'll see her for the monster she believes she is. It takes her a long time to open up to anyone.But along her journey she kind of starts to own her powers. She starts to not see herself as so awful for what she can do. She doesn't truly trust her powers yet, but she sees that she can use them to help her friends and keep them safe.The only real fault that I can think of in her is that she is CONSTANTLY like, "Nooo, just leave me behind. Leave me here. Forget about me." Ruby, just stop. No one is ditching you.Liam Stewart is my number one book boyfriend. He's so swoon-y. He's so sweet and kind to everyone around him. He's caring. He's funny. I feel like he kind of comes off a little bit as though he's got a bad boy side. Mostly just because it's mentioned that he has been in some fights and he wears a leather jacket. I guess that doesn't necessarily equal bad boy status, but there ya go. He's super protective of his friends (especially Ruby) and would do anything to keep them safe, even if it meant sacrificing himself.If I ever had my own Liam Stewart that called me "Darlin'" in his sweet southern accent, I would absolutely melt on the spot.Chubs is a little bit abrasive at first. He is 100% not okay with Ruby tagging along with their group. He doesn't want to be caught in the crossfire if/when the people chasing Ruby catch up with them. He doesn't understand why they should put themselves at risk for someone they don't even know. I think that I didn't really like Chubs the first time I read this book. I wanted him to be nicer to Ruby. But this time around, I didn't find myself disliking Chubs before he warmed up to Ruby.As much as Chubs sometimes seems to need to get a sense of humor or something, I think that he would make a wonderful friend. He's good to have around in times like this because he's really smart and he's got a little bit of medical knowledge!Zu is the one who initially lets Ruby into their little group. She is the youngest of the group. She's such a little sweetheart and is super girly. You don't really get to learn a lot about her in this book though, so that's about all I can say!The romance in this book is so adorable. Ruby and Liam are my favorite book couple. The scenes with them being cute together completely give me life. I just want to put them in a protective bubble to keep them safe forever. I just think they work really well together!I really can't think of anything in this book that I didn't enjoy. I love the characters. I love their friendship. I loved going on this adventure with them. I love everything about this book.Overall, I don't think there should be any question in anyone's mind that I 100% recommend this book. To everyone. If you like awesome character growth, WONDERFUL FRIENDSHIP, super swoon-y romances, or books about road trips, READ THIS!

This book series is the best thing I have ever read! I read this book in less then two weeks and the second in 4 days.. and I’m not a reader before I started this series. When I’m done with it I’m probably gonna reread it.

