Alexandra Bracken: The Darkest Legacy (The Darkest Minds #4) | Lara

by - 11:09 pm

Five years after the destruction of the so-called rehabilitation camps that imprisoned her and countless other Psi kids, seventeen-year-old Suzume "Zu" Kimura has assumed the role of spokesperson for the interim government, fighting for the rights of Psi kids against a growing tide of misinformation and prejudice. But when she is accused of committing a horrifying act, she is forced to go on the run once more in order to stay alive.
 
Determined to clear her name, Zu finds herself in an uncomfortable alliance with Roman and Priyanka, two mysterious Psi who could either help her prove her innocence or betray her before she gets the chance. But as they travel in search of safety and answers, and Zu grows closer to the people she knows she shouldn't trust, they uncover even darker things roiling beneath the veneer of the country's recovery. With her future-and the future of all Psi-on the line, Zu must use her powerful voice to fight back against forces that seek to drive the Psi into the shadows and save the friends who were once her protectors.
 
From #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexandra Bracken comes a harrowing story of resilience, resistance, and reckoning that will thrill loyal fans and new readers alike.

“We’ve inherited the darkest legacy, but they don’t know that we’ve learned how to thrive in shadows and create our own light.” 

While many things have changed for the better in Bracken’s dystopian America, Psi children’s problems are far from gone. Five years have passed since the fall of Thurmond and exile of president Gray. Cruz is still a president and is working towards the integration of Psi children in the society and neutralization of the substance that causes IAAN, but some of her political enemies have different plans for the oppressed and use moments od countries weakness to upgrade their agendas. Chubs and Vida are still working with government, but Ruby and Liam have gone into hiding three years ago and are governments most wanted fugitives.

Zu is seventeen, living with Cate, trying to lead a normal life… but does such a thing exist anymore for Psi? She was asked to have a public speech, and not long after happened an attempt in the assassination of which she was accused. In order to save her life and clear her name, Zu has to travel with two new acquaintances, Roman, and Priyanka, who have a handful of secrets, and even more reasons to betray her.

Well, let’s just say I expected this to be better. I’m looking at this as a separated series because that’s what it is – I’d call it more of a first book in a new trilogy featuring Zu than a fourth book in The Darkest Minds series. I went into this with high hopes for a relaxing, fun story with the characters I loved, but new concept and problems, only I fell into a loop.

I’d really like to give the author a break from all of my whining about pacing and compatibility of the plot, but I am terribly afraid that isn’t possible. Since The Darkest Legacy was published 4 years after book three, I thought (like actually thought about it, it crossed my mind like 3 or 4 times) that particular part of Bracken’s writing has gotten better, or that this 500+ page book will not be full of unnecessary watered-down parts that could have been shorter.

It began with a really promising start and for the first 20% or so I had an awesome feeling about the book. Action, betrayals, mystery, and uncertainty about the fates of other characters combined with two suspicious, secretive teens who have tons of surprises. It felt really intense, but fell apart and watered down very quickly.

Most of the book was hiding and car rides, with few action scenes and some happy reunions. But I just did not get into it, I could NOT FEEL anything endangering the characters so I just tried to make myself to start caring for the most of the book. Other times I felt like bracken entered a self-recycling cycle in which she just ran out of her ideas and started using them from the first trilogy. Camps, tyrant who brainwashes people and puts kids in those, teenagers hiding and fighting against them… where did I hear about those? The only things she added were Mercer mafia and GMO Psi with new abilities. And I am so grateful for those because I actually enjoyed reading about the new generation of Pi abilities and they helped me not to hate this book so much.

I felt specifically annoyed when she pulled out another rehabilitation-camp-that-is-really-a-prison/Ruby-brought-down-Thurmond-so-why-not-do-that-again scene. I liked the concept of those camps and children suffering and fighting against them, especially because they embodied that hate for Psi, but I don’t want to have repeated story with slightly different characters. Problematics of new government and society were well developed and I liked how they were constructed, but still, they were basically from the same roots as problems in the first three books.

And last part of this agonizing list of mine is characters. Remember how I praised characters from books before? Well, fuck, I can’t do that anymore. The only characters I actually liked were Cubby and Priyanka (while one of those appears on about 20 pages). Sure, I still love old ones from TDM, but they are siding characters and have little appearances. I actually loved Zu in books before, emphasize with her and like her complicated and painful past. But five years later and, boom, she has no personality. Combined with equally bland meh non-existent-personality love interest and I can say with certainty that if Bracken just removed those two characters the story would stay exactly the same.

I know I just wrote a dozen things I didn’t like about this book, but it wasn’t all that bad. Bracken has a good style and amazing world building so some part of me still enjoyed reading this book. I’d say my journey with The Darkest Minds is over now, but I still have four novellas, a movie and perhaps books that come after this one :) 

You May Also Like

0 komentari