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The Secret Hour (2008)

The Secret Hour (2008)

Book Info

Series
Rating
3.81 of 5 Votes: 4
Your rating
ISBN
7800605195 (ISBN13: 9780060519537)
Language
English
Publisher
harperteen

About book The Secret Hour (2008)

Freaks, geeks, new kids, math geniuses, and teenage goths with pictures of Robert Smith in your lockets take heart: there is one place in the world in which, during one precious hour of the day night, you will be sublimely cool, entirely autonomous, uniquely talented, and much better informed than everyone you know. Where is this place, you ask? Oklahoma. Bixby, Oklahoma: a tiny, desert, suburban, blue collar town where time literally stands still. But in a good way.Explain more, you say--this sounds pretty awesome. (Well, it really is. Delightfully, joyfully awesome.)So, here's how it goes:Jessica Day (whose name is both pointedly bland and symbolically appropriate) moves to Bixby from Chicago when her mom gets a job at the aerospace plant just outside of town. Once there, Jessica finds herself adopted into a group of outcasts whose self-proclaimed leader has named them The Midnighters. Each possessing their own particular "talent," (which I won't spoil for you) the Midnighters are a group of teens for whom--by virtue of the fact that they were all born at the stroke of midnight (get it?)--there is actually an additional hour in the day. Normal people in Bixby ("stiffs," or "daylighters," as one character calls them) are suspended in time at midnight, freezing while this small select group of teens has the freedom to pretty much do whatever they want. For an hour. Of course, it's not all freedom and joyrides and youthful abandon. The Midnighters have to share their 'Secret Hour' with malicious, hungry creatures ("darklings") who can change shape, fly, and pretty much decimate anything that they get the inkling to, unless one knows how to stop them. And, of course, the Midnighters do. And everything is going pretty well until Jessica shows up and the beasts go haywire and suddenly, the peaceful midnight hour becomes a constant battle ground. The group then has to figure out why the darklings have suddenly come out in full force, how to fight them, and what Jessica's midnight talent actually is. I pretty much put everything else on hold to read this book, which I popped off in a couple of days. I'm a sucker for books with at least marginally uncool characters, teens who may have each other but in the eyes of the rest of the world (their peers) are pretty much complete losers. And beyond the fact that the premise of being able to freely move about unimpeded really appealed to the loner-with-a-wicked-curfew deep in me, Westerfeld does a really nice job in developing a textured (but not overwhelming) alternate reality, a cast of teens with personalized, believable voices, and a plot which moves at a steady pace and maintains suspense throughout. The Secret Hour has a very Buffy feel to it: a foursome steeped in their own dynamic and isolated from 'normal' people, fighting mystical creatures, and immersed in researching the history of their circumstances. In Desdemona, Westerfeld's clear favorite, you even get a bit of a Willow--she's a "polymath"--basically a math prodigy--who grounds the group with logic, rationality, and a generally empathetic understanding of where everyone is coming from. She's also the character who is best equipped to protect the group, fashioning weapons and wielding tridecalogisms (13 letter words with protective properties) with flair. My only lingering question--and perhaps this is addressed in one of the other books in the trilogy--is why the darklings don't just creep into people's houses and snack on them while they are all frozen. But other than this point, I really have no complaints. Great fun read.

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. What's going on? Why is the town like this? What do the evil darklings want with Jessica Day, the new girl in town?I really enjoyed this book. 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. 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.A 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. 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. 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. 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.I also have to mention that the town's name gets used...a lot. I noticed this happening so many times within the first 7 pages that I decided to keep a tally as I was reading. The grand total in 274 pages? 18 mentions of name Bixby High and 95 mentions of Bixby itself. 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.Still, the little things I'd fix are minor and my enjoyment was huge. 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. Splendiferous!

Do You like book The Secret Hour (2008)?

Woah! What a great book! An excellent beginner to a new series. It didn't take too long to get the book started. This is my first time reading Scott Westerfeld and he did an amazing job. He had to put alot of time into this. I enjoyed reading it. The extra hour of the day in which you got powers, awesome. I want to be a flyer like Johnathon. I knew once they sat together at lunch he was a midnighter and I was so happy he was. Melissa is such a witch! Jeez, crazy girl! I probably would be too tho
—Naomi

