Book Review: Blue Noon

Title: Blue Noon
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Midnighters, book 3
Publisher: HarperCollins/HarperTeen
Release Date: 2006
Format: Paperback
Pages: 378
Source: Bought
My Rating: 5 stars

The darklings will hunt once again. 
The secret hour when time freezes arrives every night at midnight in Bixby, Oklahoma. It's a dangerous time, when five teenagers are the only humans awake and dark creatures crawl out of the shadows, but at least the midnight hour is regular and predictable. 
Until suddenly, the blue time comes . . . in the middle of the day. 
The noise of school stops. Cheerleaders are frozen in midair, teachers brought to a standstill. Everything is the haunted blue color of the midnight hour. 
The Midnighters can't understand what's happening, but as they scramble for answers, they discover that the walls between the secret hour and real time are crumbling. Soon the dark creatures will have a chance to feed after centuries of waiting, unless these five teenagers can find a way to stop them. 
A desperate race against time, a mind-blowing mystery of paranormal logic, a tale of ancient evil and spine-chilling sacrifice: blue noon is the exhilarating third volume in the Midnighters series by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld. Taken by GoodReads.com. 

Blue Noon picks up right after the events in Touching Darkness. Our midnighters are faced with the bigest threat of all. Blue time is on the verge of swallowing all of Bixby and even the world. This book has an "end of the world feel" and Scott Westerfeld managed to deliver. 

When I picked up the book I thought that whatever character development there was, was done during the first two books. I wasn't expecting much to change but I was wrong. I was surprised by Rex. In Touching Darkness he got that close to becoming one of the darklings. Now in Blue Noon we see the effects of such a close encounter with them and I was amazed by how strangely addicted I became to Rex. He became multidimensional and nothing like his old self, the boring and safe Rex he used to be. 

Through this book we got also the chance to learn more about the lore and the mechanics behind the secret time. All of our midnighters get to test their powers to their maximum and see that even though they thought they learned everything they could to fight the darklings they still didn't see it coming... the ending.

When I finished this book I was so mad that I couldn't think anything else for this book expect of how Scott Westerfeld ended this story. As I got invested into the characters and read their stories, I wanted for them to have good endings, happy endings. Scott Westerfeld managed to do that but with a sting to it. His ending was bittersweet leaving you with the impression that there might be more to this story. 

Overall I loved it even though I was shocked by the ending of the story. Hopefully there is more to the Midnighters and I will definitely be picking up more books from this author.

Frosy