Midnighters: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
Moving to a new town and starting at a new high school is hard enough but with your parents flip flopping rolls and your sister is becoming a royal pain some how the entire moving process becomes that much worse. However, these problems for fifteen-year-old Jessica Day do not compare to the number of bizarre occurrences and people she has come in contact with ever since she moved to the small town of Bixby.
From the moment she moved a strange group of students entirely dressed in black have been hot on her tail claiming that they all have something in common. Unsure, Jessica does her best to avoid them but when she starts to have a series of strange dreams that they very well predicted Jessica realizes that they just may be telling the truth.
They tell her that she is one of a few “Midnighters” those who are born at exactly midnight and are able to experience the 25th hour where creatures from your worst nightmares appear all while the rest of the world is frozen in time. (So those supposed dreams were not dreams as all!) Humans once walked with these scary creatures but as their technological abilities progressed they had no way to compete and soon banished themselves to one hour each day where progress was not obtainable. Now, Midnighters are the only ones that know this special hour exists.
At first, these creatures apposed no threat, seeing as the current Midnighters kept to themselves and know how to handle them but for some reason Jessica’s entrance into this extra hour have thrown them over the edge. No longer able to co-exist the group decides it is essential to figure out why Jessica posses such a threat and how they can use her to their advantage before the 25th hour takes on new meaning.
An interesting and original premise that is promising for the entire series. The only complaint I have is the fact that Jessica is not a strong or particularly interesting narrator. Sure, her being new leaves a lot of questions to be answered but the rest of the Midnight clan seems much more interesting and one can only hope that we will learn more about them and their past with the books to come. I am sure those that read the first book will want to see what is going to happen in the 25th hour in the books to come.
This review was very detailed and helpful. Now I want to read the book! I’m starting a blog about book reviews too. It’s http://inkspotsez.wordpress.com/
By: wildthane on June 24, 2009
at 7:08 pm
Always happy to recommend something interesting. Hope you like it as much as we did!
And it looks like your blog is off to a good start, too. We may just have to add you to the blog roll. ^_^
By: sbyteens on June 25, 2009
at 4:41 pm