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.


Book Description
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.


About the Author
Scott Westerfeld has written five adult novels, including The Risen Empire and Evolution's Darling. He was born in Texas and has also designed children's software and composed electronic music. He alternates his summers between New York City and Sydney, Australia.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
A teenage Oklahoma transplant learns she possesses otherworldly, time-dependent powers in this first nail-biting installment of author Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters series.

After Jessica Day moves to Bixby, she enjoys popularity but also becomes the focus of a few sunglasses-wearing outcasts. Curious about all the interest from Rex, Melissa, Dess, and Jonathan, Jessica soon learns that it's not without cause: She is a "midnighter," a person who can move about during a magical, condensed 25th hour that begins at midnight. Jessica is fascinated at first -- especially when she learns she has special powers during the "blue time" -- but her interest turns to horror when her safety is threatened by ever-growing "darklings," shadowy entities that want to stop Jessica from discovering and using her gift. Luckily, the teen has her new friends to teach her about keeping darklings at bay, and when the five have a 25th-hour meeting in Bixby's legendary "snake pit" that quickly turns dangerous, Jessica finds that her untapped midnighter abilities are the ultimate threat to darkling survival.

Packed with fascinating characters in a fast-paced story line, Westerfeld's The Secret Hour will keep you in suspense until the foreboding end. While Jessica seems to have remarkable wherewithal for someone who's just landed in such frightening circumstances, the author works with the creepy atmosphere and outsider characters to create an entertaining page-turner that provides a harrowing setup for Book 2. After putting this down, you might not be looking at the clock the same way again. Matt Warner

ANNOTATION

Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica Day learns that she is one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in an hour hidden at midnight; creatures that seem determined to destroy Jess.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

About the Author

Scott Westerfeld has written five adult novels, including The Risen Empire and Evolution's Darling. He was born in Texas and has also designed children's software and composed electronic music. He alternates his summers between New York City and Sydney, Australia.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Westerfeld (The Risen Empire) begins this inventive contemporary fantasy-first in a planned trilogy-as a new-kid-in-high-school story; he quickly introduces a few surreal bits and then begins revealing his secrets in careful increments. Jessica Day has moved to the odd town of Bixby, Okla., where the water tastes odd and, she is told, "gives you funny dreams." The misfits at school, Dess, Rex and Melissa, see a kindred spirit in Jessica: like them, she was born at nearly the exact stroke of midnight, giving her the ability to experience the 25th hour of each day, which is "rolled up too tight" for the rest of humanity even to notice. This lost hour has its own breed of predators ("darklings") who don't exist at any other time and who are terrified of stainless steel and 13-letter words; but ever since Jessica arrived in town, darkling activity has been on the rise. The story moves quickly, and the structure is satisfying-the author answers all the questions he highlights in this initial volume while leaving room for the plot to develop in the sequels. A devilishly unraveled loose end on the last page will ensure an audience for the next installment. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

VOYA - Hillary Theyer

A cross between the modern scenario of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the old-fashioned magic of Tom's Midnight Garden (Oxford University Press, 1958), this first in a series is set in a modern high school, with a newcomer discovering that those who dress in black and act like outcasts really do know something that mainstream American teenagers do not. Jessica arrives at Bixby High School as the new girl, facing crowded hallways and hostile lunchrooms in a new town just as any other teen would—with fear. The normal trepidation is compounded, however, by odd dreams and her growing perception that something is amiss in Bixby, Oklahoma. When she meets a group of teens who dress in black and are held as outsiders by the school, they advise her "don't drink the water" and only serve to confirm that Bixby is different. One night, Jessica awakes exactly at midnight to find time frozen, and that she has become one of the Midnighters. The Blue Time, as it is called, is not full of fun, however. She is rescued by Melissa, Rex, and Dess, who reveal that the laws of physics and nature do not work at this time. In addition to having the power to walk at midnight, they each possess a special gift that sets them aside in the ordinary daylight as weirdos. These teens have psychic powers, and they protect the real world from threat. The ending both promises Jessica a place in normal high school society and future adventures in the Blue Time with her new friends. This novel presents a promising start to a series for Buffy book and television fans and more sophisticated readers of Stephen King or Margaret Mahy. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YAappeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, HarperCollins, 304p., and PLB Ages 12 to 18.

KLIATT - Michele Winship

As the new girl in Bixby, Oklahoma, Jessica Day is more concerned with adjusting to her new surroundings than making friends, but Dess, a Goth girl hiding behind dark glasses, strikes up a strange conversation with her, hinting that something in Bixby might give her bad dreams. That night, Jessica thinks she must be dreaming when she wakes up to blue diamonds glittering in the air outside her window, only to realize that the gems are rain suspended mid-fall. The next night, "dreaming" again, she ventures out of the house to explore a time-frozen world that seems to be hers alone. On the other side of town, however, Dess along with Melissa and Re senses Jessica's presence. They find her just as she is about to be attacked by a shadowy panther and tell her this is no dream. Jessica learns that they all share a special commonality. Each one was born at midnight and as a result experiences a 25th hour in the day when real time stops, blue time starts, and the darklings come out. Since Jessica's arrival, though, the darklings have gotten aggressive, and the Midnighters have to find out why. They each have special powers, but until they discover what Jessica's talent is, and why she has become the darkling's target, their midnight hour is in jeopardy. In Westerfeld's first Midnighters tale, he concocts a unique and fresh fantasy setting just beyond the edge of our consciousness. Readers will certainly be pulled into the blue time and eagerly await the next volume. (Midnighters #1). KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2004, HarperCollins, 296p., Ages 12 to 18.

School Library Journal

Gr 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 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews