Book Review: Midnighters–the Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
It’s not often that I read an entire book in practically one night. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy other books that I have read, but it does go to show that any book I read in one night is perfectly written to allow such a thing to happen.This is the case with Midnighters–the Secret Hour (Book One in the series if you must know). I don’t think I could be any happier with it. It was fast and well drawn. It didn’t bite off more than it could chew (though certainly with the concepts behind it it certainly could have).The story is basically this:There is a secret hour between midnight and midnight. It’s an hour that only those born at midnight can experience and it can only be experienced in Bixby, OK. For this hour everything else is frozen, except the shadowy creatures that live there. For the four Midnighters in Bixby, everything seems to be going normal. Each of them has a special talent. They don’t bother the creatures and the creatures don’t bother them. That is until Jessica Day moves to town and the shadowy monsters there suddenly become violent. The question is, why all of a sudden? Why would her presence cause this? And what can they do about it so that midnight is safe to roam again? To put it simply, this is a fascinating book with wonderful characters. Dess would have to be my favorite character, simply because she is so weird, but the entire cast is rather spellbinding. Westerfeld has created a very interesting mythology for his world. The plot moves smoothly. The characters develop very well and there is even a little romance, which for characters in their mid-teens (that 15-16 age) worked perfectly. It was not your usual romance, but that lovely high school bubbly romance that we have all come to expect from kids these days. Even the change of viewpoint each chapter worked out well, and I am one to be very weary of changes in POV. But for Westerfeld it worked. This is a fascinating book that tells a powerful and intriguing story. As I said, few times do I read a book straight through. This book I did.
Another Meme (…this time about eight things)
So, I’ve been tagged for this by Lee Carlon, oddly enough. Actually, I have to state a public apology to Lee for my complete idiocy. A long while back I had stated that I had added his blog to my blogroll, when in actuality his blog was meant to go up there but somehow eluded me and was left out. I feel like a complete turd for having said “it’s on there” when it really wasn’t. So, for that I apologize. Now for this Meme of Eight. Here are the rules:1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.2. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their 8 things and post these rules.3. At the end choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog. (Note: I’m breaking rule four because I don’t feel like leaving comments…yes, I’m that lazy) 1. I am continuously upset with myself for throwing away my high school education as if it was worth less than the cost of an apple. Thankfully I have fixed the mistake and am going to college, but I still kick myself over my stupidity and lack of respect for how important an education can be. (I graduated HS, I just didn’t go to real college because I couldn’t)2. I used to hate Coca-Cola when I was kid and drank only Pepsi. Now I hate Pepsi and drink only Coca-Cola.3. I once tricked a friend who hated fish into eating some fried croppy (or crappy?) by telling him it was chicken. He ate three full pieces before his sister ratted me out. Needless to say his hatred of fish went away.4. I’m afraid and not afraid of spiders and other insects. I don’t instantly freak out when I see a spider, but at the same time I’m not one to sit there when one is crawling on me and go “well look how cute he is”. Generally I’m fascinated by them if they aren’t touching me.5. During senior year of high school my English teacher gave the class a project to come up with our own poetic version of Beowulf. (Sit back, this is a bit of a story). My friend and I got together, did research on ancient England, came up with a plot, etc. and spent a good week and a half coming up with all the necessary information to do it properly. When it came to names, though, we hadn’t a clue what to do. It came down to me telling my friend that he needed to come up with a name for the monster. I pestered him until he finally I just said “let’s just call it penis”, this being because penis is a comical word among fellow high school kids and had come up numerous times in class. My friend had a spark of genius and cried out “Sipen!” And so it was that all the characters, except for one, were named by scrambling names of genital-related objects (Navagi, Doldi, Umscrot, Teprosta Dalgn, etc.). Then I started working on the story. I made considerable effort to, I thought, keep it very old sounding. The teacher had the expectation of about 5-10 pages from each person or group. We turned in 33, including a title page. It might also go to note that on that title page we indicated that the names were inspired by a fellow classmate and the teacher for a moment thought that we were making fun of her, when in fact she was a great help in coming up with the names. Honestly it is one of the best projects I have ever had and am still proud of it to this day!6. Whenever I remember a dream it is 99% of the time about zombies. For some reason I am having visions of a future where I must lead mankind to survival from an invasion of zombies.7. My zombie dreams are some of the most amazing and vivid dreams ever. I actually love them to death and wake up smiling after I have one.8. I have more pets than most people. (Fish don’t count as pets). I have 11 leopard geckos (Angel, Cheese, And, Grim, Not Yet Named, Hubert, Humphry, Noodles, Melly, Taj, and Majal), three common musk turtles (Larry, Curly, and Mo), a beard dragon (CheChe), and a crested gecko (Tim). Now for who I am going to tag! (If you have already done this ignore the tag).Dane Bramage, Andrew, Lindsey, Heather Harper, and Eric (of Quantum Storytelling). Enjoy!