artyemis's review against another edition
3.0
La morte della luce, quando il calore si trasforma in gelo.
Diciamo tra le tre e le quattro stelline, come conclusione della saga non è stata male. Qualche problema c'è in questo libro, è innegabile che le idee erano ormai belle che finite e il povero Westerfeld sembrava avere una gran fretta di terminare e quasi sembra ci sia un taglio nel finale (la scusa del fulmine ad esempio).
Il finale non è male però, originale l'idea di intrappolare Jessica nell'ora blu anche se così direi che va a farsi benedire la sua storia con Jonathan (visto che lei vive 1 ora ogni 24 mentre Jonathan se le vive tutte e quindi invecchierà molto più velocemente di lei). A dirla tutta dopo aver letto il finale mi è quasi dispiaciuto che non fossero rimasti tutti e cinque intrappolati nell'ora blu, anche se a Dess non sarebbe piaciuto troppo rimanere intrappolata tra due coppie me così avrebbero veramente avuto l'ora blu sempre e solo per loro. Comunque bel finale, a sorpresa decisamente (era impossibile aspettarselo) e degna chiusura di una serie non male.
Diciamo tra le tre e le quattro stelline, come conclusione della saga non è stata male. Qualche problema c'è in questo libro, è innegabile che le idee erano ormai belle che finite e il povero Westerfeld sembrava avere una gran fretta di terminare e quasi sembra ci sia un taglio nel finale (la scusa del fulmine ad esempio).
Il finale non è male però, originale l'idea di intrappolare Jessica nell'ora blu anche se così direi che va a farsi benedire la sua storia con Jonathan (visto che lei vive 1 ora ogni 24 mentre Jonathan se le vive tutte e quindi invecchierà molto più velocemente di lei). A dirla tutta dopo aver letto il finale mi è quasi dispiaciuto che non fossero rimasti tutti e cinque intrappolati nell'ora blu, anche se a Dess non sarebbe piaciuto troppo rimanere intrappolata tra due coppie me così avrebbero veramente avuto l'ora blu sempre e solo per loro. Comunque bel finale, a sorpresa decisamente (era impossibile aspettarselo) e degna chiusura di una serie non male.
fzolkefli's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
hoosgracie's review
4.0
The final (?) book in the series has the midnighters fighting off the slithers plan to invade daylight and take people. Very suspenseful and excellent ending, which closes the series, but leaves open the possiblity of other additions.
dorisxdw's review against another edition
4.0
The only thing that I don't like it that this is the last book. The end was perfect but I would really love to know how the story will continue for Jessica, Rex, Dess, Melissa and Jonathan!
lacheri's review against another edition
5.0
This is such a goood read!! I mean it!! I want to read Uglies right after I'm done reading this series. I was pulled in just like that first book.
caedocyon's review against another edition
4.0
Read it in a day, years after reading the other two. There's a lot of exposition in these books, but you don't care because the ideas and plot twists are utterly fascinating. I tagged it fantasy, but it feels pretty sci-fi on the inside... until you remember that there's no such thing as midnight physics. Westerfield also doesn't pull his punches with the ending, which is a nice difference from most YA books.
There's a special place in my heart for these because I'm mathematically inclined, like Dess---who is easily the most awesome character in the series. (Maybe I'm biased.) I often stop to check out interesting numbers, which led at least once to anticipating the next plot twist.
I'd give this an "I liked it" for myself (embarrassingly far out of teen-dom), but I would definitely recommend the books to teenagers on a four-star basis, so we'll go with that.
There's a special place in my heart for these because I'm mathematically inclined, like Dess---who is easily the most awesome character in the series. (Maybe I'm biased.) I often stop to check out interesting numbers, which led at least once to anticipating the next plot twist.
I'd give this an "I liked it" for myself (embarrassingly far out of teen-dom), but I would definitely recommend the books to teenagers on a four-star basis, so we'll go with that.
aether's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
bxermom's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fantastic series that I enjoyed reading with my son. I was shocked by the ending and wish it hadn't ended.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
Third and presumably final book of Midnighters. Not one of Westerfeld's better books or better series. This one in particular felt rushed that it did have a true actual ending. The characters kept on making annoying choices rather than interesting or smart choices. And the story took a long time building until it finally started rushing, so I suppose the pacing was a bit off. But it was a fast read. 3.5 of 5.
anna_wa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.75
Sometimes you eventually make your way around to those books you said years and years ago that you wanted to read - and on the rare occasions you do that, you are hit with permanent written evidence of how much things have changed in 20 years. Namely, the characters giving each other quarters in order to make a call on a payphone and one of the characters being decidedly rich in comparison to her peers because she actually owns a computer.
