Customer Reviews

Touching Darkness (Midnighters, Book 2)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Touching Darkness" continues the saga of the five midnighters: Rex the Seer, who can sense Focus and has a knack for history, Melissa the Mindcaster, a mysterious, reclusive psychic, Dess the Polymath, who's brilliantly mathematically inclined (and also my favorite character), Johnathan the Acrobat, who can literally leap tall buildings in a single bound, and our heroine Jessica, who's recently discovered powers of Fire-Bringing can incinerate scourges of darklings (read: the bad guys) in a single shine of her flashlight. A new threat against the Midnighters has arisen in their small town of Bixby, Oklahoma. It turns out traitorous humans are now working for the darklings, meaning the daylight 24 hours of the day (as opposed to the single secret hour) are no longer safe for our heroes. And they seem to be after Rex in an effort to transform him into a grotesque half-human half-darkling beast...

This sequel definitely doesn't disappoint, and I was pleased that it went into such great depth about the characters, especially Melissa, who was the biggest mystery of Book One. Like a previous reviewer, I was however disappointed about the lack of fight scenes. The fight scenes we do get end pretty quickly, thanks to Jessica's unstoppable Fire-Bringer power. I'm interested to know what the darklings will be trying in the next installment, because their plan sure failed miserably this time -- Jess burned them to a crisp! I like Scott Westerfeld's simple, easy-to-follow writing style, and the creativity put into the storyline, especially the bit about tridecalogisms, is just wonderful.

I highly recommend this book (but don't touch it before you've read the first!) and will be anxiously awaiting Blue Noon! I'd love to find out about the "metallurge" power that was briefly mentioned!

A great follow up to The Secret Hour, this book is one that I, personally, found hard to put down...Westerfeld weaves a great story about the midnighters, people who can see the 'blue hour' and move about in it: Rex, Melissa, Jessica, Dess, and Jonathan. As before, it seems that trouble is brewing among the darklings, and one of the midnighters is in danger (I'm not the best at plot descriptions, in case you haven't already noticed, lol), and it is not Jessica. The story of the midnighters and basically history of Bixby is explored more in this book, and a few things are pulled together, but the third volume of the series still has a long way to go (guessing by how my side-plots splintered out of Touching Darkness)...and so I will happily await the third installment.

The few complaints I have are as follows: Westerfeld uses the word 'maelstorm' way too many times to make the word, which normally is a good, mature adjective, into something forgetable. He used this once in Uglies, his other book which I am not finished reading, and I almost groaned at the thought of seeing this word another 5-billion times, but thankfully he only used it once there...I digress, however. This was not the major disappointment of the book. Just an annoyance. But the major complaint I had was that there weren't many interesting battle scenes up until the end, which was OK as it helped to focus on the characters but was also a bit of a let down. Westerfeld delves more into the midnighters and their fragile cooperation in this novel, relationships, etc, which is interesting. I was hoping to see more of Jessica, the kick-@$$ fire-bringer, but again, not really until the end. Still, it was a great, enjoyable read with a AWESOME ending, I think, semi-cliffhanger-ish but not to an extreme degree.

I would recommend this to all of my friends.

Jessica and her frineds are part of a secret world. A world of special ablities and meatls that destroy. A world that only opens at the stroke of midnight and last for only one hour each day, halting time in the daylight realm, and opening the door was to the blue hour of midnight. Jessica and her midnighter friends are faced with a major problem, a daylight person knows of the secret midnight hour, and is stalking Jessica! Now it is a rush aginst time as they learn of a deadly plot, of the secrets of the darklings, and a grusome fate that could await one of their friends. Can they save him in time, or will he fall, helplessly, into the hands of their darkling enemys and their daylight allies. Can they save him? Find out in. Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness.

In the town of Bixby, anyone born at midnight has access to a secret hour. The hour is also inhabited by dark creatures that prey on man. The first volume ended as one young midnighter discovers her midnighter power as a Lightbringer. It is now two weeks later. Now that the Midnighters have a powerful new weapon to use against the darklings trouble arises from a completely different direction.

Midnighter talents can be used for more than just the battle against the darklings. They can also be used to detect patterns in the Blue Time. These patterns detect a null spot in town that hides a secret. A secret that has worked very hard to remain hidden and something inside the null area is toying with the group's Mindcaster. Discovering what is inside the null area also reveals more about the town of Bixby and its history with the Secret Hour. Now the Midnighters learn their true destinies and why they seem to be the only Midnighters.

This volume is rich in revelation. National trends had a different affect in Bixby due to its unique situation. This use of history meshed with the series framework works very well. The revelations go a long way to solidifying the series premises. I will not reveal any of these revelations as that would take away a lot of the fun of this volume. If you liked the first book and want more then will find plenty of it in this second volume of the trilogy. Check it out.