Note: This review, as well as many others, can also be found on my blog, The Baking Bookworm.My Thoughts: If you've seen my Book Index at the top of the blog you'll see that I love Young Adult/Dystopian reads. I've read The Hunger Games trilogy, Divergent/Insurgent, Shatter Me, Immortal Rules ... the whole YA/Dystopian enchilada and, for the most part, I've really loved the genre. My love of these two genres also makes me more of a connoisseur and I expect a lot from authors to keep me interested and add something new to a very popular genre.That said, I have some very different and perhaps conflicting feelings about this book. Overall, I have to say that I'm intrigued by it as the start to a new series. It had a fast pace in the beginning and a great 'edge of your seat' ending but there were some aspects of the book that took away from the general positive feeling.But let's start with the positives, shall we? I think that one of the strongest aspects of the book were the some of the characters. Even though the book centres around Ruby and Liam my favourite characters were secondary to the storyline. It was wee Zu and Chubs who really stood out for me. Chubs was, by far, my favourite character.Chubs starts out at the beginning of the book as pretty obstinate and not a fan of Ruby's at all. But over time we see why Chubs feels the way he does and we get to see more of the real guy behind the sarcasm. I loved him. I think that Chubs' personality, emotion, honesty and humour easily overshadowed Ruby and Liam.Ruby, as the main character, goes through a big metamorphosis. We first see her as a very timid girl with no real world experiences and just a very beaten down, weak person. She is then thrust into the real world where we see her struggle to gain confidence so she can learn to take matters into her own hands to change her life and the lives of those like her. That said, she wasn't a character that I was really ever drawn to and I think that's because her struggle to gain confidence took a little longer than I was comfortable with.Also, the girl squanders her super powers. Instead of learning how to use them and being in awe of how cool it is that she even has these powers she ignores them and is upset at even having them. Say what?? She seemed like more of a weak Bella Swan (gah!) main character and that never sits well with me. Ever. She spends a lot of the time bemoaning the fact that she has these powers and makes decisions which seemed like she gave little to no thought to and were just generally stupid decisions that put her in danger.Then there's Liam. I just didn't love this guy. Compared to Chubs' character Liam lacked depth and just general 'oomph'. I think my lack of interest in Liam didn't help the romance aspect either which, if I'm being honest, felt like it came out of nowhere. Much too sudden and it felt like the reader was expected to accept the fact that these two are now a couple when only a night or so before they were all awkward and unsure of each other. And another little thing that bugged me about Liam was the fact that he's suddenly referred to as "Lee". At first I was wondering who this Lee character was. Confusing. Why use a nickname (only one syllable less) when you don't need to?I know it seems like my positives quickly turned into negatives. I hate dumping on a new book but I can't ignore certain facts. Honestly, there were big gaps in the world building and general storyline that I just couldn't ignore.My major criticisms about this book mainly stem from the huge gaps in information or a lack of detail. Honestly, for a good portion of the book I had the feeling like I sort of had the gist of the world and this vague virus that has annihilated civilization. It's not a feeling that I enjoyed. I felt in the dark about how this world was set up, the reasoning behind this mysterious virus that has annihilated 95%+ of American youth and even the 'powers' that these special kids have. It was frustrating that so much was just glossed over and that I, as a reader, was just supposed to accept it.For example, why would all of the parents of these 'mutant' kids be so willing to hand over their kids to the government to put in camps and never seen again? What parent does that? And why house all these kids for years on end? What's the government's plan for these kids? Doesn't the government worry about the effect on future generations if so many of their youth are dying/being killed off? Why did this virus only affect American kids? Why not use these little mutants and teach them to use their powers and become an army of X-men-type warriors? (Where is Professor X when you need him?) Why waste their powers? Too many unanswered questions that just didn't make sense to me.This funky fog stayed with me for the entire book but the pace of the book towards the end and the 'edge of my seat' feel that I got helped me to forget (for the most part) this fog as I read the cliff hanger. And a delicious cliff hanger it was! The end of the book picks up the pace and tension big time! So I can only hope that future books in the series will continue with this surge of energy and propel the storyline even further ahead.Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy this book but there is definitely room for improvement. I will say that it kept my interest and I loved the fact that there isn't just one bad guy. This dystopian world is utterly fractured so it makes perfect sense that different factions are vying for power and are willing to go to great lengths to ensure that they have these kids with super powers on their side."The darkest minds tend to hide behind the most unlikely faces."There is a huge amount of potential for the future books in the series to take off. I hope that a lot more info will be given to the reader to help us really get a better grasp about the world that has been created. The ideas in this book were great ... it was just the execution that needed more fine tuning to help the reader get up to speed.There are some unanswered questions at the end of the book but those only added to my desire to jump into Never Fade, the second book in this series which I have been graciously given to review by the publisher, as soon as humanly possible.I recommend this book for readers who loved The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Shatter Me by Tehereh Mafi, The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa or Divergent by Veronica Roth.My Rating: 3/5 stars

Id first like to begin by saying the world-building of this book is exceptional. There isn't a moment in this book where you can't clearly picture the scenery, surroundings or the atmosphere. & for an author to be able to immerse you into a real setting (of Virginia and surrounding areas), especially when you're from across the 'pond' is commendable.The dystopian depiction of the US is also very interesting to read about, and it fits it so well with the plot. Which is synonymous of the entire book; everything works, it flows really well, it's written beautifully.Moving forward; there are some really strong characters in this book and they all serve a purpose. They all have their own quirks and drive the plot forward and it's refreshing because too many books are full of 'fillers' only to provide a 'Deus ex machina'. You'll find yourself falling for them, and sometimes i found myself rushing to read through certain parts so i could get back to seeing them communicate with eachother.Even so, for all that, something about this book just didn’t sit right with me. I read the book in a few hours so you would assume id thoroughly enjoyed it, but after reading the final page I just wasn’t sure. I wasn't rushing to purchase the next.After a little thought, I think it has to do with the book being quite slow at times and also Ruby, the lead protagonist. I don't think I like her? ..let me explain; I think it's because she started off so timid, meek and feeble and when the book ended I don’t think there was much improvement.She has this amazing gift and rightly so, after all she’s been through she’s scared of it, but I was just waiting for her to become this badass and it just never happened. I think because the book is so beautifully written and immersive I began to see myself as Ruby and got frustrated when she made decisions I personally wouldn’t have made or felt sorry in a situation I would have owned. I think our personalities clashed a little, as she's perhaps too docile a character that I'm used to. AND she's 16 I have to keep reminding myself she's a child lolNevertheless I will be purchasing the next instalment because this book read beautifully and I'm pretty sure it's my own doing why I didn't enjoy it as much. I'm willing to give Ruby another chance this is only the first book, she has plenty of time to develop as a character and become the badass those little glimpses showed us she can be.Would recommend to any dystopian/fantasy reader

