The Darkest Minds


The Darkest Minds
Information
Author/s	Alexandra Bracken
Release Date	December 18th, 2012
Publisher	Disney Hyperion
Series	The Darkest Minds Series
Pages	488
Chronology
Preceded by N/A	Followed by In Time
Release Order
Released after N/A	Released before Never Fade

The Darkest Minds is the first novel in the Darkest Minds Series by Alexandra Bracken. Film adaption: The Darkest Minds (film)

Synopsis[]

“	They were never scared of the kids who might die, or the empty spaces they would leave behind. They were scared of us - the ones who lived.	”
–Alexandra Bracken

When teens mysteriously develop powerful new abilities, they are declared a threat by the government and detained. One of the most powerful young people, Ruby, escapes from her camp and joins a group of runaways who are seeking a safe haven East River. In the novel, The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken, Ruby and her friends Liam Stewart Charles (Chubs) Meriwether, Suzume (Zu) face life and death situations and hardships.

Plot[]

Children start dying left, right and center because of Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration or IAAN for short. The disaease kills 98% of children in the United States, and a few other cases show up internationally. The surviving kids gain powers that are separated into five main categories that are a rough outline of powers, red, orange, yellow, green, or blue. Children in parts of the United States are sheltered from what is going on, such as Ruby Elizabeth Daly. Ruby was unaware of the disease until one of her classmates Grace Somerfield. Children would be given a list containing information about the symptoms of IAAN to be given to their parents, which the children would be banned from reading.

The night before Ruby's tenth birthday, she accidentally erased herself from her parents' minds. When Ruby wakes up the next morning, her mother locks her in the garage and calls the cops on her. The Psi Special Forces, or PSF for short, collect her and send her to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp” On the bus that she arrives in, an older orange boy convinces a guard to kill herself in order to act as a distraction so he could escape. The act instills fear in not only her but the other children. Thurmond had been opened for a year when Ruby had arrived, so she was able to get a look at how the different colors were treated. Greens and blues were considered very safe, so they were allowed to walk with their hands free. Yellows and reds were considered dangerous so they were forced o walk with their hands and feet in metal cuffs, a long chain connecting them in a line. Oranges were treated the worst, since they were forced to wear cuffs like the reds and yellows, while also being forced to wear a muzzle.

Everyone on the bus is taken to the infirmary, since they could only be tested using x-ray machines. Ruby is diagnosed as an orange, and thanks to her remembering how other oranges were treated gives her the strength to use her powers and convince the doctor testing her that she was a green. The doctor, unable to resist her powers, switches the classification. Ruby is then taken with the green girls on her bus to cabin 27, and she quickly makes fast friends with Samantha Dahl, the green girl who slept on the bed above her.

When Ruby is sixteen years old, the Children's League sends agents to find reds, oranges and yellow kids hiding in the camps in order to extradite them from the camps so that the League could use them. Catherine "Cate" Connor is assigned to Thurmond and manages to trick the PSFs and other camp controllers to blast Calm Control over the entire camp. The Children's League had managed to find certain frequencies that only a certain color could hear in order to discover kids hiding as the wrong color in the camp without letting anyone anyone else know. The sound causes Ruby to pass out and Martin Dunn to get sick. Cate offers both kids a way out of the camp, and they both accept when she convinces them that the PSFs are going to kill them, as they found out both were orange.

Cate hides Martin in a medical waste storage container and gives Ruby drugs that give her a seizure. Catherine is able to get both kids out of the camp and switches cars before both of them wake up again. Cate answers Ruby's questions and reveals that the government believes that there are less than two hundred and fifty thousand children in the United States, while the Children's League believe there is merely a tenth of that. The three of them meet up with Rob Meadows, another Children's League agent, at a gas station at the edge of Marlinton, and when Ruby's hand accidentally brushes past Robs, she finds out that Rob killed the two kids he had managed to find in his own assigned camp.

Ruby and Martin are sent inside the gas station to change since their camp uniforms could give them away for what they were. While Martin is in the bathroom, Ruby spots Suzume (Zu) Kimura taking food from the shelves and pursues her to a van called Black Betty. Zu lets Ruby into the van after some begging. After a minute, Liam Stewart and Charles Meriwether appear and start the van. They all drive away, unaware that Ruby is hiding in the van. Liam drives, while Chubs sits in the passenger seat. Ruby, still hidden in the back of the van, under a sheet jumps up when Rob, Martin and Cate figure out that Ruby is missing and drive after them. One of them shoots at the van. Liam hears the gunshot and stops the car. Ruby reveals herself and Liam almost crashes the van out of surprise. When the league agents finally catch up to Zu and her companions, Liam throws a tree in front of their vehicle so they can no longer keep up the group.

