Midnighters

As you can see, this book is called Midnighters: The Secret Hour. It's very well written by Scott Westerfield, who also wrote the Uglies series. It is about a girl named Jessica Day, who just moved from Chicago to a very small town in Ohio. How small? Less than 200 kids go to the high-school. Jessica sticks out like a sore thumb. She befriends a group of misfits, who are Dess, Rex, and Melissa. These social outcasts are struggling their way through high school. Although these kids are misfits, they have something special. They have the secret hour. Every night at midnight the world stops. Everyone, except for the midnighters who were born at exactly midnight, is frozen in time. They have an hour to themselves, a shelter from their everyday lives. They soon find out that there is a lot more to this secret hour than they expected. Innocent creatures who left the midnighters alone before aren't so innocent anymore. All because of Jessica.

This book is original, fast-paced, and includes just about everything expected in a good teen book. It has romance (although thankfully it isn't a focal point in the story), humor, and action. On the cover there is a quote from Ursula K. Le Guin. She says, " Fast-paced and spooky-- a good read for the dark hours." Yes, it was fast paced and was a great read for late at night (I was definitely up later than I should have been while I was reading it) but spooky? Not so much. No need to worry, your pants will stay dry.

Scott Westerfield did a great job writing this book. He illustrates his point page by page. This book is mainly written to entertain, but can also teach a valuable lesson. The main characters are all extremely socially awkward. They are put through terrible things at school, but when the secret hour comes, it is a whole other story. In the secret hour, they can truly shine. He helps us realize that there is a place for everyone. No, it may not be as cool as the secret hour, but everyone belongs somewhere, teaching us that there is no such thing as a useless person.

In the end he set it up for a sequel (of course), making any reader desperate for the next book. I really enjoyed this book, with it's quick, original plot, easy to relate characters, and unique style of writing, I would definitely recommend it to any teen looking for a good read. B+