Friday, March 12, 2010

Midnighters - Blue Noon


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.

I guess that this book's biggest flaw is that its just a replay from the two others. By that I mean that the Midnighters search, go out and investigate, live their normal life, fight the Darklings until they realize they need to stop the big problem blocking their way. Surprise, this time they really need to save the world.

I honestly wanted to be done with this book. It dragged too long and because the story played out always in the same place, as in Bixby and its surroundings (well, in this book the Midnighters actually go to another town, but it's still near Bixby), most of the things were predictable.

Jessica and Johnathan were uninteresting. Their relationship didn't have any spice, it was just too plain. Rex, on the other side, became my favorite character. I like how he is one of the only Midnighters that actually evolved through out the book. Melissa, too, became less of a prick, and Dess got over her brooding.

The plot was well developed, interesting, very connected to our present society and humanity's sins and clearly sending out its message but not laid out well enough as I mentioned before. If only Westerfield could have gone a bit out of the box, just a little bit, given a fresher taste, than I might have enjoyed this final book. Even if the description, fights and action are well written, it dragged too much.

The ending could have had such a bigger impact if it had also been handled properly. Many disliked the ending, which I fear I will not reveal, because it really shut things up. I liked it. It was dramatic, cruel, at my taste, but I it didn't affect me as much as such endings usually do. When you read the book, and if you've already read it, maybe you'll understand me.

In conclusion, a somewhat poorly executed serie final, in my opinion. Repetitive and dragging. It is worth reading if you want to know how the serie ends, though, and if you want to see a badass Rex.

-Beryl
The Blue Noon by Scott Westerfield
Rating: 7,4/10

1 comment:

  1. I definitely was disappointed in the way this series ended.. it was like "and then life went on..." no closure at all. I did enjoy the series but it was kind of the same repeated plot and action.

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