Book Review: The Secret Hour

Book: The Secret Hour (Midnights #1)
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Urban Fantasy/SciFi (YA)
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 297
Favorite Character: Dess

Plot: (From Goodreads)

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 people know about the secret hour -- only they are free to move about the midnight time.

These people 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.

A story of courage, shadowy perils, and unexpected destiny, the secret hour is the first volume of the mesmerizing Midnighters trilogy by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld.




Review:
Such a good introduction to an amazing series. I really did love this book and the characters. I liked that it changed perspective so that we could see what everyone was doing and how everyone sees each other and their actions, my favorite part of multi-POV books.

I was so intrigued with the concept of this book, I hoped I wasn't getting my hopes on how this one would turn out too high and I didn't. I really did live up to what I expected and a little bit more, the way that some of this is described was enthralling to read about. Scott Westerfeld's writing is amazing.

If you haven't read this book then what are you waiting for? The characters are believable and human, there's some romance, and some Fantasy/SciFi mixed in.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Book: Stardust

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fantasy Adventure

Rating: B

Plot:

This story starts off in the small city of Wall. Tristan Thorn lived in wall all his life. One night Tristan and the women he fancied, Veronica were taking a stroll when a star fell from the sky. Veronica said that if Tristan received the exact star that she would give him anything his heart desired. Thought to get this star he would have to cross over the wall that stands between his normal suburban life and the land of Faerie. On this journey, he is not the only person searching for the star, which leads to many problems.

SPOILERS SPOILER SPOILERS SPOILERS

Review:

I did see the movie first and then read the book so my review might be slightly biased.

When Neil Gaiman wrote this book it was obvious he was trying to make a fantasy fairy tale for adults and show them anyone can enjoy fantasy. Because he did this I found this book shifting between adult and children. For one you have the cute little tale of the boy, Tristan, going to win the affection of his true love then you have very disturbing images like when the Witch cut apart the unicorn. There are also a few sex scenes, which in a fairy tale you just don't expect to be reading about how the main character was conceived.

While some parts of the story I found obvious there was also the quick and surprising action scenes that I really did enjoy. Like when the Star ends up at the inn with Primus. I also really enjoyed the character development between the Star and Tristan. Their constant banter gave the book the humor relief it needed.

The land of Faerie was describing beautifully and for a minute you really do believe a land like this could exist somewhere. The way the market was described and how they went into detail about the things being sold there really just made me want to go. I wouldn't mind owning a glass flower or a bottle of dreams. A coat of night would also be pretty cool.

The one thing that really changed this rating from an A to a B was the characters. You will find this out very quickly but when I read a book I need to be attached to a character. I need to care about where they are and what happens to them. In this book i didn't feel that for any of the characters. Tristan slightly annoyed me at times and the Star never really stood up for herself and what she wanted. She also doesn't really have a name until almost the end of the book.

Overall, I really would suggest this for a teen audience (as long as you don't mind sex scenes) and for anyone that loves fantasy and learning about a new land. Also you must like adventure a lot of this book is Tristan traveling, but traveling also means new people. So there are a lot of characters to go around. Stardust is magical and intriguing, a really great read.

-- Haley

p.s. I never really introduced myself. My name is Haley and I am the other blogger here. Nice to meet you! :) Also this is my first review ever. So be nice! :P

Just a Hello.

So this is a blog made for book reviews. Hello, I'm Casey, I'll be posting book-like THINGS here. Containing book recommendations and possibly giveaways when we get to a certain number of followers, or something. Also, we might be vlogging about said books. Sometimes there might be a lack of blogs, if we have finals or we're away, but on other times there might be more then 1 post a day. It's going to be very laid back, especially at first. Maybe later we'll have a schedule.

And by 'we're,' I mean, there is going to be more then just me. You see, I am boring. But I do like books. And so does my friend Haley who will be joining me in this book blogging and possibly vlogging fun. We shall see how this goes.

Here are some links to find us:

Casey:
www.twitter.com/werewolfluvr119
werewolfluvr119.tumblr.com
youtube.com/user/werewolfluvr119


Haley:
www.twitter.com/shopaholic3100
shopaholic.tumblr.com
youtube.com/user/shopaholic3100

And there is a YouTube channel connected to this, that we aren't sure what we'll do with yet, but here:
www.youtube.com/user/storynotions

And if you go "I wonder if Casey/Haley is on *insert random social media*" Probably. Just search the username.