Book Review - Blue Noon - YA

Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld
Published by Eos
378 pages

This is the third and final book in a series, and it may seem strange to begin a review with this.  But to save you from reading the first two, if I review the third, you'll see where they're headed.

These are the Midnighters series, and the premise was very interesting which is what roped me into reading these.  Jessica, the new girl, moves into town, and finds that at midnight every night, everyone and thing freezes for an hour, except her and four other teens...and dark crawly things, who want Jessica dead.  There are 25 hours in each day, and the Midnighters, people born at precisely midnight in the town of Bixby, are the only ones who are aware of this.  They go through each book fighting off the dark creatures, and by the end of the third, not much of what they've done seems to have mattered.

The POV skips around from each of the teens, but I just didn't feel I knew the characters all that well.  Each teen has a talent, or skill, that helps them to navigate the "blue time."

I found this series to be incredibly depressing and dark and blah. After having read the first two books, I almost didn't even pick up the third, but wanting to know what happened to the quintet, I gave in. The ending didn't settle any of my questions, really. I had to skim through parts of it, I was so bored. And if I had to read the overused word "clever" one more time, I was going to throw the book across the room.

The third is another fight to save people from the darklings and a fissure that's occurring between what they call blue time and real time. 

I won't spoil the ending, but don't expect everyone to walk away rainbows and roses.  I suppose it could just be me, but I really don't enjoy investing hours of time into a book to be left with a nebulous ending and not much enjoyment in between.