Throwback Thursday Reveiw: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

 Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature & linkup here at I Heart YA Fiction where we will be reviewing older releases and/or books that have been on our shelves for awhile. Feel free to participate by reading from the bottom of your shelf and adding links to your reviews of older titles! We would love to read your Throwback Reviews! 

This week's feature?

Release Date: December 18, 2012 

Publisher: Disney Hyperion  

Pages: 488
Source: ARC from a friend

ISBN-10: 1423157370

Rating: 5 Hearts (Repost from 2013)

Book Description

"When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control. Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living."

Review

Short and Sweet:

Such a cool, cool book. I LOVED the characters. Loved them. They were so real, and wonderful: I felt what they were feeling. Believable to the point of missing them when I turned the final page! Easy, easy, easy 5 star rating!

To Elaborate....

From the very first page I was loving this book. Ruby's back story is just vibrantly emotional and heartbreaking. I was immediately interested and invested in her. It also doesn't take long for the action to begin in this one and once it does it never lets up. 

The struggles the characters face and the world they live in are all at once terrifying and heartbreaking. This is a world where these misunderstood children are dehumanized and cast off to what are essentially prisons and forgotten about by the world as a whole. The government pretends to be rehabilitating these 'dangerous' tiny citizens, but in reality they have a much darker plan for the most powerful among them and keep the remaining children detained and controlled through a mix of intimidation and bullying. 

Reading The Darkest Minds was much like watching a fast-paced thriller movie. Every time you thought you had a minute to catch your breath some new (or old) threat would present itself. It was literally unputdownable and a standout read among it's peers. The ending is so unexpected and badass that the sequel is now one of my most anticipated 2013 reads!

Your post doesn't have to be on Thursday to participate! Just link up your own reviews of recently (or not so recently) read older books!