It all comes down to this. The actions and decisions in Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds Trilogy have culminated in In the Afterlight, an action-packed finale rife with high tension, character conflicts, and a main character perspective so layered and different you can’t help but feel for Ruby in the midst of this mounting finale.

Ruby can’t look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government’s attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. With them is a prisoner – Clancy Gray, the son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers. Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds. The survivors are armed with one volatile secret: proof of a government conspiracy to cover up the real cause of IAAN, the disease that has killed most of America’s children and left Ruby and others like her with powers the government will kill to keep contained. But internal strife may destroy their only chance to liberate the “rehabilitation camps” housing thousands of other Psi kids. Meanwhile, reunited with Liam, the boy she sacrificed everything for to keep alive, Ruby must face the painful repercussions of having tampered with his memories of her. She turns to Cole, his older brother, to provide the intense training she knows she will need to take down Gray and the government. But Cole has demons of his own, and one fatal mistake may be the spark that sets the world on fire.

From the get-go, there is palpable tension between Cole and Liam, and Ruby is stuck in the middle. She sees both sides, tries to understand the pros and cons of both of their plans, but there is a part of her that knows what Cole is going through and feels a similar way. It’s not romantic, but it certainly isn’t something light that can be brushed off, especially when the others don’t know the true dangers of those around them – including Cole and Ruby. This dilemma makes for great character conflicts, internal struggles, and character-driven pressure on the action and systems in place. Chubs and Vida have their own feelings thrown into the mix – Vida’s more volatile than Chubs’s – which further complicates things for Ruby, and puts the whole operation on thin ice.

It is really interesting to see the relationships develop in In the Afterlight, not just between Ruby and the other main characters, but between everyone in the background and walking the walls of the safe houses. Seeing how leaders are created, sided with, and how influence shifts from one side to the other knowing what is happening behind the scenes creates this sense of anticipation. Who will have their way? What will the final plan be? Who will Ruby support? Who will agree with Ruby? No rebellion can be lead by a single person, but, as the saying goes, too many cooks spoil the broth. While the science fiction elements of this might not be so believable, there is a great understanding of how figures in power work, and how influential charisma and charm can be.

I quite like the progression of operations and conflicts in this book. It feels both well thought out and miscalculated, like all the known factors were accounted for but those unknowns caused a world of difference and had a massive impact on the end result. Again, I don’t mind that some things feel a little juvenile or under developed seeing as these are kids making these decisions (Liam is eighteen here, but he is still a kid to me). Cate and Cole are adults, Cate more so than Cole, but even then opinions are skewed and the other adults brought in seem to submit to the authority of these late teens and young adults. It is all fun and fiction, but it is following a fairly sensible path in the overall trajectory of things.

I enjoyed this book, though the final conflict was a little lacklustre for me. Overall there was a lot going on both politically and socially here, and there is a lot of depth in terms of of characters and relationships that make the novel feel complex and drum up tension. I do think The Darkest Minds trilogy is a good recommendation for YA dystopian and YA sci-fi readers, especially those who aren’t super interested in the romance side of things (there is romance, but it doesn’t ride at the forefront of the overall narrative). This series does have mentions of death and violence, but there are many themes that make reading this so worthwhile.