Alexandra Bracken
Familial betrayal is, to me, the most heartbreaking kind - because if you can't trust your family to love you and protect you, who can you really trust?Collection: Trust
Being a very tall person, I have always felt a kinship with giraffes.
For those of you looking for your action-packed read, check out 'Red Queen' by Victoria Aveyard and 'Vengeance Road' by Erin Bowman. One's a fantasy and one's a Western, but they both feature strong leading ladies and some harrowing twists!
In 'The Darkest Minds,' Zu's trauma manifests in her choosing to remain silent. It's her one small way she can feel in control of her otherwise uncontrollable situation.
I didn't get to experience proper autumn until I was eighteen and heading off to college on the East Coast!
When I was trying to figure out how the government might go about creating the camps in 'The Darkest Minds,' I researched the Japanese internment camps here in the United States, specifically propaganda the government used, and how they capitalized on people's fears.
Much like dystopian and post-apocalyptic books are a way to explore the worst-case scenarios lurking around the corner, fantasy can serve as a wonderful tool for showing kids that they have an inherent power in them to create change, both in themselves and in their community.
It might be the history major in me, but I look to the past when I try to construct my fictional futures.
Fear makes us do things we would otherwise never agree to do, and people can be emotionally manipulated into believing something during times of great stress and tragedy.
From the time I was in first grade or so, my dad collected 'Star Wars' toy figures from the 1970s and '80s, and we'd take weekend family trips to antique shops and to toy stores. My father collected a crazy amount of 'Star Wars' stuff over the years, and he and I traveled to many conventions.
The truth is, I love history and studied it in college, with a particular focus on early American history. My love is so deep, in fact, I went to school at The College of William & Mary in Colonial Williamsburg.
I was genuinely lucky to have the professors I did, many of whom took a very humanist approach in teaching history that went beyond memorizing dates and battles and all of that - basically, looking at the life of individuals throughout history, aided by fascinating primary sources.
One of the things I noticed while I lived in New York City was how different the kids and teens were that grew up there versus, you know, my suburban upbringing. They have this innate resilience and toughness to them, and they're incredibly self-sufficient, usually from a pretty young age.
When I first read 'Outlander' a few years ago, I was shocked to find that Jamie was the complete package: incredibly smart, incredibly witty, strong but emotionally vulnerable, passionate to a fault - and, well, the Scottish accent doesn't hurt! I actually stopped reading at several points to swoon over something he said... he's really that good.
I absolutely love Johnny Depp, and I genuinely think he's one of the best actors of our time.
'The Darkest Minds' came from a period in my life where I felt my most powerless, when I was a teenager.
I think history is just so cyclical.
I would be honored if someone reads my books and it inspires them to write their own work.
Between the ages of 8 and 12, all I wanted to read were 'Star Wars' books.
Everything in New York is a fight. It's a fight to get on the subway. It's a fight to go to CVS. It's a fight to get a cab. And eventually, it wears you down.
I had this almost secret life of going to 'Star Wars' conventions because,' when I was younger, Star Wars' had phased into the uncool part of its life and had yet to become cool again for everybody else.
I think when we lose somebody, when we interact with those things that they also loved - like, you listen to their favorite music, or you read their favorite books - it's just a way to get in touch with them and your memories of them.
After I finished 'The Darkest Minds' series, I knew I wanted to take a risk and work on something completely different - lighter in tone, with a little bit more romance, and a completely different set of characters - that would also, um, finally justify my liberal arts degree.
I always try to have my supernatural or fantasy elements feel grounded in reality so they're easier for the reader to accept and digest.
There's so much standing around and waiting with moviemaking!
I've learned to really love revision over the years and worked hard to build up my craft muscle to make my revisions less and less painful with each book.
In the years between 'Afterlight' and 'Legacy,' we see a Zu who has watched all of her older friends head out into the world to do meaningful work while she's made to wait and hang back because of her age. It reinforces a feeling in her that she's falling further and further behind and won't ever catch up to them.
We are all protective over the things we love.
The powers of the teenagers in 'The Darkest Minds' were always meant to represent that inherent drive that young people have to make change, and how the world pushes back against it.
I think maybe the most frustrating feeling in the world is to have something to say buy not know how to put it into words. To have lived through something but not be able to get it out of you before it festers.Collection: Thinking
I bet it gets pretty lonely with only your ego for company.Collection: Lonely
The thing that scares me is that some part of me understands where they're coming from. They took everything from us, you know? Why shouldn’t we be able to take it back if we have the power to?Collection: Scare
If you're going to knock down my suggestion, you'd better have one to replace it.Collection: Suggestions
The Darkest Minds tend to hide behind the most unlikely faces.Collection: Life
Life isn’t fair." I said. "It’s taken me a while to get that. It’s always going to disappoint you in some way or another. You’ll make plans, and it’ll push you in another direction. You will love people, and they’ll be taken away no matter how hard you fight to keep them. You’ll try for something and won’t get it. You don’t have to find meaning in it; you don’t have to try to change things. You just have to accept the things that are out of your hands and try to take care of yourself. That’s your job.Collection: Jobs
But part of surviving is being able to move on.Collection: Moving
But there's a beginning in an end, you know? It's true that you can't reclaim what you had, but you can lock it up behind you. Start fresh.Collection: New Beginnings
You get a good review, and it’s like crack. You need another hit. And another. And another. I know authors are like Tinkerbell and generally need applause to survive, but it’s a slippery slope.Collection: Cracks
Sometimes the darkness lives inside you, and sometimes it wins.Collection: Winning
I think I'm losing it—I don't know what's happening, what happened, but I look at you, I look at you, and I love you so much. Not because of anything you've said, or done, or anything at all. I look at you, and I just love you, and it terrifies me. It terrifies me what I would do for you.Collection: Love You
Let's carpe the hell out of this diem.Collection: Hell
But inside or out, I was alone, and I was beginning to wonder if I always had been, if I always would be.Collection: Would Be
And people like you are the reason we have middle fingers.Collection: People
What I’m trying to get at is, as bad as everything seems, I think, at its heart, life is good. It doesn’t throw anything at us that it knows we can’t handle—and, even if it takes its time, it turns everything right side up again.Collection: Heart
They want you to think that darkness or evil is only something that gets inflicted on you by the outside world, but I know better, and I think the freak does, too. Sometimes the darkness lives inside you, and sometimes it wins.Collection: Winning
I used to dream about turning back time, about reclaiming the things I'd lost and the person I used to be.Collection: Dream
I'm a monster, you know. I'm one of the dangerous ones. No you aren't, he promised. Your one of us.Collection: Monsters
The darkest minds never fade in the afterlight.Collection: Mind
Dreaming led to disappointment, and disappointment to a kind of depressed funk that wasn’t easy to shake. Better to stay in the gray than get eaten by the dark.Collection: Dream
You can destroy a factory, and they'll build another. But once you destroy a life, that's it. You never get that person back.Collection: Factories