Kay's Bookshelf

It’s interesting to notice how much the characters have grown and changed in the few months since the first book has started. Melissa for example is a whole other person, calm, collected and very much in control of her abilities (and temper). Rex, following his encounter with the darklings, is also very much changed (sort of a bummer for me actually because in doing so he has lost his vulnerability somehow, he has become almost invincible, which makes for less challenges and a way less interesting hero). Dess, still the math prodigy, is now showing us her bitter side (due to a quarrel that I am not sure how I feel about; I keep wondering whether Dess is right or just exaggerating), while Jessica and Jonathan’s relationship is somewhat (very slowly) evolving too.
(as a side note, show spoiler

If I were to choose one single thing that I liked about this book (or the whole series actually) I would have to say it is its lack of predictability. One never knows what happens next: although the five characters always have a plan up their sleeve something always goes awry. This makes for some interesting situations (and, of course, fights and rescues) and I was happy for that. And yet, despite the fact that things were happening and there was almost always something going on, I was surprised to notice that at times there were bits that seemed to me quite dragging. I have no idea why, as the tone never seemed to vary very much throughout the books, and yet they made the experience somewhat less enjoyable (but that’s just me, other reviewers swear by the very opposite of it). I’d still choose this trilogy over the Uglies series any day though :) (words like “bubbly” and “icy” still make me shiver, LOL).

On a lighter note, I found the title to be very well chosen. It makes one think of “blue moon” (as in the moon of the blue time) and also of noon, and its archaic sense of midnight. Not only that but superimposing the two notions (blue as in the blue time, and noon in its usual meaning, of midday) we get precisely what happens in the book: the blue time encompassing times of day when it shouldn’t have had, bending the rules and taking over.

My thoughts on the ending: show spoiler

What I liked most: The fact that we were presented the reverse of the coin (so to speak). In books one and two everything we get to see is from the midnighters’ point of view, and they are understandably upset about what happened to the other midnighters, the midnighters from 50 years ago, destroyed by “daylighters” in a single night. In this context choosing a side was easy: midnighters = good + innocent, daylighters (the ones involved) = bad + guilty. Easy peasy. And then we meet Angie and everything reverses: from her point of view the midnighters are the manipulative ones, playing with ordinary people’s minds, and so they only got what they deserved. I very much loved the ambiguity of it all, because all of the sudden the roles (the bad guy/the good guy) became less obvious and I liked that.
(unfortunately after a short while the author kinda ruined everything by solving it all with a single statement — “these midnighters have a different set of morals, are better than the old ones” — but I did enjoy the uncertainty of it all while it lasted).

What I liked least: I have a minor qualm with Rex’s ankle being broken and him still be able to walk and even run, but other than that there’s nothing that has actually bothered me :)

Recommend it to? Anyone who read and liked the previous two books.

This book is a sequel to:
The Secret Hour
Touching Darkness

Written by the same author:
Uglies
Pretties
Specials

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