REVIEW : Midnighters #1 The Secret Hour

The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Nobody is safe in the secret hour.



Strange things happen at midnight in the town of Bixby, Oklahoma.



Time freezes.



Nobody moves.



For one secret hour each night, the town belongs to the dark creatures that haunt the shadows. Only a small group of people know about the secret hour -- only they are free to move about the midnight time.



These people call themselves Midnighters. Each one has a different power that is strongest at midnight: Seer, Mindcaster, Acrobat, Polymath. For years the Midnighters and the dark creatures have shared the secret hour, uneasily avoiding one another. All that changes when the new girl with an unmistakable midnight aura appears at Bixby High School.



Jessica Day is not an outsider like the other Midnighters. She acts perfectly normal in every way. But it soon becomes clear that the dark creatures sense a hidden power in Jessica . . . and they're determined to stop her before she can use it.



A story of courage, shadowy perils, and unexpected destiny, the secret hour is the first volume of the mesmerizing Midnighters trilogy by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld. Good Reads







I've read a lot of Scott's work these past two weeks. I enjoy his work and am impressed at how he world builds in his stories. The characters in the Secret Hour are not as fully developed in this first volume, but I think that is due to the fact that this book is a trilogy. Scott fully captures the High School experience with the characters of the Secret Hour. Jessica, the new girl in town is a perfect voice to showcase the town of Bixby.



While trying to navigate the perils of High School and the mine fields of her newly uprooted family, She awakens to a startling dream. Jessica notices an eerie Blue Glow in her room and an impossible blue moon. Stumbling outside she discovers time is frozen, as the falling rain drops and everything around her is motionless.



Her encounters the next day with her classmates Dess, Melissa and Rex lead her to discover she is not dreaming. Jessica is an addition to their group. A Midnighter, one of the few humans that are awake during this hidden 25th Hour. The Midnighters are not alone, Dark creatures roam free during this time, and Jessica's appearance has changed them. Once able to avoid these creatures the Midnighters, now find themselves under viscous coordinated attacks, the goal? To destroy Jessica.





As Jessica deals with the repercussions of her appearance and grows closer to the mysterious Jonathan she struggles to discover what her power is and how to evade the darklings attacks.





I really enjoyed the action in this book and discovering more about the Midnighters individual powers. The interpersonal connections between the 5 characters suffered a little in the set up of the action scenes but the book left me thoroughly entertained and wanting to get the remaining volumes!



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