Touching Darkness (Midnighters, Book 2)

"Touching Darkness" continues the saga of the five midnighters: Rex the Seer, who can sense Focus and has a knack for history, Melissa the Mindcaster, a mysterious, reclusive psychic, Dess the Polymath, who's brilliantly mathematically inclined (and also my favorite character), Johnathan the Acrobat, who can literally leap tall buildings in a single bound, and our heroine Jessica, who's recently discovered powers of Fire-Bringing can incinerate scourges of darklings (read: the bad guys) in a single shine of her flashlight. A new threat against the Midnighters has arisen in their small town of Bixby, Oklahoma. It turns out traitorous humans are now working for the darklings, meaning the daylight 24 hours of the day (as opposed to the single secret hour) are no longer safe for our heroes. And they seem to be after Rex in an effort to transform him into a grotesque half-human half-darkling beast...

This sequel definitely doesn't disappoint, and I was pleased that it went into such great depth about the characters, especially Melissa, who was the biggest mystery of Book One. Like a previous reviewer, I was however disappointed about the lack of fight scenes. The fight scenes we do get end pretty quickly, thanks to Jessica's unstoppable Fire-Bringer power. I'm interested to know what the darklings will be trying in the next installment, because their plan sure failed miserably this time -- Jess burned them to a crisp! I like Scott Westerfeld's simple, easy-to-follow writing style, and the creativity put into the storyline, especially the bit about tridecalogisms, is just wonderful.

I highly recommend this book (but don't touch it before you've read the first!) and will be anxiously awaiting Blue Noon! I'd love to find out about the "metallurge" power that was briefly mentioned!

A great follow up to The Secret Hour, this book is one that I, personally, found hard to put down...Westerfeld weaves a great story about the midnighters, people who can see the 'blue hour' and move about in it: Rex, Melissa, Jessica, Dess, and Jonathan. As before, it seems that trouble is brewing among the darklings, and one of the midnighters is in danger (I'm not the best at plot descriptions, in case you haven't already noticed, lol), and it is not Jessica. The story of the midnighters and basically history of Bixby is explored more in this book, and a few things are pulled together, but the third volume of the series still has a long way to go (guessing by how my side-plots splintered out of Touching Darkness)...and so I will happily await the third installment.

The few complaints I have are as follows: Westerfeld uses the word 'maelstorm' way too many times to make the word, which normally is a good, mature adjective, into something forgetable. He used this once in Uglies, his other book which I am not finished reading, and I almost groaned at the thought of seeing this word another 5-billion times, but thankfully he only used it once there...I digress, however. This was not the major disappointment of the book. Just an annoyance. But the major complaint I had was that there weren't many interesting battle scenes up until the end, which was OK as it helped to focus on the characters but was also a bit of a let down. Westerfeld delves more into the midnighters and their fragile cooperation in this novel, relationships, etc, which is interesting. I was hoping to see more of Jessica, the kick-@$$ fire-bringer, but again, not really until the end. Still, it was a great, enjoyable read with a AWESOME ending, I think, semi-cliffhanger-ish but not to an extreme degree.

I would recommend this to all of my friends.

Review of Midnighters trilogy:

Yet another YA science-fantasy winner from Westerfeld, with appeal well beyond the target audience, if your reviewer is a fair guide.

"Jessica Day moves into the small town of Bixby from Chicago, and although she hits it off with the "in" crowd, she also falls in with a bunch of weirdos who don't like the daylight, wear black a lot and are covered in metal jewelry. In the middle of the night she wakes up and discovers the world asleep with the exception of her weirdo chums and weird black slithery things..." -- from the best online review I saw of vol. 1 by the lightning-witted Farah Mendlesohn (not onlinre02/24/16)

I know, it sounds sort of hokey and comic-booky, but actually works pretty well. The kids are fun, the action is fast & furious, and the pages turn most satisfactorily. There's even a nice touch of moral ambiguity in the wrapup volume.

Note that this is really a single novel, split into thirds by the publisher. You'll know by the end of #1 if you want to continue. I'm betting you will. But do start with #1! [[ASIN:0060519533 Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour]]

The story is set in Bixby, Oklahoma, now a suburb of Tulsa. I grew up about an hour away, and the problem with Westerfeld's Bixby is, it doesn't much resemble the real eastern Oklahoma. Westerfeld has numerous references to desert and salt flats, but this part of Oklahoma is pretty well-watered -- the native vegetation is a scrub-oak & pine forest. This won't affect your enjoyment of the story, really, but I have no idea why Westerfeld used a setting that would fit better in west Texas or New Mexico. Curious, seemingly pointless, and annoying.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

Jessica and her frineds are part of a secret world. A world of special ablities and meatls that destroy. A world that only opens at the stroke of midnight and last for only one hour each day, halting time in the daylight realm, and opening the door was to the blue hour of midnight. Jessica and her midnighter friends are faced with a major problem, a daylight person knows of the secret midnight hour, and is stalking Jessica! Now it is a rush aginst time as they learn of a deadly plot, of the secrets of the darklings, and a grusome fate that could await one of their friends. Can they save him in time, or will he fall, helplessly, into the hands of their darkling enemys and their daylight allies. Can they save him? Find out in. Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness.

This book was pretty good. I liked it because relationships chang in this one. Melissa gets more used to her power which is interesting to learn about. There is anew and more terrible darkling that must be defeated in this book, and it captures your attention. You might want to read the first Midnighters first to get the whole idea.

I love these books! They are filled with mystery and a little suspense! I am always reading way past midnight!(: I am 15 so this is a good book for teenagers. I would recommend this to all my friends! Very great book!

This is a very good book...a great second book in the series. I personally enjoyed the first one better, but the Midnighters series will hold you interest and entertain you from start to finish. I have only read this book once, but am planning on reading it again soon. I have read the first one about 8 times...Great read for people who have read the first one. If you haven't read the first one I recommend go read it before reading the second. But overall, a great book!