The Secret Hour

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The Secret Hour
Author	Scott Westerfeld
Cover artist	Kamil Vojnar & Karin Paprocki
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Midnighters Trilogy
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Eos
Publication date	2004
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	297 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-06-051951-7
Followed by	Touching Darkness and Blue Noon

The Secret Hour, is a science-fiction fantasy novel written by Scott Westerfeld. It was published by Eos in 2004. It is the first book of The Midnighters Trilogy.

[edit] Plot summary

15-year-old Jessica Day moves with her family to Bixby, Oklahoma after her mother gets a job offer at a high-tech aerospace company. Soon after the move, Jessica awakens to find time frozen, rain stopped in mid air. Although she thinks it is a dream, she is suspicious when she wakes to find her clothes wet. The next night, it happens again; leaving her room, she finds that her family is frozen, and the only other living thing is a cat, which leads her out of her house before transforming into a snake, revealing that it is really a slither and, with the help of more snakes and a darkling in the form large cat, attack her. Jessica is rescued by the "Midnighters": Dess, Rex and Melissa, who chase away the animals using thirteen letter words and steel.

The next day, they explain that in Bixby - and only Bixby, as far as they are aware - time freezes for an hour, and only the Midnighters - people born at the moment of midnight - can enter it. In this Secret Hour live creatures known as darklings, who hate people, and fear new inventions, like steel, and the number 13. It was the darklings who took one hour out of each 25-hour-day and hid inside it, where people couldn't get to them, and technology does not work. They also explain that each Midnighter has a special power - Dess is a polymath, Rex is a Seer and Melissa is a mindcaster. They don't know what Jessica's power is, except that it isn't the same as any of theirs.

The next midnight, Jonathan, a boy from Jessica's school, arrives outside her house, and takes her flying with him - he is an Acrobat, and in the Secret Hour gravity does not have a strong hold on him. He and Rex don't get on, and the other Midnighters avoid talking about him. After flying for most of the hour, the pair are chased by a darkling, and narrowly escape - only to be arrested by policemen enforcing Bixby's eleven o'clock curfew. Jessica is grounded for the rest of the month. Meanwhile, the Midnighters are becoming suspicious - why are the darklings, who normally avoid Midnighters, so intent on killing Jessica?

Rex decides to take Jessica out to the Snake Pit, a place the badlands, where he will be able to discover her power. Unfortunately, the badlands are also the home to the darklings. Dess sets up protection beforehand, and the Midnighters plan to be inside it before the Secret Hour arrives. However, they are all late, and rely on Jonathan to fly them inside the protection. The darklings are so desperate to attack Jessica that they suicidally attack the defences, weakening them considerably. Just before the defences collapse, Rex discovers Jessica's power is Flame-bringer, but none of the group know how they can make a fire. As the defences are breached, Jessica realises that this means she can bring technology to the Secret Hour; she uses a flashlight to kill the darklings, and the Midnighters leave safely.