Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds novel is the first book in the Darkest Minds triology.

Sypnosis
When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Some alarming enough to make her parents lock her up 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.

When the truth about Ruby's abilities---the truth she's kept hidden from everyone, even the camp authorites---comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. On the run, she joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp: Zu, a young girl haunted by her past; Chubs, a standoffish brainiac; and Liam, their fearless leader, who is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can't risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

While they journey to find the one safe haven left for kids like them---East River---they must evade their determined pursuers, including an organization that will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. But as they get closer to grasping the things they dreamed of, Ruby will be faced with a terrible choise, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

Plot
''Warning: if you haven't finished this book, the plot contains spoilers about the ending. Read at your own risk.''

When IAAN strikes America and kills 98 percent of America's children, Ruby Daly is one of the two percent who managed to survive. When she sees how upset her parents are getting about this disease, she kisses them goodnight the night before her tenth birthday. When she wakes up the next morning, all her parents' memories of her are lost, and her mother locks her in the garage. But when she calls the police, the PSFs get to Ruby first.

They bring her to Thurmond one of the rehabilitation camps meant for kids like her. But when she's tested to see which ability she possesses, she accidentally uses her Orange mind control abilities to make her tester believe that she's a Green. And this worked for six years straight, so she was not killed like the rest of the Oranges were. But when a White Noise frequency goes off, that only Oranges, Reds, and Yellows can intercept, her secret is busted. Luckily, Dr. Begbie (aka Cate Connor) manages to get her out of the camp before the PSFs can catch on that she isn't a Green. Cate brings her to a gas station where they meet up with Rob Meadows, her partner at the Children's League, but Ruby looks into his mind, and sees that he killed two kids.

In her panic, Ruby manages to slip away and follow a younger little girl named Suzume. At first Suzume is reluctant to let her into the van, but when she sees that Ruby is about to run away so that the agents don't find Zu, she lets Ruby in and hides her in the back of her van. When the two boys Zu is travelling with (Liam and Chubs) enter the van and hear the agents calliing Ruby's name, Liam drives away quickly.

When Cate and Rob begin chasing and shooting at the three of them, Ruby reveals herself and demands that they let her go so that they won't get caught as well, Liam doesn't let her leave, due to his past with the Children's League. He manages to get away using his Blue telekinesis abilities, and throws a tree in their path. Ruby then stays with them, but instead of admitting to them that she's an Orange, she lies to them and tells them that she's a Green, a smart one. They tell her how they're searching for the safe haven East River, ran by the "Slip Kid" who is thought to be an Orange, Ruby is immediately interested, hoping that the Slip Kid could help her control her powers.

They give her the code "EDO" that they heard from some kids, and she replaces the numbers with 540, thinking that it's an area code. But when Lady Jane, a skip tracer who had been on their backs the whole time catches up to them, Ruby is forced to use her abilities to get her to go away. But instead of being repulsed or demanding that she leave, they let her stay and together they find East River.

At East River, they find that the Slip Kid is none other then Clancy Gray, the president's son and so called "reformed". And he is an Orange. So he starts to help Ruby learn how to control her abilities better, so she doesn't accidentally erase more people's memories of her.

Throughout the book, Ruby and Liam grow a romantic relationship together, and when Ruby tells him that she might accidentally mess up his memories, he doesn't care, and they fall deeply in love. But when training with Clancy all day, Ruby begins to feel something towards him, and the feeling is mutual between them. But one training session when Clancy asks Ruby to show him a memory, he goes too far and knocks her out with the force of it. When she regains consciousness, she finds out that Clancy had searched through all of her memories and found out how she was in love with Liam.

When Ruby tells Liam about what happened, Liam grows furious and demands they leave right away. But Clancy intercepts them in the woods, and manages to infiltrate Ruby's and Liam's minds, putting thoughts into their heads. But when Chubs begins to yell at Clancy, the affect doesn't work on him, and he manages to mouth off pretty hard on Clancy. But when Clancy puts an image in Liam's mind, Liam attempts to attack him, but ends up being beaten badly by Hayes, one of Clancy's allies.

Liam survives the attack, but while they are locked up in their cabin, one of Clancy's allies named Lizzie comes into their cabin, saying that Clancy fell over and started shaking, and demanded that Ruby had to come. But when Ruby came, Clancy was just fine, and it was revealed that he was in Lizzie's mind the whole time. While they were in the storage room together, the PSFs attacked the camp. But this angered Clancy because he had been expecting his Reds to come, not the PSFs. He tells Ruby that he wasn't going to let her get taken away, and when it was over he was taking her somewhere, but luckily Chubs bursts in and uses his Blue abilities to throw Clancy against a wall, knocking him out.

Him, Ruby, and Liam all get out together and go to deliver their deceased friend Jack Fields's letter to his father, which is their pact. But when Chubs hands it to his father, his father pulls out a gun and shoots Chubs in the shoulder. Ruby and Liam managed to get him away before Jack's father could finish him off, but he was bleeding out. In her panic, Ruby pushes the "panic button", which is a button Cate gave her that would reveal Ruby's position to Cate. When Cate comes, her and the other agents take all three of them, and then take Chubs to a hospital. But Cate says that they had to kill Liam because of how much knowledge he contained on the League. But Ruby makes a deal with her that if Cate would let Liam go, Ruby would join the League without a fight. So Ruby goes to Liam and erases all of his memories of her, so that he wouldn't come back for Ruby while she's with the League.

Characters

 * Ruby Daly
 * Liam Stewart
 * Charles (Chubs) Meriwether
 * Suzume (Zu) Kimura
 * Clancy Gray
 * Cate Connor
 * Martin
 * Lady Jane
 * Sam Dahl
 * Rob Meadows