richardpierce's review against another edition
4.0
I found this in one of the boxes of books left from moving house. Sometimes you come across YA with a brilliant premise excellwntly executed. This is one of those. I want to read the whole series now
debrajoy87's review against another edition
3.0
Have you ever wished for an extra hour in the day? Imagine all the things you could get done if you just had one more hour. The "Midnighters" have that extra hour, but they also have a slew of villains that come with it.
In The Secret Hour, by Scott Westerfeld, there are 25 hours in each day, but only those born at exactly midnight, "Midnighters," can live in the 25th hour. To all others the hour passes in an instant. The hour was created by the villains of the book, Darklings, to have a place to live relatively untouched by the human world. Each Midnighter has a special power to help them in the secret hour. For instance, one is a polymath (able to quickly solve complex math equations in their head) and another can read minds. The Darklings leave the Midnighters alone for the most part, that is until Jessica Day arrives in town, then the Darklings want nothing more than to kill Jessica and the Midnighters have to find out why.
In general, I liked this book. The story moved along at a relatively fast past with few slow points. I was really intrigued by the idea of the 25th hour and I loved reading about the different powers each of the kids possessed. I always thought it would be fantastic to be able to read the minds of others, until I read about the mind-reader in this book, always bogged down by everybody's thoughts and emotions, unable to tune them out. I liked the chemistry between the characters and felt the dynamic between them all was different than in most books.
This book is the first one in a trilogy and even though I thought the first book was entertaining and fun to read, I am not sure how I feel about reading two more in this series. Am I going to read them? Probably. Am I dying to read them. Nope. It was a fun, simple read, but it didn't pull me through to the next book, so even though I would call it good, I wouldn't call it great.
In The Secret Hour, by Scott Westerfeld, there are 25 hours in each day, but only those born at exactly midnight, "Midnighters," can live in the 25th hour. To all others the hour passes in an instant. The hour was created by the villains of the book, Darklings, to have a place to live relatively untouched by the human world. Each Midnighter has a special power to help them in the secret hour. For instance, one is a polymath (able to quickly solve complex math equations in their head) and another can read minds. The Darklings leave the Midnighters alone for the most part, that is until Jessica Day arrives in town, then the Darklings want nothing more than to kill Jessica and the Midnighters have to find out why.
In general, I liked this book. The story moved along at a relatively fast past with few slow points. I was really intrigued by the idea of the 25th hour and I loved reading about the different powers each of the kids possessed. I always thought it would be fantastic to be able to read the minds of others, until I read about the mind-reader in this book, always bogged down by everybody's thoughts and emotions, unable to tune them out. I liked the chemistry between the characters and felt the dynamic between them all was different than in most books.
This book is the first one in a trilogy and even though I thought the first book was entertaining and fun to read, I am not sure how I feel about reading two more in this series. Am I going to read them? Probably. Am I dying to read them. Nope. It was a fun, simple read, but it didn't pull me through to the next book, so even though I would call it good, I wouldn't call it great.
louise_bloom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.5
This was a great book, mostly suited for adolescents and young adults. Predictable and cliché characters, description emphasis.
tashaw's review against another edition
1.0
I was just...so very bored. Disappointing bc I LOVED the Uglies series.
raemelle's review against another edition
3.0
Overall this book was pretty unimpressive. Okay. Not bad. Not great. I wasn’t planning on reading the rest of the series. Until the last page. My curiosity is definitely piqued, so I might read the others.
sharonskinner's review against another edition
4.0
This is a quick read. Creative and entertaining. I love the use of thirteen letter words to combat the slithers.
hoosgracie's review against another edition
4.0
A few weeks after Jessica Day, and her family, moves to Bixby, OK she wakes up at Midnight to find that the light is blue and their are diamonds suspended in the air, that turn out to be frozen rain drops. It turns out that in Bixby, people born at the stroke of Midnight get an extra hour a day – the Secret Hour. The only catch, they share it with the slithers, evil beings that haunt the hour. Very cool story, first in a series.
anna_wa's review against another edition
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
The r word
ari_reading_'s review against another edition
3.0
While the book was enjoyable and had an interesting premise, it lacked certain things in the plot to keep the intrigue, as for the characters, well, they weren't the greatest, I found myself disconnected and felt that they could have been written better, and seriously, Jessica Day? Since she's a new midnighter, she has have her last name as day doesn't she?
I was left disappointed by the end of this book, this is a case where the premise was better then the actual story itself.
I was left disappointed by the end of this book, this is a case where the premise was better then the actual story itself.
merlin_reads's review against another edition
3.0
I've got to give props to Westerfeld, this was definitely an original idea. A hidden hour that lies directly at midnight that only a few can see. Can you just imagine? The clock strikes midnight and the world around you freezes, but you can still move among it. Really cool.
Meet the Midnighters, a group of teens who were born exactly as the clock struck midnight thus allowing them to see the 'blue time' - the space in-between. But it's not all fun and games. Other things lurk in the 'blue time' - ancient things. And these ancient things want to get back into the real world.
For the most part, I enjoyed this book. It's really hard to come across a completely unique story line now with how many YA books are out there, but Westerfeld managed that. I found that I wanted more information though about their history and their purpose (both the kids and the things in the dark). It almost seemed like this book just barely scrapped the surface of the lore.
As for the characters themselves, well, they were okay. I really liked Jonathan and didn't understand everyone else's aversion to him. Jessica was a little naive, but I don't know if it was because of her being the new girl or if that's just her, Dess was very juvenile, Rex was ok but seemed a little controlling, and then Melissa I just flat out didn't like. Sorry that your talent kind sucks for you but that doesn't give you the right to treat other people like shit.
I would be interested in seeing where this series goes and if the characters mature and plots get flushed out more.
Meet the Midnighters, a group of teens who were born exactly as the clock struck midnight thus allowing them to see the 'blue time' - the space in-between. But it's not all fun and games. Other things lurk in the 'blue time' - ancient things. And these ancient things want to get back into the real world.
For the most part, I enjoyed this book. It's really hard to come across a completely unique story line now with how many YA books are out there, but Westerfeld managed that. I found that I wanted more information though about their history and their purpose (both the kids and the things in the dark). It almost seemed like this book just barely scrapped the surface of the lore.
As for the characters themselves, well, they were okay. I really liked Jonathan and didn't understand everyone else's aversion to him. Jessica was a little naive, but I don't know if it was because of her being the new girl or if that's just her, Dess was very juvenile, Rex was ok but seemed a little controlling, and then Melissa I just flat out didn't like. Sorry that your talent kind sucks for you but that doesn't give you the right to treat other people like shit.
I would be interested in seeing where this series goes and if the characters mature and plots get flushed out more.