Review: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

Never Fade

Alexandra Bracken

(The Darkest Minds #2)

Publication Date: October 15, 2013

Hardcover, 512 pages, Disney-Hyperion

Genres: YA, Sci-Fi/Dystopian

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

Ruby never asked for the abilities that almost cost her her life. Now she must call upon them on a daily basis, leading dangerous missions to bring down a corrupt government and breaking into the minds of her enemies. Other kids in the Children’s League call Ruby “Leader”, but she knows what she really is: a monster.

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 flashdrive in the hands of Liam Stewart, the boy Ruby once believed was her future—and who now wouldn’t recognize her.

As Ruby sets out across a desperate, lawless country to find Liam—and answers about the catastrophe that has ripped both her life and America apart—she is torn between old friends and the promise she made to serve the League. Ruby will do anything to protect the people she loves. But what if winning the war means losing herself?

My Review

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. What have you gotten yourself into now, hmm?

Ruby has found a place where she thinks she can be relatively safe. She’s cut the most important person from her life and she’s ready to forget about him, for his own safety. Then his older brother shows up and ruins everything, now she has to go find the boy who can’t even remember who she is.

Basically, this book was alright. There was a lot of action and a lot of power usage, which is cool, but there wasn’t a lot of actual plot development. Things happened, but not enough to have me thinking that the story can be concluded reasonably in the last book. I feel like with how much information wasn’t really explained, the third book will just be something thrown together to resemble an okay ending. Does that make sense? It will kind of be like Mockingjay or Allegiant.

Now, the characters of the story are good. Ruby is the same Ruby she was in the first book and some new characters are introduced in the beginning that I enjoyed reading about, especially because they’re funny. And Ruby is most definitely not funny. And I’m still not sure if I really like her character or not. I’m thinking it’s more of a not. I must say that Cole is a great character to read about, though. *wiggles eyebrows suggestively*

One thing that does kind of annoy me about Ruby specifically is her aptitude for getting hurt. I normally don’t care if someone gets hurt in a post-apocalyptic young adult story, but Ruby is constantly getting injured. This wouldn’t have bothered me so much if she hadn’t gotten up and fought/ran/whatever right after she got injured. All of the other characters who were hurt were immediately incapacitated, but not Ruby. She could get up and fight off the bad guys while she was bleeding her last bleed. I just thought this wasn’t fair to the other characters. Bracken makes them seem like wimps when they most definitely aren’t.

Additionally, the plot of the story is confusing at first. The first chapter is from an “in the future” perspective of Ruby’s, yet the second chapter is back in the past, but the third chapter goes back to explaining the “in the future” stuff and bringing the first and second chapters together. There are no time stamps at the beginning of chapters for me to recognize that this was going to happen. It was, and is, terribly confusing. I almost had to stop reading because I was completely messed up.

The actual plot of the book is, as I mentioned, action-y. There aren’t any slow spots in the story. There’s just too much action and not a whole lot of explanation. I couldn’t understand the significance of certain events, so I felt like I was just barely grasping what was happening as it was playing out.

All in all, Never Fade is a good sequel that could have been better. It will take you on a road trip with butt-kicking and bada$$ery, but it might leave you scratching your head every once in a while.

**Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself.