*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge*
Synopsis from Amazon:
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. Only Ruby can keep their highly dangerous prisoner in check. But with Clancy Gray, there’s no guarantee you’re fully in control, and everything comes with a price.
When the Children’s League disbands, Ruby rises up as a leader and forms an unlikely allegiance with Liam’s brother, Cole, who has a volatile secret of his own. There are still thousands of other Psi kids suffering in government “rehabilitation camps” all over the country. Freeing them–revealing the governments unspeakable abuses in the process–is the mission Ruby has claimed since her own escape from Thurmond, the worst camp in the country.
But not everyone is supportive of the plan Ruby and Cole craft to free the camps. As tensions rise, competing ideals threaten the mission to uncover the cause of IAAN, the disease that killed most of America’s children and left Ruby and others with powers the government will kill to keep contained. With the fate of a generation in their hands, there is no room for error. One wrong move could be the spark that sets the world on fire.
I can’t believe this trilogy is over. It’s so hard to leave these characters because it they were so good (or bad)! And the ending was perfect as well, which is a rarity for these dystopian trilogies.
In the Afterlight started very closely to where Never Fade ended, with Ruby and the crew trying to find a way out of the recently destroyed L.A. After finally securing a way out and making there way to the Children’s League old headquarters, the group stumbles across old friends and encounter multiple issues.
Once at the headquarters things go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds with high stakes, raised tensions, and various opinions trying to figure out the best way to free the camps and find the cure to IAAN, the disease that made these kids who they are.
Ruby struggles to keep all her secrets in check, especially Cole’s dark secret, and struggles to maintain a relationship with Liam. Liam’s not innocent either, keeping his own secrets. They both struggle to trust each other when they need each other the most, causing more harm than good.
Meanwhile there’s multiple plans in motion to save all the kids in the camp and change the scope of America for the better. Unfortunately things have to get much worse before they get any better and everyone’s lives are put at risk and many are lost.
This book took me on a roller coaster of emotions. I was stressed, happy, sad, upset, angry, and annoyed. I wanted Ruby to me honest about her feelings and secrets with Liam. I wanted to give all these kids a hug. I wanted to slap President Gray, his whole family, and all the PSFs. More than anything I just wanted everyone to have their happy ending.
I won’t spoil the ending by saying if I got the happy ending I was looking for. What I will say is I’ve ready a lot of dystopian trilogies (The Hunger Games, Matched,etc.) and this is quite possibly the only one that gave me a satisfying ending. It was realistic and of course the world wasn’t perfect by the time it ended but enough was resolved for me to believe it would be.
If you haven’t given The Darkest Minds trilogy a try yet you definitely need. It’s worth a read and you won’t regret it. Thanks to Kieran Scott for recommending the series to me and giving me the last book. One of the greatest books I’ve read in a while. Check it out.
*Side note: I really loved the fact that when you put all the titles together of the trilogy it says, “The Darkest Minds Never Fade In The Afterlight.” Cool.
Favorite Line:
“What I’m trying to get at is, as bad as everything seems, I think, at its heart, life is good. It doesn’t throw anything at us that it knows we can’t handle—and, even if it takes its time, it turns everything right side up again.”
Stars: 5 out of 5. So good! I want to read this whole trilogy over again. Especially knowing how it all ends now, reading it again would be interesting.
Borrow or Buy: Buy!!! For explanation please see previous.
Other Reviews
Zakiya N. Jamal 
i’ll definitely read the trilogy too… good review. 🙂
Do it!! It’s so good!!!
Thanks… 🙂
No problem