Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Midnighters : The Secret Hour - Scott Westerfeld


If you want to know more about Midnighters, click here

Genre :
Young Adults - Fantasy


American publisher :
Eos : 8,99$


English publisher :
ATOM : 6,99£


Synopsis :
Jessica Day has just leave Chicago to come and live in Bixby, a small lost town, with her family. A new town means a new school, a new life. She meets a group of particularly strange teenagers, they live an extra hour everyday, when midnight strikes, when everyone else is frozen. They call themselves the Midnighters. But when Jessica arrives in Bixby, everything changes for the Midnighters. The creature of Midnight (darklings and slithers) become more agressive, and try by all means to kill Jessica. The question is why do they want to get rid of her? And why is she so different from the other Midnighters?


An extract :
"This had to be a dream : millions of diamonds filled the air, floating over the wet, shiny asphalt. Only a few inches apart, they stretched as far as Jessica could see, down the street and up into the sky. Little blue gems no bigger than tears.
No moon was visible. Thick clouds still hung over Bixby, but now they looked as hard and unmoving as stone. The light seemed to come from the diamonds, as if an invasion of blue fireflies had been frozen in midair. Jessica's eyes widened. It was so beautiful, so still and wondrous, that her anxiety was instantly gone. She raised a hand to touch one of the blue gems. The little diamond wobbled, then ran onto her finger, cold and wet. It disappeared, leaving nothing but a bit of water. Then Jessica realized what the diamond had been. A raindrop! The floating diamonds were the rain, somehow hanging motionless in the air. Nothing moved on the street or in the sky. Time was frozen around her."

What I think :
I had reached a dead end and didn't know what to read after the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. I wanted to find again this feeling of hunger, you know those books we begin and then we can't put them down before we know the end of the story.
The Secret Hour is one of them. At first, I grimaced a bit, too much common points : a young girl who comes from a big city and arrives in a small town, first day in a new school, she meets some strange people with superpowers. But after a moment I forgot all about that. I didn't care anymore. I was hooked! We discover this world of Midnight at the same time as Jessica, what do I say, this hour where time stops. I'd like to be a Midnighter, really. The only thing that kind of annoyed me is that we know that the narrator knows everything, but he doesn't tell us. He leaves us to stew. he doesn't even give us clues. And it's annoying because, sometimes the reader wants to know more things than the heroe. Well I don't know if I'm clear;o) Well, I spent a really good time with this book and I recommend it. No need to be afraid, it's great! Scott Westerfeld knows how to make us addicted to his pen. He has already proved it, and shows it again here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

If scott reads this i hope you can think this trough correctly (no affence) But... SCOTT WESTERFELD you should make all your books movies!

PRETTY PLEASE WITH A MILLION TRILLION MORE PRETTY'S AND 2 CHERRY'S ON TOP!A MILLION TRILLION BILLION CHERRYS ON TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!