Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds has been one of my favourite YA dystopians for a while now. There’s something so simple and familiar about it, but it packs such a powerful punch and feels both plausible and terrifying. I liked it so much I did a high school character monologue as Ruby, and I used red liquid lipstick to create a bloody nose and blood-crusted fingertips. If that’s not a testament to the impact this story had on me as a teen, I don’t know what is.

The Darkest Minds is a YA sci-fi dystopian set sometime in the future in America. Kids have been dying due to a mystery disease that wipes out over 90% of America’s adolescent population, but the remaining kids aren’t safe. They are different. They are dangerous. Ruby, on the morning of her tenth birthday, wakes to find out her parents don’t know her, and she is taken to a government facility for “rehabilitation”. This camp, Thurmond, becomes her home for the next six years. When the Children’s League breaks her out after finding out she is different yet again, Ruby manages to free herself from her saviours and run into a group of kids who’ve escaped another camp, and joins them on their search for a safe haven.

Ruby is a great mix of naive and weary. It makes sense given the age she was when she entered the camp and the lifestyle she has been forced to abide by. Ruby is also adjusting to life outside of the camp, meaning she is finding out a lot and doing things for the first time in years, making her both someone to teach and someone to be skeptical about. The rest of the gang – Liam, Chubs, and Zu – have their own layers and backgrounds that contrast with Ruby, creating some great moments of dialogue, interactions, and key moments of tension. While they may not be the most well-rounded characters, I think they each provide something integral to the story and their relationships and interactions with each other make the story feel more wholesome, heartbreaking, and interesting.

The plot isn’t the most logical, but it isn’t without its direction. There is a sense of inevitability while inside Black Betty, their iconic mini van, that this moment of peace and security will come to an end. Whether that be because they find this safe haven or because of the various people chasing after them, there is an overarching tension that is floating over their heads. They may act in ways a teen would, say jokes and make decisions that aren’t they most thought-out, but it makes it feel more genuine of a YA fiction because of these choices. The inevitability creates a tension that builds, and with the increase in pacing as the book progresses, we get to a point where the illusion falls apart. With all the other things going on in the story world, this book ends the teenage dream of freedom and possibility and the new reality sets in.

There are limitations to the plausibility of this story world which do hinder the beliiavbility of this novel. The lack of global communication, for example, in a world where social media usage is an everyday occurrence. The political and social climate of this book doesn’t makes sense, but at the end of the day it is a work of fiction and I still enjoy the ideas and imagery of The Darkest Minds. It doesn’t really matter if the story isn’t plausible to every degree.

I am glad I reread this in my adult years, especially considering I was going to pass my copies on for someone else to pick up and enjoy. I can still get at least one last boost of serotonin from these books, and I intend to enjoy every last drop of it. The Darkest Minds in a great YA sci-fi dystopian to read as a young reader or as someone who just wants a good story with found family, characters driving around in a minivan listening to old music, and the themes and intrigue of a dystopian novel set in an identifiable earthly location.