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

Book Review: Touching Darkness

Title: Touching Darkness
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Midnighters, book 2
Publisher: HarperCollins/HarperTeen
Release Date: 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 330
Source: Bought
My Rating: 3.5 stars

The Midnighters of Bixby, Oklahoma, know that their town is full of secrets. These five teenagers are the only ones who know about the mysterious hour at midnight when the world freezes, except for them and the creatures that inhabit the darkness.
But they do not know why earlier generations of Midnighters all disappeared, or why they are now the only Midnighters in town. As they learn more about the secret hour's twists and turns, they uncover terrifying mysteries woven into the very fabric of Bixby's history, and a conspiracy that touches both the midnight hour and the world of daylight.
At the same time, the Midnighters' own secrets start to emerge, including some that were never meant to come to light, changing the fragile dynamics among the five.This time Jessica Day is not the only Midnighter in mortal danger, and if the group can't find a way to come together, they could lose one of their own — forever.
A tale of betrayal, horrifying revelations, and powerful alliances, touching darkness is the second volume of the riveting Midnighters trilogy by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld.                                     Taken by Goodreads.com 

Review

In the first book we were introduced into the blue time, the time where only Midnighters can walk through it and where the creatures, the darklings, exist. This time we find out that this secret time gets known to non-midnighters that are threating our five midnighters.   

The characters in this book have started to change as the events progress and they are constantly in danger. People, non-midnighters, are following them and they have to make hard decisions. Jessica was more confident in this book since she has the power to defend all five of them since she's the flame-bringer. Also new characters are introduced, characters that want to harm them and also old midnighters are introduced, to help them figure out the blue time. The timing isn't the best though and they find it hard to trust anyone resulting putting in great danger one of them.

The writing was fabulous again and Scott Westerfeld made me actually like a little more physics and understand that after all those math classes, they may come in hand one day. The plot was fast paced. After the initial intro in this wold the pace picks up and it is filled with action-paced scenes and the developing of this new world -the secret hour- that it seems that it doesn't stop from growing. 

Overall I enjoyed Touching Darkness so much more than the first book The Secret Hour and I can't wait for the last book called Blue Noon. If you have read the first one and wasn't so sure about it, give this one a try. It's worth it. It's so much easier to understand it now that you have already known the basics of the Secret Hour. It's one of those series that gets better as it goes. 

Frosy

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Love Is Hell >> Book Review

Love Is Hell by various authors

(5 short stories)

paperback pages: 263

My Overall Rating 3 stars

Sure, love is hell.

But it's totally worth it.

In these supernatural stories by five of today's hottest writers-Melissa Marr (WICKED LOVELY), Scott Westerfeld (SPECIALS), Justine Larbalestier (MAGIC FOR MADNESS), Gabrielle Zevin (ELSEWHERE), and Laurie Faria Stolarz (BLUE IS FOR NIGHTMARES)- love may be twisted and turned around, but it's more potent than ever on its quest to conquer all.

From two students who let the power of attraction guide them to break the hard-and-fast rules of their world to the girl who falls hard for a good looking ghost with a score to settle, the clever, quirky characters in this exciting collection will break your hear, then leave you believing in love more than ever.

My Review

This is a book containing five short stories, called Love is Hell. 

As you can imagine there are five love stories which didn't have a good ending and had paranormal elements in it. 
I will begin by reviewing each one of them. 

SLEEPING WITH THE SPIRIT, by Laurie Faria Stolarz
My Rating 5 stars 
It is a story about a girl seeing ghosts and particularly one handsome boy who died in the house she is living in now. As you can imagine they get to know each other and fall in love. But sooner or later she has to let him go..... 
This is my favourite of all five stories and I think it has potential to be a really good novel. I hope the writer will turn this into a novel. 

STUPID PERFECT WORLD, by Scott Westerfeld
My Rating 3 stars
This story is being placed in the future, where we have teleporting and other technological achievements. It is a sci-fi story where two teenagers fall in love during a class project. They put themselves into our position (how we live today) to see how it was, because in their time everything is taken care by technology; even feelings I might add. During that journey they came across with things that they only new in theory. 
It was a nice story, interesting but to me it felt like a stranger; maybe, because I haven’t read any sci-fi fiction before. But I would gladly read this one if it was a novel. 