Despite the slaps to the face of how much time has passed extremely quickly, this is still overall a good Scott Westerfeld trilogy. All of the things that made me first fall in love with his writing at 12 years old reading Uglies are present here too: fantastic world-building, teenage characters that do feel like real teenagers (for better or worse), and of course.. an attention-grabbing first sentence of the book paired with an attention-keeping last sentence of the book. His pair of "perfect first sentence + perfect last sentence" is something I still try to emulate in my own writing today.
I will say though... in comparison to the first two books of the trilogy, this book felt flatter in comparison to me personally. I don't know how to pinpoint what exactly the reasoning for that is because it's all here: action, adventure, a mystery, high-stakes, and a good conclusion. It's hard for me to figure out, exactly, what is missing from this book that the other two had.
One hint towards the answer might be that the first book felt like it really did end on a cliff-hanger. An ending note of "there is still more to come, read the next book now". But I didn't really feel that when I finished the second book - in fact, for the most part, I felt like it could have just been a duology. Even though there were still certain things left up in the air, the second book really made me feel the punch of the end of a movie with the credits rolling. It didn't seem to end with that same "there is still more to come, read the next book now" urgency.
Maybe the truth is I just wasn't as interested in Rex's dilemma in this book as I was with Jessica's in the first book and Dess's in the second one. Maybe it's that simple.
In any case, overall I enjoyed this trilogy. I definitely did NOT enjoy the fact that this book and the book before it drop the r slur 3 different times - and in this book specifically two of those three instances are a person bullying another person (as opposed to someone just being like "oh my gosh this is sooo [beep]").
It seems to me that Scott Westerfeld has changed a lot in the last twenty years (as most people do) and, based on his newer Impostor books, I don't get the sense that he would ever use that word again. But it was still extremely uncomfortable for me to read it, so that is why I want to warn everybody who decides to read it that that is there. There are also other ableist microaggressions in the second and third book especially; I mostly tuned them out/replaced them in my brain because I feel like Westerfeld has changed and wouldn't write those again if he were writing the books now, but yeah. They do exist, so watch out for that.
Despite the slaps to the face of how much time has passed extremely quickly, this is still overall a good Scott Westerfeld trilogy. All of the things that made me first fall in love with his writing at 12 years old reading Uglies are present here too: fantastic world-building, teenage characters that do feel like real teenagers (for better or worse), and of course.. an attention-grabbing first sentence of the book paired with an attention-keeping last sentence of the book. His pair of "perfect first sentence + perfect last sentence" is something I still try to emulate in my own writing today.
I will say though... in comparison to the first two books of the trilogy, this book felt flatter in comparison to me personally. I don't know how to pinpoint what exactly the reasoning for that is because it's all here: action, adventure, a mystery, high-stakes, and a good conclusion. It's hard for me to figure out, exactly, what is missing from this book that the other two had.
One hint towards the answer might be that the first book felt like it really did end on a cliff-hanger. An ending note of "there is still more to come, read the next book now". But I didn't really feel that when I finished the second book - in fact, for the most part, I felt like it could have just been a duology. Even though there were still certain things left up in the air, the second book really made me feel the punch of the end of a movie with the credits rolling. It didn't seem to end with that same "there is still more to come, read the next book now" urgency.
Maybe the truth is I just wasn't as interested in Rex's dilemma in this book as I was with Jessica's in the first book and Dess's in the second one. Maybe it's that simple.
In any case, overall I enjoyed this trilogy. I definitely did NOT enjoy the fact that this book and the book before it drop the r slur 3 different times - and in this book specifically two of those three instances are a person bullying another person (as opposed to someone just being like "oh my gosh this is sooo [beep]").
It seems to me that Scott Westerfeld has changed a lot in the last twenty years (as most people do) and, based on his newer Impostor books, I don't get the sense that he would ever use that word again. But it was still extremely uncomfortable for me to read it, so that is why I want to warn everybody who decides to read it that that is there. There are also other ableist microaggressions in the second and third book especially; I mostly tuned them out/replaced them in my brain because I feel like Westerfeld has changed and wouldn't write those again if he were writing the books now, but yeah. They do exist, so watch out for that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Bullying, and Ableism
Multiple uses of the R word