Review: In the Afterlight (The Darkest Minds #3) by Alexandra Bracken!

Warning: Spoiler Alert!

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. With them is a prisoner: Clancy Gray, son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers. Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds.

They are armed only with a volatile secret: proof of a government conspiracy to cover up the real cause of IAAN, the disease that has killed most of America's children and left Ruby and others like her with powers the government will kill to keep contained. But internal strife may destroy their only chance to free the "rehabilitation camps" housing thousands of other Psi kids.

Meanwhile, reunited with Liam, the boy she would-and did-sacrifice everything for to keep alive, Ruby must face the painful repercussions of having tampered with his memories of her. She turns to Cole, his older brother, to provide the intense training she knows she will need to take down Gray and the government. But Cole has demons of his own, and one fatal mistake may be the spark that sets the world on fire.

Description taken from Goodreads

My Review 

Have any of you heard of the Youtuber PolandbananasBOOKS?  She's very well known in the BookTube community and I’ve been a fan of hers for quite some time now.  Well, she made a video a couple years ago called Mourning Period.  She gets it so right about finishing a series that you aren’t quite ready to say goodbye to yet.  You should definitely watch it.  It’s pretty hilarious but oh so accurate.

Anyway, I thought In the Afterlight was a pretty epic conclusion.  It had loads of action, it hit you right in the feels.  There was battle planning and everything.  It was great.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with it but I think since this is the last in the trilogy, it lost some of the heart I guess.  I don’t know.  I loved The Darkest Minds and I think that that’s my favorite of the trilogy because there is a lot action but there was also a lightness even though the subject matter was still dark.  It was a fun book.  But in this last installment you could really feel the impending doom.  Dramatic much, Courtney?  Yes, but it’s true.

What’s funny is that in my review of Never Fade I mentioned how I would probably get pissed off by what Ruby did because by then I was all “Oh, Ruby could do no wrong!”  And I still love her and she’s still an all time favorite protagonist but she definitely pissed me off in this book.  It was like just because she was with The League for a few months, she knew what was best for everyone and that she knew everything.  I didn’t like that about her, she kept vital information from everyone because she wanted to protect them but it was almost like she didn’t trust them to use their common sense.  She didn’t really give anyone a chance.  And I got it, she went through hell and doesn’t want anyone else to go through that but she needed to trust people.  Especially Liam. 

And Liam.  Ugh, Liam.  I felt so bad for him.  It was like he had to prove he was worthy to everyone every two freaking seconds.  And Cole!  Cole was just a douche!  He treated Liam like shit.  Like an incompetent child.  It was horrible to read.  Everything between these two had me wanting to punch something, mostly because of Cole.  He was just downright mean.

Now, everything between Liam and Ruby.  I loved their scenes together but there was just so much miscommunication and unnecessary fighting.  If they just talked out their problems, it would have ended unneeded hostility.  It was a bit frustrating.

Everyone else was fine though, Vida was making me angry for a bit but we’re cool now. 

I did feel like certain characters got off way too easy and some didn’t deserve what they got.  That’s all I’ll say.

Throughout the novel, though, I was waiting for mentions of the novellas.  We did get closure to one but I wish we got more of a conclusion to the other.  Or maybe we could just get a whole extra novella.  That would be nice.

The story itself was a whirlwind.  You knew shit was going to go down, and you knew there was going to be a lot of it because this book is pretty massive.  It’s over 500 pages so you know things are going to happen.  It was definitely epic and the last few chapters, man.  Holy friggens!  I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.  I wanted to finish the book as fast as I could so I could find out what happens but at the same time I didn’t want it to be over.

All in all, a great conclusion to an epic trilogy.  Definitely one of my favorites!

Characters 4/5

Plot 4/5

Feels 5/5

Writing 5/5

Overall 4.5/5

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