I'm a bit on the the fence with regards to this book. There were parts of it that I did really enjoy but the novel still did have a lot of problems. To begin with the positive, I really did like the world building. With the state of things in the world at present, the concept of children being whisked away to concentration camps touched very close to home, as did the way that the media tried to spin these work camps as fluffy "rehabilitation" centres.I also liked the gradual way that the world unfurled to the reader. Although the opening chapters were a bit confusing in places, the novel avoids exposition by slowly revealing the state of things. Due to this, it felt like a very immersive world. Ruby's narrative assumes that the reader is part of the story, and therefore does not need the distinction between the different "colours" explaining to them. The distinctions between reds, oranges, yellows, greens and blues slowly becomes apparent to the reader as the story progresses, as does the slow reveal of the state of things.Ruby's narrative also has a lot of heart in it - a naive optimism that her life can go back to the way it was that is slowly squashed as she discovers what the world has become. The Darkest Minds is not a happy novel. While always age appropriate, there is not a lot of hope to be found for the characters. The world for kids is dark and unwelcoming, filled with danger and potential death. Throughout the novel, Ruby and her friends are constantly hunted by adults and in constant danger from attacks by other suspicious tribes of kids. Any hope that is to be found within the tale is usually quickly squashed.Yet my first issues came in the story in terms of its pacing. For its length, not a lot actually happens within the story. While there are exciting moments, such as Ruby's early escape from the camp, there are long stretches of the protagonists just travelling or sitting around in conversation. When action does happen, its often hard to follow due to the way that the perspective is firmly fixed with Ruby (who generally has no idea of what is going on). Often, I found myself confused by what had happened until Ruby surveyed the aftermath.The novel ultimately did not really go anywhere. While Ruby flees from her "rescuers" early in the novel, she takes with her a panic button that can summon these people if she gets in trouble. From the way that the novel reminded the reader of this button's existence at key points, it was very clear that the story from that point was a bit of a cul-de-sac that would lead back to an obvious reunion. The ending of the novel was sad, but very open. There is no closure to be had in the story as it is clearly just intended to be the introduction to a longer series.In terms of characterisation, I also had several problems. Ruby is a likeable and sympathetic protagonist, but seemed far too mature and savvy for someone who had spent six years in a camp and received no education (or interacted with any boys) since she was ten. While I did like her a lot, her insta-love relationship with Liam really came out of nowhere and was reciprocated almost instantly. I was also disappointed that we did not see more of her learning to use her powers. Her time spent with Clancy was largely off page and occurred over a non-specified time period.The other protagonists also had varying degrees of development. While we do learn more about Liam, Chubs and Zu as the story progresses, the story seemed to have some gaping holes that were not explored. When did Zu lose her voice? Why was Chubs so reluctant to lose his power? Why were the characters so painfully unaware of Jack's situation? What did the flashes that Ruby saw in Cate's mind mean? Hopefully, these are things that will be addressed in a future novel.I also felt that Clancy was introduced far too late in the novel to build any true sense of threat. The danger that he poses in the story feels very small potatoes, and is only really felt in the novel's final quarter. Again, this is something that I am sure will be focused on in future novels but was not felt much here.So, all in all, I was left feeling unimpressed. I did not dislike this story, but I was not blow away either. However, it does show potential and I will certainly be reading on to see if things pick up in the next volume.

