It's midnight in New York City, and most everyone is at a party or Broadway.
It's midnight in Las Vegas, and most everyone is gambling or going to shows on the strip.
It's midnight in West Virginia, and most everyone is asleep.
But in Bixby, Oklahoma, when it's midnight, time freezes for the whole hour, allowing five teens to live in it. At least that's the case in Scott Westerfeld's "The Secret Hour."
Jessica Day, the new girl from Chicago, has just woken up. Its midnight exactly, and it's been raining. When time freezes in Bixby, everything freezes: people, cars, fire technology - even the rain.
At school the next day, Jessica meets a few talented others: Melissa, Dess, Rex and Jonathan. Jessica seems to gravitate towards Jonathan a bit more than the other three "midnighters."
Jonathan, Rex, Dess and Melissa all have photophobia, a symptom of excessive light sensitivity, which causes them discomfort or pain. Most of them wear sunglasses to alleviate this, but Jonathan just squints his eyes to avoid the light. Though Jessica is a midnighter, she does not have photophobia.
Jessica and the others aren't the only ones that can live in what Rex calls "the blue time." There are also slithers and Darklings, as Rex has named them.
Slithers are similar to snakes and can transform into other beings, such as a cat or a snake that can fly. Darklings are the entire slither population combined. These slithers can change their shapes while they fly and are unable to touch metal or steel that is clean (meaning that it hasn't been touched by midnight).
Throughout "The Secret Hour," each midnighter's special power is revealed.
Jonathan is an acrobat, which means if he jumps, it's sort of like he can fly. Gravity has no meaning for him. Plus, he can touch another midnighter and spread his power through them.
Rex is a seer. He can read the lore left by other midnighters that dates back at least 10,000 years. Without the glasses he wears, everything is blurry - except for things relating to "the blue time." He can see other midnighters and also where the slithers have been and what they've touched.
Dess is a polymath, which means she's a whiz at math and tridecalogisms, which are 13 or 39- letter words. Melissa is a mindcaster, which means she can read other people's minds and thoughts, but she cannot get them to stay out of her mind when she wants them, too.
While Jessica and Jonathan stay side by side, Rex and the rest of his group start to stockpile weapons for a trip to the badlands to find out Jessica's power. (Don't worry, it will eventually be revealed!)
When the group attempts its trip, they are attacked by a fearsome group of Darklings that has followed them. As the Darklings attack the metal barrier that Dess has set up, they are pushed back by the "blue lightning" of clean metal.
Once everyone is in the badlands' cave, where Rex and the others have already been, things seem to get worse. However, Jessica knows how to stop it all.
Scott Westerfeld's "The Secret Hour" is a science fiction book that I would recommend to young adults middle school age and up. While Westerfeld has a tendency to get off topic, he keeps your attention on track with the suspenseful excitement that keeps you turning the pages.
This book does have a few bigger words than what would normally appear in young adult books, but you'll get the hang of it after a few chapters.
When you see Jessica's and the power of the rest of the midnighters, you'll definitely want to read the other two books in Westerfeld's Midnighters trilogy - "Touching Darkness" and "Blue Noon."
And if you like those books, then there's good news for you - Westerfeld has also written several other notable books, including the Uglies series ("Uglies," "Pretties," "Specials" and "Extras"), "Peeps" and "So Yesterday."