Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour (Midnighters)

Rating:
Summary: a tantalizing mystery
Review: "Melissa didn't know exactly what to think of the new girl. Below her shifting emotions was an unexpected flavor, a sharp metal taste, like a coin pressed against the tip of Melissa's tongue. The scent of unbridled energy was everywhere, but maybe that had just been the storm. And of course, someone new was always full of unfamiliar flavors, unexpected faculties. Each of Melissa's friends felt different to her, after all. But Jessica Day felt more than different."

Jessica thought she was just like any other teenager when her family moved from suburban Chicago to Bixby, Oklahoma. She was restless, lonely, dissatisfied and trying to "adjust." Her ambitious mother was distracted with work and her father was a boring stay-at-home dad. But from her first day at Bixby High she sensed that there was something definitely "different" afoot. She knew that she was being seen as more than the new kid in town and that there was something special about her.

Rex, Melissa, Dess and Jonathan are Midnighters. Each has a special power that helps them through the blue, frozen hour of midnight in Bixby. Rex is the historian, Melissa is highly psychic, Dess is a math genius and Jonathan can defy gravity. Together they help protect the little town from the slithers and darklings who come during the secret hour. Now that they have met Jessica they must figure out why the dark forces are bent on killing her and, in the end, what kind of power this Jessica has.

Put all these ingredients together, plus a growing romance between Jessica and Jonathan, and you have a fast-paced, creative fantasy as only Scott Westerfeld can write. Picture Buffy meeting superheroes, and you get the idea of the pace and direction of this adventure. Not only would this book translate beautifully into a TV series, it could also succeed, with the right art work, as a graphic novel. Readers will be fully tantalized waiting for the next two installments of this trilogy.

--- Reviewed by Sally M. Tibbetts (...)

Rating:
Summary: Hypeocondract
Review: A wonderful book that will entrance all in its mind pleasing description of the wonderful midnight world. The nightlings fighting to destroy their soon to be greatest enemy, a simple 15 year old girl, Jessica Day. The characters each holding onto a special gift. A Seer, a Mindcaster, a Polymath, and an Acrobat. All of these things will help them find Jessica's gift, and protect her from the nightlings. But along with unraveling the mystery of Jessica Day, they also start to discover, and solve, other mysteries. Such as why they had never seen so many nightlings, or why it seems that only their town can experience the true midnight. What will the next book hold for these exciting characters?

Rating:
Summary: It was "serendipitous" that I picked up this book.....
Review: And now it's my favorite book of all time! Who knew? Anyone who picks up this book will be imediately hooked. The pace of this book never slows down.

When Jessica Day moves to Bixby, she never expected that she would discover a secret world, Midnight, and the strange teens alone that live in it. Rex reads the lore, Melissa is a pyschic, Dess does math, and Jonathan flys. Each of them have their own talent at Midnight, but Jessica can't seem to figure out what hers is. Sometimes it seems like she's not even a real midnighter.

"Maybe you're not," Melissa said. "Not a real one, anyway. Something about you is so....... 11:59. You don't belong."

This is deffinatly a book worth reading over and over......

Rating:
Summary: A great horror story
Review: Fifteen year old Jessica Day moves with her mom from Chicago to Bixby, Oklahoma where she attends the local high school. She looks like she belongs with the in-crowd, but the most isolated outsiders, the midnighters (Rex, Dess, Melissa, and Jonathan) are also fascinated by the newcomer as they sense she shares the Focus that only occurs for those born at midnight.

Jessica awakens at midnight noticing that her family seems frozen in time and so does everyone else. She explores this magical twenty-fifth hour in the day only to learn that ancient creatures roam the town and the midnight quartet also travel in this eerie otherworldly zone. As the cretins of the night try to kill the newcomer, the quartet try to keep Jessica safe while struggling to learn why she is a target.

