In Time & Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken – Spoiler Free Reviews

Title: In Time
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Series Name: The Darkest Minds
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Dystopian
Publication Date: July 16th, 2013
Pages: 89 (eBook)
Publishers: Disney Hyperion
Rating:

Don’t miss this exciting short story that connects The Darkest Minds to its much-anticipated sequel, Never Fade. 

Gabe’s life has been devastated in the wake of the economic crash. The only option left for someone like him to escape his tragic past is to leave his small town behind and to attempt to become a skiptracer. This already almost impossible task is made all the more difficult by his first score, a young girl who won’t speak, but who changes his life in ways he could never imagine.

This book is the prequel to Never Fade and comes between The Darkest Minds and Never Fade. It doesn’t follow one of the characters we know, which I enjoyed! Seeing this from a whole new perspective was really interesting, especially from the perspective of someone older than Ruby and the Psi ‘kids’. It also helped as I waited until just before I read Never Fade to read this rather than back when I read The Darkest Minds, so it made for a good way to get back into the world before diving into Never Fade. It also fills in a bit of a blank about one of the character’s whereabouts too. I highly recommend reading this before Never Fade if you haven’t read it yet!

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Title: Never Fade
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Series Name: The Darkest Minds
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Dystopian
Publication Date: Oct 15th, 2013
Pages: 507 (paperback)
Publishers: Disney Hyperion
Rating:

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?

You can find my review for The Darkest Minds HERE and I would suggest reading it before this review as my thoughts haven’t changed and I don’t feel the need to explain myself twice, saying the same thing.

The cover of this book did not make sense to me until just now! Well, I’m guessing that it’s meant to represent Jude’s Compass.
Even those these covers aren’t as nice to look at as other I still like them as they simply represent different parts of the book. The first book has the Psi symbol and this one has Jude’s compass. The last book has a Crescent Moon which I’m guessing we will learn the meaning of in book 3.

My thoughts on the writing in Never Fade are the same as they were for The Darkest Minds! I still would like a map so I could easily follow the travel in the book! But again I’m guessing they didn’t bother as it was only set in America, not a made-up world.

This book as a bit slow to read. I don’t mean that the plot was slow, but the actual book. It took me a lot longer to read that other 500 page books have taken me. As I’m not using BookOut I can accurately see how much time exactly I have been reading each book and this one took me a total of 12 hours and normally a 500 page book takes about 7-8hrs. At the start, it kinda felt like I was reading and getting nowhere. After about 60% though it felt like it picked up, I think that was because there was more happening in the book and it distracted me from how long it was taking me to read the book.

I recently read Zero Repeat Forever and my mind was mixing them up when it came to where the Head Quarters was located. In Zero Repeat Forever it’s underground in the mountains and in this one it’s underground as well and I kept thinking of the location from Zero Repeat Forever when HQ was mentioned in this book! It was quite confusing..

These books are very action packed and never has a dull moment!
That plot twist at the end though! Actually, there were 2 big shocks right at the end that I was not expecting! Well, to be honest, this whole book was unpredictable, I would think I knew what would happen and was completely wrong! Every time!

My view of Ruby & Clancy hasn’t changed. I still like Ruby and I still hate Clancy.

It’s hard to talk about any of the returning characters really without spoilers for both this book and the end of The Darkest Minds. So I’m not going to talk about them.

Jude was really sweet, but he was also really shy but never quiet! I really enjoyed him as a character and it was good seeing a character that showed their fear, it added that bit of realisticness around Ruby & Vida.
Vida was awesome too! At the start, she was a bit of a bitch but she is fierce and stubborn. Sometimes she let her anger get the better of her but still, she is a badass!
Cole was a bit of a jerk really. He acted so full of himself most of the time and the ‘jokes’ acting like no female could resist him, that really pisses me off.

I really enjoyed this book, a bit better even than The Darkest Minds. The writing is great as always and the world and world building are amazing. The plot was great and so action packed! The characters are mostly great excluding Cole whose personality just irritated me and also obviously excluding the ‘bad guys’. Overall an Amazing book and addition to the series!

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HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT?!
IF YOU ARE GOING TO SHARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS THEN PLEASE WARN IT SO OTHERS DON’T GET SPOILED!

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