A great follow-up expansion to The Darkest Minds trilogy.
Genre: Y/A, Dystopian, Science Fiction
No. of pages: 400
IN TIME
Gabe’s life has been devastated in the wake of the economic crash. The only option left for someone like him to escape his tragic past is to leave his small town behind and to attempt to become a skiptracer. This already almost-impossible task is made all the more difficult by his first “score,”a young girl who won’t speak, but who changes his life in ways he could never imagine.
SPARKS RISE
Sam didn’t think things could get worse at Thurmand rehabilitation camp. Then the Reds arrive. Everyone assumed the kids with firepower had been killed years ago. Instead they were taken away, brainwashed, and returned as terrifyingly effective guards. To her horror, Sam recognizes one of them: Lucas, the one spark of light in Sam’s dark childhood. Lucas has a deadly secret–he beat the brutal training that turned his fellow Reds into mindless drones. When Sam defends herself against an attack by a vile PSF guard and faces a harrowing punishment, Lucas must risk everything to save her.
BEYOND THE NIGHT
The government-run “rehabilitation camps” have been shut down, but kids with Psi powers are anything but free. Sam would rather be on her own than put in the care of a foster family and given the “cure”–a dangerous procedure that unclaimed kids across the country are being forced to undergo. But there’s more at stake than just her own safety. Sam once made someone a promise, and the time has come to fulfill it. Now that she’s out of her camp, Mia only has one thought in her head: finding Lucas, her beloved older brother.
Initially, I started this but it did not grab my attention straight away, so I ended putting it down for a while to read some other books before returning. These were brutal. Just a stark reminder of the challenges the surviving kids afflicted with powers face. We get snippets to fill in gaps that were left out of the narrative from the main trilogy, the first (In Time) follows a skip tracer who captures Zu; the second (Sparks Rise) follows Sam and Lucas as they handle the end of the camp and try to bring their trio family back together; and finally (Beyond the Night) which takes place after the trilogy ends, seeing the conclusion to Sam, Lucas, and Mia’s plight together with the OG gang led by Ruby and a picture of what the world is like in the aftermath of the camps being shut down.
All the stories were interesting, had small arcs or character development and really helped to flesh out ‘The Darkest Minds’ universe. Alexandra Bracken knows how to write novellas, some other franchises that have added novellas to their catalogue have not pulled it off to this standard. Since I started reading ‘The Darkest Minds’ back in 2016, I was not tired of the story or her writing.
This collection has sparked my curiosity again and I am looking into purchasing ‘The Darkest Legacy’ to follow an older Zu. Plus, I’m really curious to see how the world has adapted to super powered teens, and if in fact the next generation continues to develop abilities, or if they have found a solution to quash these burgeoning powers.
The characters are relatable and I had compassion for all the protagonists. It was also a treat to read three stories where you could have a reprieve and go off and indulge in another book, or get on with the days chores. They were short, sweet, and easily digestible.
I don’t feel you are missing out on anything if you don’t read this after the original trilogy however. There is no new twist, no big revelations, ‘Through the Dark’ merely extends the universe slightly and is more service for the fans.
Overall feeling: she cute.
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Casey Carlisle 