Goodreads Summary:
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.
My Review
I checked out The Secret Hour from my local library after accidentally buying the third book at a state book fair thingy. The third book sounded super interesting right off the bat, so I was a little bummed that it wasn’t the first book because The Secret Hour didn’t sound nearly as good from the back description as the third one did.
Well folks, The Secret Hour really wasn’t that satisfactory. The concept of course was totally different and intriguing. Only those born at midnight can actually live in the “secret hour” and have special powers. Sounds awesome right? Well the story started and it was already just kinda dry. Each character was introduced right away, but the concept itself wasn’t explained till about page 100 and the book is less than 300 pages. Then as the story continued, a romance blossomed practically out of no where, so I just didn’t feel much of a connection to it.
By the time the ending rolled around, the answer to the big question that had begun toward the beginning of the book was finally revealed, and the resolution was pretty anticlimactic. The enemy (which isn’t really much of a tangible enemy) was defeated right away and the story ended shortly after. Yes there were some bigger questions given to make you want to read book two, but nope, not feelin it. The Secret Hour was just a little too boring for my taste with characters I couldn’t connect with. Sorry guys for a negative review but there ya have it. This book wasn’t completely terrible, but I wouldn’t say I enjoyed reading it. And I guess I’m going to have to get rid of book three now too. 😦
Escape Inside the pages 