The Darkest Minds Series in Order by Alexandra Bracken
The Darkest Minds is a dystopian, young adult novel series that was written by American author Alexandra Bracken, and was primarily published between 2012 and 2018 – and is comprised of multiple novels and a collection of novellas and short stories.
The story is set in the near future. Teenagers have been decimated by an unknown virus. The survivors, endowed with uncontrollable psychic powers, are classified by color according to the danger they represent and parked in camps. Ruby and a few others refuse this fate and flee. Will they escape their pursuers? And above all, will they manage to master their powers without losing their souls?
How to Read The Darkest Minds Books in Order:
The following Darkest Minds reading order is about the novels and the novellas/short stories, but you can only read the novels if you want.
1. The Darkest Minds (2012) – When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control. Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. But when the truth about Ruby’s abilities–the truth she’s hidden from everyone, even the camp authorities–comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. On the run, she joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp.
- In Time (2013) – novella available in “Through the Dark.” A desperate young man is forced to make a terrible choice between his own survival and the future of a little girl who won’t speak, but who changes his life in ways he could never imagine.
- Liam’s mini novella – is available for free by subscribing to Alexandra Bracken’s newsletter.
2. Never Fade (2013) – When Ruby is entrusted with an explosive secret, she must embark on her most dangerous mission yet: leaving the Children’s League behind. Crucial information about the disease that killed most of America’s children–and turned Ruby and the others who lived into feared and hated outcasts–has survived every attempt to destroy it. But the truth is only saved in one place: a flash drive in the hands of Liam Stewart, the boy Ruby once believed was her future-and who now wouldn’t recognize her.
- Liam’s Short Story – available in the paperback edition of The Darkest Minds.
- Vida’s Short Story – available in the paperback edition of Never Fade.
- Sparks Rise (2015, novella available in “Through the Dark”) – A spark of light brightens a brutal world when a girl named Sam encounters her childhood best friend at the government-run “rehabilitation” camp, Thurmond. Lucas and Sam form a risky escape plan, but sometimes even love isn’t powerful enough to overcome unspeakable cruelty.
3. In The After Light (2014) – 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 government’s 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.
- Clancy’s Short Story – available in the paperback edition of In the Afterlight.
- Beyond the Night (2017, novella available in “Through the Dark”) – The camps are closed. A tyrant president has been deposed. But for many Psi kids living rough, there is no home to return to, no place for them in a country devastated by the past and anxious about the future. Every day is a struggle for Sam, who knew all the rules at Thurmond and has been thrown into a terrifying and uncertain new life. But there’s more at stake than Sam’s own survival. She once made a promise to someone she loves, and the time has come to fulfill it.
4. The Darkest Legacy (2018) – 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.
If you like this Alexandra Bracken’s Darkest Minds reading order, you may be interested in the Divergent series, The Maze Runner series, and The Hunger Games.
