Book Review: In the Afterlight

In The Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the Afterlight is the third and final installment in the Darkest Minds trilogy by Alexandra Bracken. This installment follows Ruby, Liam, Chubs, and the rest of the gang following the climactic scene in the previous book. Everything comes to a head as Ruby, having finally accepted who she is with her powers, risks everything to regain her freedom, and the freedom of every child affected by the IAAN virus.

This must be the year of stellar finales, because this is the second one I've read that has hit all the right notes at the right time, and was generally an excellent book.

I loved seeing Ruby act the way she did in this book, especially when compared to who she was only two books ago. She knew who she was, and she wasn't afraid of her ability anymore, but that didn't mean she was ok with the abilities themselves. It's difficult to separate those kind of things, but she did (finally) and it made her a stronger person.

All the relationships. ALL OF THEM. Were delightful. Whether you were reading a scene with Ruby and Liam, Ruby and Cole, Chubs and Vida, even Ruby and Clancy, were dynamic and thorough looks at the different ways a person can mean to someone.

This book works through the struggles put up through the stellar worldbuilding Bracken has developed, which is not only impressive in its own right, but downright scary, since I felt that the way the government and the country had devolved was something not too far off from what the real world is capable of right now. A place where people can live and love and go about their lives, while consciously ignoring injustices that are literally happening in their backyard right now. Doesn't sound too fictional, does it?

All in all, I loved this installment. Each of these books has a unique personality and identity that totally sets them apart from each other, but also complements each other in a way that a trilogy ought to. I honestly can't tell you which I would save in a fire, because they're all uniquely incredible. The ending may have felt a little rushed, but that also might just be me. I've noticed that after all the buildup of previous books, any ending of a big struggle seems a little bit strange to the point where you don't always believe it. But I'm babbling. On to the next book in my (immortal) TBR shelf.

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Never Fade

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Never Fade is the sequel to Alexandra Bracken's The Darkest Minds. (Spoilers for DM ahead.) In this installment, the story begins a few months after Ruby has joined the Children's League. During a mission, the team picks up Cole Stewart, Liam's brother. He reveals to Ruby that he met Liam while he was out on his mission, and that Liam unknowingly has a vital piece of information that the League is desperate to get back. Fearful that they might discover Liam, Ruby sets out on an off-book mission to find him and retrieve the info. With her are Jude, a overfriendly Yellow, and Vida, the blue-haired foulmouthed Blue, as well as a few familiar faces. Once more, Ruby must figure out who to trust, as the puzzle pieces falling into place prove to be even more complex than she had believed.

Wow, I say. Wow. This sequel doesn't give you time to take a breath, much less slow down long enough to get bored.

So, I'll start this off by saying what I've said before about Alexandra Bracken, and what I'll probably keep saying until I die, and that is she possesses the unique ability of originality. This doesn't have to do with her concept of plot, though it is. It's her ability to A) make her setting incredibly plausible, so much so that I could see this future playing out, under the given circumstances. It is also B) to construct characters entirely individual from each other. Her voice is in the story, but the characters read as their own selves. For example, you have some characters who are innocent (relatively): Zu and Jude, for instance. These two on their own are two different flavors of innocent. Then you have characters that sound nothing like anyone else in the book apart from themselves. The one that stands out the most like this is Vida. She gets compared to Chubs a bit, but to me, she read as wholly distinct from any other character present in the book. She's (arguably) very bitchy and rude, but then she has this unwavering, almost naive loyalty towards Cate and the League.

Speaking of Cate, you also have the unique dynamic of mixed morality and moral grey areas in this book. In a lot of dystopians, you get the idea that whatever is the antagonistic element of the dystopia is very definitive. There's no need to worry about who's good and who's bad; it's spelled out. Here, however, there is none of that. There's a situation which everyone seen has a different viewpoint or conflict on. There's organizations based around the IAAN virus, on both sides, but none of them are unequivocally in the right or in the wrong. Again, Cate is a good example of this. She simplified truths, even lied on certain occasions, to Ruby, but then we see a very maternal side of her, which confuses the reader and has them wondering what they're supposed to think about her. And she certainly isn't the only character like that. *SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT* on the subject of Ruby erasing Liam's mind, both of them stand on different ends of that spectrum, yet both have very good points supporting their opinion. In the end, I couldn't figure out which I agreed with more, Liam or Ruby.

Never Fade is a fantastic book, equally as strong as its predecessor, and I cannot wait for the third one. Not only will we finish the sentence (THE DARKEST MINDS NEVER FADE...) but we will also see the fallout from this book. It wasn't left on a cliffhanger, but we are left with no confusion to the fact that s*** is gonna go down.

Ta ta.


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The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Darkest Minds is a dystopian novel by Alexandra Bracken. In the future, a deadly disease has gone through and damaged the population of children considerably. Those that survived have begun to manifest unique abilities, and no one knows how to handle it. The government finally decides to round up the children and place them in institutions in order to research and possibly find a cure. What those not in the loop don't know is that these institutions are little better than concentration camps, where life is miserable at best, and short-lived at worst. The protagonist Ruby has a past even darker and more twisted than her inmates, and when a possibility of escape arrives, she soon realizes that life on the outside is stranger and more complicated than even she could expect.

This book snuck up on me with how attached I got to it. I was reading along, not thinking I was too invested in it yet, and the next day, it was all I could think about. All I wanted to do was get back to my room so I could sit there and find out what would happen next to Ruby, Liam, Chubs, and Suzume. Something I found interesting was that, at least in the beginning, Ruby is not some strong, brave, defiant heroine whose goal is to take down the system. She's the character you typically scoff at, that you yell at your pages to because they won't stand up and DO something. Because that's realistic. Ruby has been living in what could be considered a concentration camp for six years, told on a daily basis that she's worthless, better off dead, with no forseeable escape. Keeping your head down would be what I would do, at least, and it drew me to Ruby because it made her seem more real. And it doesn't stop the second the plot shifts, but it's a continuing issue with her that she has to overcome throughout the novel.

However, once she grows and begins to realize her self worth, she becomes one of the strongest characters in this book, which I loved. Nothing makes me smile more than visible character development.

I also thought the world building in this was incredibly well done. In Shatter Me, for example, everything is spot on, but the world it takes place in seems a bit randomized, and not entirely developed (though we've been told that will be resolved in the upcoming sequel). The Darkest Minds is one of the better set up dystopians I've read, not simply because it's detailed, but because it is realistic (that word again) to the point where if something like this were to happen, I'd imagine it would go down in a similar way. Alexandra Bracken knows how to spin an amazing impossible tale, and give it a thread of reality strong enough to make it incredible.

And that ending? FOR REAL?!?!?! I can't simply wait around for a sequel with an ending like that! Give me Never Fade, NOW!!!

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