THINNER THAN WATER, by Justine Larbalestier
My Rating 2 stars
This story is held in a small village where everything runs like in the old days. No electricity no school for girls after 15, they have to marry. This girl though doesn’t want this life. She wants to go to the city to become a doctor. The day she decides to run away a boy comes and asks her to marry her and convinces her to stay, for a while before they both go to the city. Her parents don’t like him; they think that he is not even a human..... She doesn’t believe them and of course she is happy with him until...... 
I have mix feelings for this one. I like the paranormal stuff but didn’t like the setting. 
I don’t think that I would read this story if it was a novel... 


FAN FICTIONS, by Gabrielle Zevin
My Rating 3 stars
Ok this is not a fan fiction story. That was my first thought when I saw the title. I can’t really say much because I will spoil it, actually I won’t say anything just that it was a girl that read a lot. She was always at the library and was invisible to everyone, until she met him...... Saying even the slightest will ruin it for you but I must say I didn’t expect the ending.
It was a nice story, I think I would read it if it was a novel... 

LOVE STRUCK, by Melissa Marr
My Rating 5 stars
This is also my favourite of the five stories. It is about a girl that gets captured by a selchie. The selchie has no other choice but to follow her. They both are captured into this love-magic and she wants to end it. She starts having feelings for him but she constantly reminds herself that all this is a result of the selchie magic. So she found a way to end it. But now she feels sad...... 
I loved this one; I would defiantly read this if it was a novel. 

Now don’t expect to get attached to any of the character or to get to know them in dept. There are short stories......
Frosy 




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The Secret Hour >> Book Review

The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld 

Midnighters, Book 1

paperback pages: 297

My Rating 2.5 stars

Nobody is safe in the secret hour.

Strange things happen at midnight in the town of Bixby, Oklahoma. 

Time freezes. 

Nobody moves.

For one secret hour each night, the town belongs to the dark creatures that haunt the shadows. Only a small group of teenagers knows about the secret hour-only they are free to move about the midnight time.

They call themselves Midnighters. 

Each one has a different power that is strongest at midnight: Seer, Mindcaster, Acrobat, Polymath. For years the Midnighters and the dark creatures have shared the secret hour, uneasily avoiding one another. All that changes when the new girl with an unmistakable midnight aura appears at Bixby High School. 

Jessica Day is not an outsider like the other Midnighters. She acts perfectly normal in every way. But it soon becomes clear that the dark creatures sense a hidden power in Jessica... and they're determined to stop her before she can use it. 

My Review

Humans that are born at the stroke of midnight have the ability to access the secret 25^th hour of the day. Wouldn’t you like the extra hour? I know I would.

The promise that out there is something more than what we see and feel is really interesting and will definitely be appealing to those who like sci-fi books.

This is my first sci-fi book so it was kind of hard to get into but once that was over and I got to know the characters I found myself trying to find ways for the characters to escape..... not saying! J

The truth is these series have really stuck with me and days after I read them I was thinking about them. It has enough science stuff for those of you that are interested to know how things happened, like me, and it was simple enough for those who don’t want to have a headache from the entire information overflow.

The characters were really unique and each one of them had a different talent. They call themselves Midnighters since they are the only humans that live in the secret hour but not for long because something dark out there wants them. These creatures, called daklings, are the other things that live or better exist at the secret hour. They only live at the 25^th hour and that’s a relief because they are after Jessica. But she has the help of 4 other Midnighters, all with special talents.

The writing was in third person narrative which is my favourite. A plus! You will find yourself turning the pages fast and eager to see what happens next.

I only gave it 2 stars because it was hard for me to get into and because there wasn’t the love story I wanted to see but let me tell you the next books are better. This is the kind of series that gets better as it goes. So read it and then go for the next one!

Frosy 

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