The Darkest Minds: Chapters 16-22

by Alexandra Bracken
When the children who survive a plague develop unusual powers, they are rounded up and imprisoned in rehabilitation camps. Sixteen-year-old Ruby escapes from confinement and joins up with a group of other children fighting back against the government.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-6, Chapters 7-11, Chapters 12-15, Chapters 16-22, Chapters 23-31
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. gruff
    blunt and unfriendly or stern
    There was a gruff edge to his voice as he crossed his arms over his chest.
  2. wane
    become smaller
    The minutes dragged by, and the conversation waned.
  3. charade
    a word acted out in an episode of a game
    It must have been half past five in the morning, well after several delirious games of cards and charades that had been brought on by too much candy and too little sleep.
  4. anagram
    a phrase rearranged from the letters of another phrase
    With more than enough time to kill, I started in again—rearranging them, trying to create anagrams, substituting different letters for others.
  5. baleful
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    He fixed me with a baleful look.
  6. tousle
    disarrange or rumple; dishevel
    I saw him out the corner of my eye, his head of tousled blond hair sticking out of the tent.
  7. untimely
    uncommonly early
    My well-placed sources in the Gray administration have informed me that all instances in which a child has been removed from rehabilitation early have resulted in their untimely death.
  8. feral
    wild and menacing
    I felt the invisible fingers at the back of my mind awaken. Howling, like a feral cat that’d been caged too long.
  9. reel
    walk as if unable to control one's movements
    I reeled back, as if he had been the one to hit me.
  10. falter
    be or become weak, unsteady, or uncertain
    Her smile faltered, but returned with far more teeth than before.
  11. stark
    severely simple
    I kept my hands clenched together under the table, trying not to stare at Mom’s face as it paled from a deep red to a stark white.
  12. manifest
    clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
    Ten is the most common age for IAAN to manifest, I had overheard a newscaster saying, but the affliction can claim anyone between the ages of eight and fourteen.
  13. warren
    a colony of rabbits
    In the book, the rabbits had come across this warren—this community—that accepted food handouts from humans in exchange for accepting that some of them would be killed by the same humans in return.
  14. filmy
    so thin as to transmit light
    The rain had condensed on the windows, covering the cracked windshield like a filmy overlay of lace.
  15. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    The warning was fleeting, banished to the back corners of my mind, where it wouldn’t interrupt how good it felt to touch him—how right.
  16. crick
    a painful muscle spasm, especially in the neck or back
    For a while, we said and did nothing beyond working out the cricks and kinks from the awkward positions we slept in.
  17. barge
    a flatbottom boat for carrying heavy loads
    “Like, send her off on a barge out to sea and set her on fire. Let her go out in a blaze of glory.”
  18. intimate
    marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
    I was intimately familiar with what it felt like to have a barrel of a gun dig into my skin.
  19. qualm
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Whoever was doing it this time had no qualms about dropping a knee onto my back, along with their entire weight.
  20. ruddy
    inclined to a healthy reddish color
    Of the six guys gathered around us, only two pulled their knit ski caps up off their faces: the big kid—big in a Hercules kind of way—with ruddy skin and black paint under both eyes, and another one with olive coloring, shaggy brown hair pulled back into a short ponytail.
  21. sodden
    wet through and through; thoroughly wet
    Every now and then, the bottom of a carton would give out completely, and whatever kid was carrying it would be forced to stuff the sodden piles of fruit into their pockets or carry them cupped in their shirts.
  22. dour
    harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance
    The old store’s wood shelves were painted a dour green, but stuffed with a rainbow assortment of canned food and bags of chips, pasta, and even marshmallows.
  23. flank
    be located at the sides of something or somebody
    President Gray’s face filled the screen, flanked by two American flags.
  24. degeneration
    the process of declining from a higher to a lower level
    “I think I’m going to play it safe and go read—and, hey, there’s Ruby! You two can enjoy the degeneration of human decency without me.”
  25. flounce
    walk in an emphatic or exaggerated way
    Zu took the girl’s hand and flounced over to us, grinning.
  26. deference
    courteous regard for people's feelings
    Eventually, someone brought out a decades-old boom box, and even the kids with guitars stopped playing in deference to the Beach Boys.
  27. incredulous
    not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving
    I gave him what I hoped was an incredulous look.
  28. whim
    a sudden desire
    If he had these kids following his every whim and order, it had to be because he was a good guy, right?
  29. acrid
    strong and sharp, as a taste or smell
    Pockets of acrid smoke bubbled up under my skin, until it felt like I was about to burst open.
  30. amiss
    not functioning properly
    I ducked under the rope tying off the path to the lake and made it all the way down the trail before I realized anything was amiss.
  31. balk
    refuse to proceed or comply
    He balked at that.
  32. maim
    injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration
    “Most people are going to have a hard enough time accepting that we’re not monsters, without reports about us maiming innocent people,” Clancy said.
  33. subtlety
    the quality of being difficult to detect or analyze
    “So, please, keep spreading the black. Keep using the symbol. Just...try for some subtlety.”
  34. perfunctory
    as a formality only
    The man in the suit that welcomed me in with a perfunctory pat on the shoulder wasn’t the president, but he appeared in nearly every memory that fired by next, ushering me onto stages in school auditoriums, outside domed state-capital buildings, in front of cameras at the centers of small towns.
  35. compel
    force somebody to do something
    The rosebushes were scratching intently at the windows, but I directed his focus to the sheet of paper waiting there for him, and compelled him to pick up the pen.
Created on Mon Apr 23 14:22:41 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Apr 25 08:36:55 EDT 2018)

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