WHAT !!!! No Wait?!?! That's it ????? I'm sorry but it can't just finish like that...... come on !!!!!!!!Holy crap bags Batman this book is sooo good.I mean this is actually a bump into someone on purpose, just to be able to talk to someone about it good.So this is a normal little girls story. We shall call her Ruby.Now Ruby is just about to have her 10th birthday and dang it, she manages to wipe her parents memories just by giving them a kiss on their cheeks as they are sleeping.Ruby is an Orange! !!Kids are basically dropping dead around about 10yrs old and up, not all of them do though and they develop these powers that range from electricity to mind control.So, after they report a stranger ( but not really ) in their kitchen, Rubys parents ship her off to a camp to "help" her to get better.The camps are supposed to be a good thing and parents willingly send their children however the kids are treated like cattle.Depending on the power they are put into groups green, yellow, orange blue and red.After escaping from the camp Ruby meets up with Chubs, Zu and Liam (swoon).These guys are amazing and their friendship blooms before our eyes.This book is filled with everything, friendship, love, loss and betrayal.DROP WHAT EVER YOU ARE DOING AND READ THIS BOOK NOW

4.5 starsWow wow wow!! I can't even process what has just happened. This book has had me all over the place but it certainly did not disappoint! I felt so many emotions and literally cried real tears at the end.. I loved it! So I guess you are wondering why not 5 stars? I feel at the start it took forever to get into but I am so glad I stuck with it.Ruby is nearing 10 years old, she's living the best life out a bad situation. She has loving parents, a good home, loads of friends, well the ones she hasn't lost yet. What happens when a sickness unravels the country? A sickness that scares the nation, a sickness they cannot find a cure for? What if suddenly no one remembers you.. you are alone.. forced to a camp with kids who all have a "sickness".I absolutely adored the concept of this book, the characters were all so likeable, loveable and extremely unique. I had read over half way through the book and the film came out at the cinema, in true Amanda ways I rushed to go see it and while I thought the film was ok I was disappointed they missed out so much of the book and thought damn now I've ruined the rest of the book for myself, boy was I wrong! It is completely different, the book is way better and I did not expect any of it.Our characters were so strong, first, we have Ruby, just when you think she is going to be a complete pushover she pulls it out the bag. She is so likeable, and I usually hate leading ladies!! There was no insta love she was just trying to find her way like any normal teenager. I loved her. We had Zu, Oh my god my heart melted with her!! I absolutely adored her from the start. Chubs had me giggling all the way through the book because he was just hilarious, once again like a normal teen. Then we had Liam, our swoon-worthy knight in shining armour who you instantly like (and can I just say Harris Dickinson who plays him in the movie does not disappoint either!). Lastly, we have Charles.. oh I have a love-hate relationship with him!! I like a good but bad guy.. who doesn't?!I loved how everyone had their own unique abilities even though they were all bundled into colours - it was really cool. It set the bar as you thought they were all going to be the same with the same powers yadda yadda yadda but it wasn't. It was fresh and I liked it a lot! I feel there was plenty of growth in the story and it all tied up nicely- what wasn't to like?! (well except the non-consensual kissing part.. creepy jumps at you).I feel the book is like x-men but kids.. kinda like what New Mutants is going to be like next year. I think if the film stuck to more like the book it would have been a major hit like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner, such a shame they changed it so much like they did with Divergent! Give it a read you won't be disappointed."Did you know... you make me so happy that sometimes I actually forget to breathe? I'll be looking at you, and my chest will get so tight... and it's like, the only thought in my head is how much I want to reach over and kiss you."

This book took a while to get moving but god, it was worth the wait! When I reached the last few chapters I was hesitant merely because I was so emersed in Ruby's world I didn't want to leave it.And, as a writer myself, I'm so jealous of Alexandra Bracken for conjouring up such a realistic novel with a brilliant plot. Her character are so realistic I felt like we were close friends after the first few chapters - HOW does she do that?! The ending admittedly made me cry; but hey hum, it's not really real, even if it seems so convincingly so!If you haven't read this yet - what on earth are you waiting for, GET ON WITH IT!!!!P.S. Anyone know the superglue the publishers have coated the book with? I have a craft project underway and my current glue's a bit dodgy... ;)