I love The Darkest Minds so fucking much. It’s about found family. It’s about trust and friendship. AND IT CREATES SOME OF THE BEST CHARACTERS I’VE EVER READ.
So obviously the setting. I like how much effort Alexandra Bracken puts into designing a world that I could definately foresee myself in a couple of years, especially with the rise of GMO food (agent ambrosia) and how it dives deeper into corruption and how a government works being that it never truly will care about it’s people unlike many other dystopians I’ve read. I hated Shatter me (sue me, sure.) despite how similar it is to TDM because I didn’t get a strong grasp of character and setting and it was mostly romance rather than an exploration of setting and our world.
Moving forward I LOVE THE CHARACTERS! They’re realistic and lovable and flaw…ful? Whatever. The characters have a realistic representation of trauma in all its forms, and many of the characters have real feelings and you can really understand and love them. In many YA books I feel like the main hero doesn’t really have much personality, but seeing the world from Ruby’s eyes is a breath of fresh air. She’s not bratty, but she’s not perfect either which are the two swings in YA. She constantly feels guilt, and feels real just like if you and I were in the book together, we’d understand what Ruby is going through. And Liam who on the surface is the perfect dude but really, he’s trying to deal with his trauma and guilt while simultaneously trying to keep an unhealthy, perfect facade to keep the rest of the group motivated. He has to live with the guilt of Caledonia and Cole as well as the childrens league and he learns to stop putting out a facade and just truly process his emotions. And Chubsie? My stubborn arrogant loveable grumpy bean. He’s stuck with Zu and Liam for ages and now theres a total newcomer who may or may not be a threat. How would he feel? He learns to adapt and becomes bestiessss with Ruby which is extremely wholesome. And Zu. She’s so sassy, and amazing, and a queen and yet she’s also dealing with trauma by voluntarily going into silence because she doesn’t have words to deal with her pain. She learns to speak up and become a force for good. I’d go into Vida, but I don’t think I have enough time.
I love the found family. The different groups which become like family to each other. The Original Black Betty gang consisting of liam, ruby, chubs and zu. The never fade childrens league gang which consists of nico vida ruby and jude and maybe cole. And the final new black betty gang which basically pulls Vida into the family. the beyond the night gang with sam, mia and lucas. The darkest legacy gang with priya roman zu max and mayyyyyyybe even lana if she recovers. They are all family and as ruby states family is not the place but the people you are with and these characters make each other comfortable and happy and together and just adopt random children along the way in the case of the darkest legacy gang. Lets call them the psion ring gang. I just love the found family thing that this book series creates for us.