As the group is driving away from the crash site, Liam explains that all three of them had been from a camp, Caledonia, Ohio. He explains that Zu had been there for two years, Chubs was there for a year and a half, and Liam had been there for a year. Ruby is surprised with how little time they had spent at the camp, and when they explain how long it had been, is surprised to find out that six years had passed. Ruby passes out, and the groups stops at East River Camping Grounds, near Kingwood Virginia in an attempt to find East River. After some exploring, Ruby and Zu stumble into a camper, Ruby finds a security camera and hits it with a coffee pot and Zu uses her powers to destroy it.

They quickly leave, and on the drive the crew catches Ruby up on Jack Fields and how the government read everything posted online. After traveling for a little while some skip-tracers find the group and use white noise to cause a crash. Ruby, who had realized that there was about to be an attack, switches the radio as loud as she can in an attempt to block some of the noise, but is unable to stop the attack. The skip-tracers pull the kids from the van and Liam is positively ID-ed. Ruby, who is mostly used to the White Noise, is able to use her powers to send the group away. She grabs everyone and drives away, realizing that Zu had murdered a person on accident, and crashed two cars.

When the others wake up, Ruby is upset when they tell her that they had never heard white noise. Eventually the group stops at a motel for the night and Ruby learns about what really happens at Caledonia because Ruby accidentally uses her powers to see into the girls dream. She wakes up scared, before Liam is able to calm her down. Eventually they get up and start moving East, eventually stopping at a Walmart. Ruby and Liam went in first to check out the store, but were attacked by one of Clancy Grey's tribes who were using the store as a hide out.

The four kids give some detail about what life was like at East River, and make remarks that set everyone off, so while Chubs and Liam talk with the kids, Ruby and Zu track down supplies that hadn't been lotted. Later that night as Zu and Liam sleep, Ruby and Chubs talk some about their lives, and Ruby figures out that the code "EDO" that they managed to get out of the tribe meant the 540 radio station. Ruby grabs a radio and the pair listen to a recorded message that would instruct any psi listening the location of East River. Both are excited about finding the location, so they grab their friends and start heading towards East River.

Their excitement is short lived when they hear over the news about two children, most likely from Caledonia, were captured and resent to a rehabilitation camp. Liam gets upset by the news, and stops the van. He leaves and Ruby follows after him, and she is able to calm him down before both return to the van. Lady Jane, a skip tracer, surprises the group and is able to capture the group. Ruby is able to mind control the woman and sends the woman to walk until she dies. Because she was unused to using her abilities, she passes out and is welcomed with open arms when she wakes up.

The eventually stumble upon a small group of the Slip Kids people who were raiding a truck. Mike, another of the Caledonia's survivors, tells the group to spare the four kids and leads the group to East River. At East River they find Hina and several other Caledonia survivors had managed to stumbled into the camp. They make the discovery that the Slip Kid is Clancy Gray. As they spend time in the camp, Zu, Ruby, and Liam get sucked into the magical fantasy of the camp, but Chubs is unconvinced. Ruby spends her time being trained by Clancy on the ways of an orange and Liam on being one of the protectors of the camp. Zu and Hina eventually leave with Talon, Lucy, and Kylie to head towards California to Hina's family.

Ruby, Chubs and Liam realize Clancy isn't on their side and attempt to leave the camp, but are stopped by Clancy. Clancy called in some of his army and is pissed when he realizes that the reds in Project Jamboree he wanted to help take East River were not being sent in. The three manage to make their escape, and manage to track down Jack's father. Liam, Chubs and Jack had written letters to be given to their family members in the chance they didn't survive the breakout of Caledonia. Jack had chosen his father George Fields. Chubs is chosen to deliver the letter, and is shot in the shoulder by George.

Ruby shares their location with the Children’s League, as she thinks this is the only way to save Chubs. Ruby promises the League to work for them, if they let Liam go. Ruby erases herself from Liam’s memories, as this is the only way Liam would leave her behind.

Characters[]

Mentioned

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Navigation[]

The Darkest Minds Series
Book Series	The Darkest Minds • Never Fade • In The Afterlight
Novellas	In Time • Liam's Story • Sparks Rise • Through the Dark