The Secret Hour (Midnighters #1) [Paperback]

Scott Westerfeld (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 1, 2005

A few nights after Jessica Day arrives in Bixby, Oklahoma, she wakes up at midnight to find the entire world frozen, except for her and a few others who call themselves 'midnighters'. Dark things haunt this midnight hour – dark things with a mysterious interest in Jessica. The question is ?hy;

The Secret Hour is a compelling tale of dark secrets, midnight romance, eerie creatures, courage, destiny, and unexpected peril.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10–Moving when you're in high school is difficult enough, especially when your parents can't seem to hold their own lives together and your younger sister is being more obnoxious than usual. However, for 15-year-old Jessica Day, these concerns pale when bizarre things start to happen and she discovers that she now has unwanted magical powers. Part science fiction, part horror story, this novel is the first in a series about the midnighters, a select group of individuals whose birth at the stroke of midnight gives them the special ability to move about in a mysterious 25th hour. As Jessica takes her place among these extraordinary teens, she must battle the increasingly dangerous slithers and other darklings that have suddenly become more violent and aggressive. The story is exciting and the writing compelling. Gaps in the account will not bother readers, who will be totally absorbed by the paranormal elements as well as the intriguing characters, and who will be eagerly awaiting the next book.–Sharon Grover, Arlington County Department of Libraries, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

'Kept me reading way past midnight!' Garth Nix 'Fast-paced and spooky - a good read for the dark hours' Ursula K. Le Guin 'Intriguing and provocative. The sequels will be worth waiting for.' Locus --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; First Edition edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780060519537
• ISBN-13: 978-0060519537
• ASIN: 0060519533
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Scott Westerfeld's teen novels include the Uglies series, the Midnighters trilogy, The Last Days, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and the sequel to Peeps. Scott was born in Texas, and alternates summers between Sydney, Australia, and New York City.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#29 in Books > Teens

#29 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Culture Shock With a Difference March 29, 2005

By Joshua Koppel

Format:Hardcover

Jessica has just moved to the small town of Bixby after living in Chicago. But other than size, temperature, and scenery, she also discovers something else very different about the town. Every day at midnight the rest of the world freezes but she, and several other kids, get an extra hour. Unfortunately other, older and scarier, things also inhabit this time.

Jessica meets the other kids; Midnighters as they call themselves. Each has a special talent related to the secret hour. Jessica must have a talent but hers is not obvious. Nor is Jessica sensitive to light in the same way as the others. To make matters worse, the dark things seem to want her dead. She must be a threat to them so it becomes important to figure out just what her special talent is and it could be dangerous.

This is a very nice start to a series. I don't know how long they plan to go with this but it is off to a fast start. Only one part bothered me. Midnight is the true midnight, not one artificially created by time-zones, daylight savings, or other man-made definitions. That is fine. But apparently the arbitrary man-made definitions of latitude and longitude do have an effect. I found that to be inconsistent. Otherwise, the book was quite good and really kept me guessing. There is still plenty to learn about the secret hour and I look forward to the next volume.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting November 1, 2005

By Christopher Harris

Format:Hardcover

I picked up this book as an advanced copy(I work at a bookstore), and thought it seemed kind of interesting, but it took me about 4-5 months after I had it to pick it up. As soon as I picked it up though I could not put it down. I read it in 2 nights and could not fall asleep easily either of those nights. It is riveting and keeps you on the edge of your seat, or in some cases bed. Learning what Jessica's power is, and the evil that all the other midnighters have to face is amazing. This is a book that not to many people have read I believe and it should be up there(as well as Westerfeld's other series Uglies/Pretties/Specials), with the Artemis Fowl series and the Series of Unfortunate Events as it is as good as if not better than those other two.

This was a great book, as is the second book, learning how words can empower metal objects in this 25th hour where no one else put the ancient evil's and these few people who were all born at the stroke of midnight have to cope with each other, and how the evils fear the power the Jessica has which is devastating to their livelyhood. You HAVE to read this book, and the whole series.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Midnighters May 17, 2007

A Kid's Review

Format:Paperback

Being born at midnight changed the rest of her life more than she could've ever imagined. Jessica Day, who recently moved to Bixby, Oklahoma, started having weird "dreams" when she came. Her first one happened when she woke up at the stroke of midnight and everything was frozen still. She ventures outside and the raindrops looked like diamonds in the sky until she touched it and they fell. She felt as if this experience was magical, but didn't know whether it was a dream or reality. The thing that let her know it was real was when she woke up and her sweatshirt that she had been wearing was soaking wet. The next day at school she found out that there were three others in her school that had this power to: Rex, Dess, and Melissa. And they had found out that she had because they had felt someone else while they were venturing around. They called themselves the midnighters. The time that took place during midnight was called blue time and it was an hour long that time was stopped and only people who were born at midnight could experience it. But also in blue time there were things that the midnighters had to overcome such as darklings and slithers. While on a trip in midnight she see's Jonathan, a boy from he school, and he tells her that he is a midnighter too and that the others don't really like him. In the end, they all had to come together and help Jessica find her power, which is something that each of them has, and she finds out that she is the flame bringer and the one who beings new technology to the blue time which scares the slithers and darklings away. I would recommend this book to middle school students who enjoy reading sci-fi genre books with a everyday, relatable, twist to them.

The book had an everyday element to it, so it wasn't just being midnight all of the time.... It showed how they had just recently moved to the town and how bratty her sister Beth had been acting about the situation. It also told about how Jessica had to make new friends and find a place to sit at lunch and decide who she wanted to be friends with. And it the everyday things also played into the sci-fi elements because when she was invited to a party by a girl named Constanza, she excepted because it put her closer to the spot that she had to be to defeat the darklings at midnight.

I enjoyed the fact that everyone who was a midnighter had their own specific power that they had to come together and help Jessica find hers. Dess was the mathematician, and had all kinds of riddle's, with Bixby, Oklahoma and the number thirteen. Melissa has the power of being able to be a psychic and she was able to read minds throughout blue time. And Rex was the lore reader, he put everything together and figured out why they were actually there and their initial purpose.

Midnighters by Scott Westerfield was a good science fiction book. I liked the fact the that world was to them for an hour out of the day, and that it wasn't just easy, they had to get through trials and tribulations too. And that there were real-life consequences to too. Because in Bixby there is a curfew and it is before blue time so if they don't make it home before it is over, then the police will catch them, which is what happened to Jonathan when he and Jessica were walking home from being out. And also that the scars and things from their battles with the darklings and slithers still remain on their bodies and they have to cover it up or everyone will find out about them.

This book was a sci-fi book that had an everyday, relatable, twist to it and that would be enjoyed by middle school students. I enjoyed that it mixed the element of real life and love life with an totally different element. And the fact that no one but them new about it and it became a world for them and exclusively for them!

-N.Brooks Read more ›

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good youth science fiction-fantasy May 23, 2006

By Margaret Dybala VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was clearly written with the reading teen in mind. The basic plot (not very original) is that there is an extra hour at midnight, in this small town, where only a few teens stay awake. Even the rain stops midair and just freezes until time rolls around again. The new kid in town must learn why she has this ability, too; how to make friends with the other kids; how to get along with her little sister; how to defeat the army of monsters that seems intent on destroying her -- all while keeping up in advaned trig and physics in school. So what is good and original about this? Mr. Westerfeld does an excellent job of laying out the plot, showing character development through dialog and creating a nice end that makes us eager to read the next book in the series. I recommend this book highly, both to young readers, and adults who enjoy keeping up with the youth books.