The book Touching Darkness, is the second book in the Midnighters series. In Bixby, Oklahoma, five teenagers in High School have an extra hour, when time freezes. There are also darklings (bad animals that only live an hour a day), that are trying to get Rex, (one of the Midnighters) because they need someone new to communicate with their human allies.

(SPOILER) My favorite part in this book is the part when they are fighting the darklings and slithers, near the end of the book. Jessica (the main character) goes out with another midnighter and try to save Rex. Rex has changed into a darkling, and is one of them now. Jessica saves him by killing all the darklings with her powerful beam of light. She then turns her flashlight on Rex to get the darkling skin off of him. This is my favorite part because it has a lot of action and suspense.

I recommend this book to everyone. It is filled with action, suspense, and even mystery about the extra hour at midnight. Touching Darkness makes me think about new things and extends my imagination because the book is so creative. I also recommend this book because it kept me reading, it's a real page turner. I like the book because it shows how someone can be torn away from a regular life, to the life full of secrets, and of trying to survive from things, almost no one else knows about. That is why I recommend this book; I also think you should read the first book of the series before this one, to help understand it.

Midnighters 2: Touching Darkness is a wonderful book. It's basically about a girl, Jessica, who has discovered a secret hour that happens every night at the stroke of midnight. Only certain people who were born at 12:00 exactly and it only happens in Bixby know about this hour: Rex, the Seer; Melissa, the Mindcaster; Dess, the Polymath; and Jonanthan, the Acrobat. In the previous book, Jess discovered that she was also a part of the Midnighters group, she was the Flamebringer. She also found out that there were dangerous creatures around at midnight only, called the darklings which the Midnighters had to face quite a few times since Jessica arrived.

My favorite part was when the stalker came into the story. Jonathan and Jess were hanging out in the secret hour and they looked over at her house and there was a non- Midnighter frozen in time in her front yard (normal people can't experience the hour) and he was taking pictures at the exact stoke of twelve. Later on, the group realizes that the stalker is working with the darklings on an evil plan that they all try desperately to figure out.

I reccommend this book to people who like mystery, romance, and a real good page-turning book. Teens would love it! I think that the Midnighters trilogy is one of the best books because while there are major unusual problems they're facing, they're also dealing with difficulties that most teens deal with. It's just a great book!

If you liked The Uglies and the like you would love the triology of books called The Midnighters by Scott Westerfield. This is a great book to read after you read the first book. The second I think so far was the best book. It really captured and pulled me in and it was very emotional for me too. It is basically about some teenagers who live in Bixby, Oklahoma. For all you Midnighter's fans you know how many letters are in the city and state! They all can move around during the blue time and fight off the really creepy buggy things. I know real descriptive but, I cannnot remember what the name of them are, well I will get back to you on that. So, I rate it a good book for summer reading after or before you read your required reading if you have any! Happy Pre-Summer! *Tinkfairy_reader34

Review of Midnighters trilogy:

Yet another YA science-fantasy winner from Westerfeld, with appeal well beyond the target audience, if your reviewer is a fair guide.

"Jessica Day moves into the small town of Bixby from Chicago, and although she hits it off with the "in" crowd, she also falls in with a bunch of weirdos who don't like the daylight, wear black a lot and are covered in metal jewelry. In the middle of the night she wakes up and discovers the world asleep with the exception of her weirdo chums and weird black slithery things..." -- from the best online review I saw of vol. 1; google farah-sf[dot]blogspot[dot]com

I know, it sounds sort of hokey and comic-booky, but actually works pretty well. The kids are fun, the action is fast & furious, and the pages turn most satisfactorily. There's even a nice touch of moral ambiguity in the wrapup volume.

Note that this is really a single novel, split into thirds by the publisher. You'll know by the end of #1 if you want to continue. I'm betting you will. But do start with #1! Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour

The story is set in Bixby, Oklahoma, now a suburb of Tulsa. I grew up about an hour away, and the problem with Westerfeld's Bixby is, it doesn't much resemble the real eastern Oklahoma. Westerfeld has numerous references to desert and salt flats, but this part of Oklahoma is pretty well-watered -- the native vegetation is a scrub-oak & pine forest. This won't affect your enjoyment of the story, really, but I have no idea why Westerfeld used a setting that would fit better in west Texas or New Mexico. Curious, seemingly pointless, and annoying.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

In the genre of teen books, this is an excellent addition. While obviously not Tolstoy, still -- compared with adult books in the same genre, this is very well done. The characterization is consistent, the storyline interesting. This is the second book in the series about a group of teens in a small town in Oklahoma that has an extra hour each day, during which monsters come out. OK, sounds hokey. But actually, this is very readable. I recommend for young folks.

I was pleased that the books came within a short amount of time. I am enjoying reading them. My grandson talked me into reading them.