"The Secret Hour", the first book of the Midnighters series, is about Jessica Day who just moved to the small town of Bixby, Oklahoma. The story set-up reminded me a lot of William Sleator's young adult sci-fi in a very good way, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing where the story goes in the next installment of the series. Still, the little things I'd fix are minor and my enjoyment was huge. This was so unnecessary (at page 194, do you really need to explain that the sheriff you're referring to is the one "here in Bixby?") and intrusive, and I'm surprised that an editor didn't catch this repetition throughout the book. The grand total in 274 pages? 18 mentions of name Bixby High and 95 mentions of Bixby itself. I noticed this happening so many times within the first 7 pages that I decided to keep a tally as I was reading. I also have to mention that the town's name gets used.a lot. Could be the author had a reason for doing this (deliberate misguidance, perhaps), but if so I think more time with Rex would have made this stronger. Since Rex is turning out to be a mysterious figure and it seems that Jess is actually more of the central character, I would also have flip-flopped the POVs for Chapters 1 and 2 so the book starts off from her perspective.
In such a short novel it's already hard to get to know the numerous characters, so spending more time with just a couple of them might've tightened things up a bit. The author does a great job of gradually weaving the story together (though much of the book is spent on setting up the concept), and it'll be interesting to what everyone's motivations are and how certain powers will be utilized.Ī couple of quibbles: while I like all the characters so far and don't really mind the multiple narrators, I think reducing the number of POVs would have made the narrative stronger. The idea is incredibly intriguing, and I liked the descriptions of focus/out of focus, the kids' purple eyes, the wondrous flying, the injections of humor, and the beautiful night when Jess sees the frozen world for the first time, with the air filled with suspended raindrops. What's going on? Why is the town like this? What do the evil darklings want with Jessica Day, the new girl in town? What a cool concept! For one secret extra hour each night, a small group of teenagers is able to move about freely-even though the rest of the town around them is frozen in time.
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