Staff Pick - The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

For those of you who who have finished reading the Divergent trilogy and are looking for something similar to read, the Darkest Minds series is a great choice. Similarly fast paced with a young female protagonist, The Darkest Minds is a great example of teen science fiction.

In this American dystopia, Ruby is growing up during a time of crisis. When she is 10 years old, many of the children in her class begin to die of a gene mutation that eventually kills the majority of the children in the United States. The ones left behind, which become referred to as Psi, survive because of their own gene mutations which give them special powers to control fire and electricity, to make objects fly, to have extraordinary brain powers, or to control the minds of other people. These remaining children are rounded up by the government and sent away from their families to camps intended to root out their abnormalities so that they might return to normal society.

Ruby grows up in one of these camps, but when she unexpectedly finds herself alone in the outside world, she realizes that perhaps the camps were not the altruistic organizations she was led to believe. On the outside she allies herself with three other Psi on the run - Zu, Chubs and Liam - in their quest to find the Slip Kid, a quasi-mythical figure who is rumoured to help reunite Psi with their families.

Ruby shares many qualities with Divergent's Tris, but I think I prefer Ruby's character in many ways - she seems to be quite a bit more logical in her approach to solving the problems that they encounter. I enjoyed The Darkest Minds in a similar way to Divergent - they are both fast reads, with elements of action, intrigue and romance. I am reading Never Fade, which promises to be just as interesting as the first, and a third book called In the Afterlight is due to be published in October 2014.