Alexandra Bracken’s In the After Light is the final book in the Darkest Minds Trilogy. It picks up not long after the bombing of Los Angeles. Ruby and the remnants of the Children’s League are trapped in the ruined city. Ruby and the kids who survived the bombing escape the city and set up refuge in the north. The Children’s League is fractured, but Ruby and Cole, Liam’s mysterious older brother, take leadership of the surviving kids and begin to plan for the future. Sadly, not everyone supports. To make matters worse, evil genius Clancy is their prisoner, and Ruby is the only one with any chance of keeping him in check.
This novel marks the tail end of Ruby’s development as a character. She has gone from fearing her powers to accepting the fact that she needs them. She has gone from hopeless to hopeful, weak to strong. She has loved many and lost many as well. She does everything she can to protect the people she loves, including keeping secrets. From experience, all readers know that nothing good happens when an important secret is finally made public. Her secrets cause rifts in her friendships and Ruby must deal with the aftershock of all her decisions. Ruby is a phenomenal character and it is sad that this is her last book.
In the After Light was amazing. It was a faced paced book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Plot twists come out of nowhere and fracture your heart. Characters are constantly in danger of being killed or mentally exploding from the pressure put on them. Ruby has grown a lot as a character and seeing the world from her mind is both a limited and expansive experience. Unlike previous entries in the series, there are very few relaxing moments. It is all high energy and high emotions as the characters begin to keep secrets from each other. This book is full of teenage angst and lack of communication. . In this novel, the world of the Darkest Minds is expanded upon. The story is well written and truly finishes this amazing series. While reading this book, I recommend thinking about this phrase; the darkest minds never fade in the after light. It is combination of all three title of the book and can be applied to many of the characters in this story. I give this 537 page book 5 stars.
Series Analysis
The Darkest Minds is an amazing trilogy. In this dystopian or post-apocalyptic world, many children have been infected with a disease know as IAAN (Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration). While the disease kills most kids, those who survive have amazing psychic abilities. Sadly, many of these survivors are sent to labor camps. This series is full of dimensional characters with traumatic pasts and deep emotions, plot twists that will tear apart your heart, and a fast paced story telling. It is an amazing series that has won 4.35 stars on goodreads and a perfect 5 stars on this site. This book combines fantasy with a dystopian setting and is recommended for anyone who is a lover of those genres.
The Darkest Minds
The Darkest Minds series takes place in a dystopian world. Many of the children in this world are infected with Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration (IAAN). Those who survive IAAN have psychic abilities and sent to labor camps where they are closed off from society. The ways the childern manifest their powers is determined by color. Blues are telekinetic, Greens have photographic memory and are incredibly smart, Yellows are electro kinetic (have power of electricity), Oranges can control a person’s thoughts and actions as well as see into a person’s mind, and Reds can create and control fire. Kids who escaped form tribes and the Children's League works to free the children, but don't really offer the kids the freedom they promise.