The first tale of the Midnighters is a great horror story that is aimed at young adults, but will be enjoyed by readers of all ages. The story line is fast-paced and somehow Scott Westerfield makes his blue-lighted midnight realm seem real and the talents of his heroes genuine. This is a winner worth reading especially by the Potter crowd who will find a new genre in which to appreciate the written word. If this is any indication, the next two novels in this trilogy will be awesome.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: It's a really great book
Review: I read this when I saw it on the library shelf, read the back, and thought, mmm, looks like a pretty good book. Well it is! The main charactor, Jessica Day, has just moved to Bixby Oklahoma, where things are really wierd. So are the people. Or, at least, four of the people. Melissa, Rex, Dess, and Johnathan, all have powers. Polymath, acrobat, mindcaster, and seer. The weird thing about Bixby, is that 1. The town really likes the number thirteen. Thirteen pointed stars, thirteen letter name, and 2. At exactly the stroke of midnight, time stops. Except for five people. Rex, Dess, Mellissa, Johnathan, and Jessica. It's called the blue time, and in it roam slithers and darklings. Aggressive midnight beings. All with one intent. Get Jessica. They have to find her power, then beat all the slithers and darklings wile Jessica learns the ever-changing rules of the blue-time. It's a really good book, and really worth reading over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, scarry and thoroughly enjoyable!
Review: I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this book. It starts out with the 'new kid at a new school' thing. Sounds kind of dull, but get past that. I'm glad I did! I really enjoyed this book quite a lot. It's spooky, funny, exciting...the pages turn themselves...and at the end you really want more. I saw here at Amazon that part 2 doesn't come out until next year. Well, I can't wait. Hopefully after all is written someone has the sense to make a film out of this. It's definitely worthy!

Rating:
Summary: Fun, scarry and thoroughly enjoyable!
Review: I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this book. It starts out with the 'new kid at a new school' thing. Sounds kind of dull, but get past that. I'm glad I did! I really enjoyed this book quite a lot. It's spooky, funny, exciting...the pages turn themselves...and at the end you really want more. I saw here at Amazon that part 2 doesn't come out until next year. Well, I can't wait. Hopefully after all is written someone has the sense to make a film out of this. It's definitely worthy!

Rating:
Summary: At the Stroke of Midnight
Review: Jessica just moved to Bixby, Oklahoma, a highschool student who seems to be adjusting well, besides the few odd occurences in the process of settling in. Which includes having weird dreams, the ones where time freezes and she seems to be the only one free from it. That is, until she meets a few teenagers from her highschool. Jessica may not be the only one and through her new found friends and their experience, it may be the only way to survive in this "dream." But everyone knows and Jessica will soon find out, a thin line seperates a dream and a nightmare.

I read this book just this weekend, and I was engaged by it. It did seem to lag a bit in the beginning, between Jessica's first sessions at midnight, but the story soon picks up. The characterizations of the novel are very good, and it is easy discerning the characters from eachother, the mark of the author's own personage doesn't linger on each (which is definitely a mark of a good author!).

This is the only book i've read by Scott Westerfield (Author of So Yesterday), but I was pleasantly surprised when I read it will be the first in a trilogy. The novel is able to stand on it's own, establishing the setting and plot and ending it without the stigma of a blaringly obvious first of a trilogy.

I'm not all in a tizzy to read the next installment though, and maybe this is a good thing. But it leaves me feeling lacking in what I got of the novel. I want to be frustrated that I have to wait to find myself back in the Midnighter's territory and eagerly anticipating for the novel to come out, but maybe that's why this novel only gets a 4 out of 5.

Rating:
Summary: A suspenseful, Thrilling tale.
Review: little does jessica Day know what awaits her when she moves to Bixby Oklahoma.Theres something strange about bixby and it's not just the water.She learns that shes a midnighter and time stops at midnight.Everything and everyone stops at midnight,It's the special hour.They have this whole extra hour to themselves.except for darklings,an anchient evil.Her other fellow midnighters don't mind midnight,but they also aren't getting hunted down like jessica is.The darklings want her dead,But why?What is it about jessica that threatens them? to find this out,you've got to read the book!

I thought that this was an amazing book,It was very creative and original.I thought that it was a bit slow in the beginning,It took a while for me to really get into the story,but after i did i was hooked.I couldn't put the book down.The last chaptors were my favorite,I ate them up soo quickly.Some of the things i expected,but others i didn't even think about.I will definitely read this series.There are a few things that i'm really interested in finding out.If you want a good book and you love suspense and action,read this book.You will not be sorry.This was a very well written book,I can't wait to read the future books.