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The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1)

Alexandra Bracken

Start date: April 12, 2014

Finish date: April 30, 2014

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What Members Thought

Aug 12, 2018 Vanessa Gayle ⚔️ Fangirl Faction rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: zz-rrrc-mag-feb-2023-list, audio, series-to-finish-or-catch-up-on, own-ebook-read, reviewed, dystopian, fantasy, favorites, wish-list-physical, science-fiction

This review MAY contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

While there is a ton of hype about this book, I purposefully declined to read any reviews of this book so that my expectations wouldn't skyrocket. That is a surefire way to pave the road to disappointment. I knew that I wanted to read this book before I saw the movie based on it. (That was just released!) I'm happy to say that I wasn't disappointed in the slightest! The opposite actually. I loved it!

The first thing that you will notice when This review MAY contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

While there is a ton of hype about this book, I purposefully declined to read any reviews of this book so that my expectations wouldn't skyrocket. That is a surefire way to pave the road to disappointment. I knew that I wanted to read this book before I saw the movie based on it. (That was just released!) I'm happy to say that I wasn't disappointed in the slightest! The opposite actually. I loved it!

The first thing that you will notice when starting this book is how atmospheric it is. Bracken describes things so vividly that you can feel yourself in the main character's shoes. You can feel the air around her, the rain on her skin, and the turmoil inside her.

What makes this book incredible is that it has the best of both worlds. It has an incredibly real world and the character development is perfect.

The world building is superb. The book starts out right in the dead center of the main conflict surrounding the story. I loved the powers that the surviving kids gained and the descriptions of life inside the detention camps. The foreshadowing was written well. Bits and pieces of the world came as the story progressed.

The characters really captured my heart. The main characters banded together and became a family. They relied on each other and helped each other. You couldn't help but love them. I loved their humor and sarcasm with one another. They felt very real and they were fully entertaining. Even the main villain was awesome because there was so much emotion. You really wanted to hate him for the way that he treated the other characters.

The romance was exactly what I like to see in a book. The characters feelings for each other grew as they got to know one another. They supported one another when the other was feeling down or upset. They care about each other's well being. In the end, one of them makes an ultimate sacrifice for the other. It was really beautiful.

While the trope of teens that get or have powers is not original or new, that did not really detract from the enjoyment of reading this. The story itself was told very well and I think that is what makes it stand out from others in this trope. The storytelling is very emotional and the reader really latches on to it.

Overall, I thoroughly recommend this book! It will captivate you from the first page. This book has a bit of everything that makes a great story. It has conflict, humor, romance, action, and thought-provoking stakes for the characters' fates. If you are a dystopian fan then I can only imagine that you will love this book. I can't wait to begin the second book of this series!

More reviews on my blog: Novel Nerd Faction ...more

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Jan 24, 2019 Susan rated it really liked it

I really liked this book. I went into it completely blind and had no clue what it was about. Hard to do when it had movie trailers showing on every TV station but I fast forwarded them and I never listened to one book review.

I tried to tell my son he had to read this book and he asked what it's about and even though I read it and loved it I find it difficult to tell him what it's about without giving away anything.

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