Questo libro è una vera e propria rivelazione.Nella città di Bixby, allo scoccare della mezzanotte, nasce un'altra ora dove il mondo si congela, le leggi della fisica perdono ogni importanza e dei mostri letali e affamati emergono dal passato per iniziare la loro caccia. Alcuni ragazzini, nati a mezzanotte in punto, possono muoversi e assaporare quest'ora segreta e ognuno di loro ha un potere speciale, un dono che può sfruttare. -- Ma l'arrivo di Jessica Day scombussola le carte in tavola e l'equilibrio dell'ora dopo la mezzanotte. A che cosa porterà tutto questo?Cosa mi è piaciuto di questo libro:- Lo stile di scrittura di Scott Westerfeld non si smentisce mai. Altamente descrittivo e particolare, dona un ritratto molto ben definito di Bixby e dei protagonisti.- La trama è ECCEZIONALE. Non ho mai letto niente del genere e bisogna proprio ammetterlo: Westerfeld ha una grandissima e fervida immaginazione. -- Chi avrebbe mai potuto pensare di creare una venticinquesima ora giornaliera che solo pochi eletti posso vivere e vedere? Davvero impressionante!- I personaggi sono caratterizzati alla perfezione. Mi sono piaciuti molto tutti (ovviamente, chi più e chi meno) e trovo che l'alone di mistero che volteggia attorno ad ognuno di loro sia estremamente intrigante. I poteri che possiedono si adeguano perfettamente alla loro personalità e ho apprezzato molto la loro intelligenza e il loro coraggio. -- I personaggi di Rex e Melissa, in particolare, mi incuriosiscono parecchio. C'è qualcosa di loro che Westerfeld non ci ha ancora rivelato e che, personalmente, non vedo l'ora di scoprire. - La costruzione del mondo è stata fatta divinamente. L'autore non ha tralasciato nemmeno un particolare e ho adorato vedere le dinamiche dell'ora segreta, i mostri che si risvegliano, i poteri dei ragazzi e come si attrezzano per proteggersi da quelle orrende creature.- I colpi di scena non sono mancati e hanno dato un tono ancora più avventuroso al libro.Cosa non mi è piaciuto di questo libro:- C'erano troppi punti di vista. Per me è molto bello avere la possibilità di vedere la storia con prospettive diverse, ma il troppo stroppia. Specialmente all'inizio della narrazione, ho trovato i diversi punti di vista confusionari e non mi hanno permesso di immergermi completamente nella storia fin da subito.- La narrazione era un po' lenta. Questo libro, secondo me, è stato scritto con l'intento di essere un'introduzione al mondo e alla storia che Westerfeld aveva intenzione di creare. Nonostante sia stata una lettura bellissima, piacevole e particolare (che, tra l'altro, se le merita tutte le quattro stelline), l'ho trovata comunque un po' "piatta". Non succede molto e i personaggi, con l'arrivo di Jessica, non sanno più che pesci pigliare. Eventualmente, verso la fine, le cose iniziano a scaldarsi e si fanno anche delle grandi ed emozionanti scoperte, ma avrei comunque preferito vedere un po' più di azione fin dall'inizio!- (view spoiler)[ La "storia d'amore" tra Jessica e Jonathan (che poi, definirla storia d'amore è un po' eccessivo) mi è sembrata un po' forzata. Si conoscono da quanto? Una settimana? Forse due? Nonostante siano molto teneri, il tutto mi è sembrato un po' forzato. Non si sono promessi amore eterno, non si sono nemmeno messi insieme... però, non saprei, non mi ha entusiasmato più di tanto. (hide spoiler)]
—Erika

Here's the review I wrote for my school newspaper!When Jessica Day moves from Chicago to the small town of Bixby, Oklahoma, she’s expecting a change. But she never could’ve imagine a world like the one she finds herself in. because, in Bixby, there are 25 hours in the day. But normal humans don’t know of the secret hour- they simply freeze for one hour at midnight. Every night. They cannot tell that an hour has passed for the special few who can live in the extra hour. There people were born exactly at midnight, allowing them inside this extra hour- one that was originally created to hold the monsters of olden times. Jessica soon realizes she is one of the few who can live in the secret hour, and soon finds a unique cast of other teens like her. They all seem to have a special power, like flight, or mindreading. But as great as it is to have an extra hour in the day, the monsters that inhabit the secret hour have it out for Jessica. Why? What’s Jessica’s power? Why was the secret hour created in the first place? Follow this intriguing tale to find out.tAs unbelievable as this storyline seems, I was so captured by the realistic storytelling that I wanted to find where Bixby Oklahoma was and go there. (and it does exist!) Part of what made it so believable was the characters. They were real people, with good and bad sides, and you really want to help them with their mission. This novel has some of the best writing I’ve seen, the perfect amount of descriptive language to give you a clear picture, but not so much that you get bored. The characters’ powers were so well described; I thought I was in their head. The story took my breath away, but it didn’t knock me down, so it will receive a four-star rating. It also felt a little dated as computers were not commonplace, and cell phones nonexistent. I highly recommend this book to any fans of the paranormal.Here's my review: Wow. Scott Westerfel: YOU DA MAN!! I don't know why I gave it four stars. But I did. Sorry. Why is Mr. Westerfeld the only decent writer these days? The writing was MORE than fantastic. The characters were so believeable! The world building was so perfect! Everything was brilliant I got the next one already!! This isn't my type of book. But it doesn't mean that I didn't REALLY LIKE IT. Because thats what four stars means. I really liked it. The characters..........dont even get me started.Bixby oklahoma watch out, here I come!EDIT: I read my global textbook just to look for 13 letter words!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deteriorating Mediterranean SupplementaryEtc, etc, etc I found like 50!!
—ℂᖺαᖇᒪἷ℮ ⊰1017 &Tardis⊱

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