Going back to the kind of sci-fi theme, I give you the trilogy by Alexandra Bracken: “The Darkest Minds.”

You might have heard of this series before from a somewhat popular movie made in 2018.

If you liked the movie, you will most likely like the book, but I will warn you, the books are way darker than the movie.

It begins with a strange disease that starts ripping its way through the children of America.

It kills nearly all of the children ages 1-17 in the nation, but the ones who survive are… different.

The survivors began presenting with strange psychic abilities that were often destructive.

As a result, the government mandated that all surviving children be sent to “rehabilitation” camps until further notice.

There the children are sorted into classifications based on their abilities:

Greens have enhanced intelligence,

Blues possess telekinetic abilities,

Yellows control electricity,

Reds control fire,

and Oranges control minds.

Within the camps, the children are separated based on color, and their identities are replaced by numbers.

They are treated as less than human and always seen as a threat,

especially the Yellows, Reds, and Oranges.

10-year-old Ruby didn’t understand why she was there, or why she was being treated this way.

All she knew was that she didn’t want to be what she was,

so, she hid herself among the greens in one of the biggest and cruelest camps, Thurmond.

Six years later she has the chance to escape, and she takes it.

Once out in the open again, she starts to experience just how broken the world has become since she was locked away.

With the help of other kids she meets along the way, they all try to survive and salvage what is left of their childhood.

This trilogy is truly a commentary on humanity.

Every time I read this series again, I am shocked by the cruelty of some of the characters,

and my initial reaction is always disbelief.

“This wouldn’t actually happen, there would be people to stop it.”

But this has actually happened before with concentration camps and Japanese Internment camps.

These books are meant to show us the truth,

that we fear what we don’t understand.

And we justify our actions by seeing others as lesser than we are.

But it also shows the reader the truth of human resilience.

That in the face of hate, anger, and fear, kindness and hope can survive.

As the reader follows Ruby through her journey, we start to see her become herself again as she learns to trust her friends.

This series is up there with “The Hunger Games” for me, with complex politics between the color classifications of kids,

and between kids and adults of course.

The most unlikely people can turn out to be good, and the most unlikely people can turn out to be bad.

*This is a bonus book that have short stories in different perspectives from previous books.