The Darkest Minds

Alexandria Bracken

Reviewed by Richard Zhang

Fall 2016

REVIEW: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

THE STORY:

When a disease known as IANN hits America, many of the youth die, leaving only a small percentage of children as the next generation. These remaining children are not normal, as they seem to have been given freakishly powerful traits and abilities. Each group of children is organized into red, green, orange, yellow, or blue, some being more dangerous than others. To control the remaining youth population, rehabilitation camps have been created, but the public doesn’t know the truth
about the camps, that the children inside are living in appalling conditions. Ruby Elizabeth Daly is a sixteen-year-old orange girl who has been in one of these camps for multiple years. Being in one of the most dangerous and uncommon categories, she manages to lie her way into being put in green. After being broken out by a group known as the Children’s League, she finds out the truth about their true intentions to exploit the children's abilities for cheap labor, and flees from them, finding her way into a group of kids trying to find the East River, a safe area in Virginia run by children. When they eventually reach the East River, Ruby is already good friends with people in the group, including Liam, the leader of the bunch, and Chubs, who seems to criticize every decision made.. The leader of the East River is Clancy Gray, the president’s rebellious teenage son, who is also an orange. Ruby makes good friends with Clancy, who teaches her how to control and use her abilities, but also rudely says she is too social for being orange, as oranges usually end up alone from the rareness of them. Ruby is left to choose between Clancy, someone more like herself, or Liam, someone who she trusts more and is a better friend. (299)

MY OPINION:

In this book, I found a very exciting and interesting story of a girl having to choose between what she is told and what she believes. At parts in the story, I could relate to the main character’s stress feelings, and struggles, and I could definitely tell that the author was trying to relate to problems faced by the targeted age to read. I could recommend this read for someone in the sixth to eighth grade, as I feel that some of the vocabulary and infrequent use of strong language may make it hard for a younger child to read, and that the problems faced by the main character would not be very relatable for a full grown adult, or even an older kid, making the story much less interesting for anyone of an older age group. Given the option, I would absolutely go back in time to my past self at the library undecidedly picking out books to read and tell myself to choose the one I almost didn’t, the one I am glad I did. As a final rating, I would give this book nine and a half stars out of ten for the exciting storyline and relatable experiences.(201)

STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY:

FIRST SECTION

1. What is the name of the person who broke Ruby out of Thurmond by pretending to be a doctor?

1a. Her name is cate, and she goes by Dr. Begbie to protect her identity. (pg. 39)

2. What is the truth about Cate, and what are her real intentions?

2a. She is part of the Children’s League to supposedly help kids, but it turns out that all they actually care about is putting the kids to work. (pg. 112)

3. Why is the especially skinny boy nicknamed Chubs?

3a. He is called Chubs because he was a fat kid before he was starved and put to hard labor at a “rehabilitation” prison camp. (pg. 114)

4. What did the group with the black minivan name it? (the black minivan, not the group)

4a. They called the minivan “Black Betty”. (pg. 112)

5. Why did Zu completely obliterate the coffeepot?

5a. She destroyed the coffeepot because Ruby found a camera on it and was worried about it. (pg. 145)

Shoddy (pg. 26)

Inexplicable (pg. 7)

Hesitant (pg. 70)

Intermittent (pg.96)

Rousing (pg. 142)

MIDDLE SECTION

6. Where did the group stay for the night in which Zu had an awful nightmare?

6a. They had decided to take shelter in an abandoned motel with running hot water. (pg. 185)

7. What were the only restaurant chains open in Virginia from the terrible economy?

7a. After the economy took a dive, the only two restaurant chains left in Virginia were Cracker Barrel and the Waffle House. (pg. 212)

8. What is Chubs’ response to being asked about who taught him to sew?

8a. After being asked about who taught him to sew, Chubs gave a long lecture about how he was not sewing, but he was stitching and about the difference between the two. (pg. 257)

9. What was the solution to the “edo” riddle?

9a. The solution to the riddle was that each letter represented a number according to its place in the alphabet, but “o” just meant zero. The solution was to tune in to radio channel 540 AM, where more information was given. (pg. 262)

10. How does the rest of the group react to Ruby’s lie about her color?

10a. They weren’t angry at her about it, but they also weren’t the happiest about it. Ruby also finds out that they honestly didn’t care about what group she fell into, and she realized that lying about it seemed pointless. (pg. 304)

Feeble (pg. 173)

Adversity (pg. 177)

Discoloration (pg. 192)

Palpable (pg. 209)

Bookended (pg. 288)

                               

LAST SECTION

11. Who does the powerful and amazing leader of the East River actually turn out to be?

11a. The East River is lead by Clancy Gray, the president’s son. (pg. 334)

12. What is being served for dinner during the first night of Ruby’s stay at the East River?

12a. The first night, chili is being served for dinner, and Ruby is amazed by the fact that someone had put any amount of effort into her food after seven years of eating garbage quality slop. (pg. 342)

13. What does Clancy tell Ruby about what happened to the reds?

13a. He tells her that they suffered a fate much worse than death, one of being forced into the army for their practicalities in combat. (pg. 367)

14. Where does Zu plan to go live, and why does she want to go there?

14a. She plans to make the long journey to California to see her parents. (pg. 397)

15. Why does Ruby press the panic button?

15a. She presses it because Chubs had just been badly hurt and needed a hospital immediately. (pg. 470)

Scandalize (pg. 335)

Sordid (pg. 336)

Frivolously (pg. 343)

Revulsion (pg. 439)

Insubordination (pg. 473)