Book 37 of 52

The Midnighters trilogy by Scott Westerfeld is excellent so far. I wish it was a longer series and didn't end after only three books. The second book, Touching Darkness, is my favorite thus far which brings me to the irony of the review I am about to write... the review I wrote about the first book focused all on the positive and most of what I have to write for this review will focus on the negative. But if you read my review of The Secret Hour, you probably realized that what I spoke about most was the theory of the world Scott had created and not of the book itself. Now I will be writing about some points I feel the author could have improved on.

I loved this book, it was much more fast paced than the first book, it had more action and the main plot of the story stood out much more but I felt like the moments of suspense and aventure could have been built up much better. When the story would reach a point that seemed important, it felt as though it passed right by and was not given the emphasis it deserved. Some of those moments even confused me a bit because he actually did build up to it and then the revelation fell short and didn't seem as important as it was made out to be.
Another thing that bothered me was that the main character, Jessica, didn't feel as distinguished as many of the others. Through out both books she just seems like a random person you would meet on the streets. Her special ability isn't given the weight that the other midnighter's abilities seem to have. She is supposed to be the heroine of the book with the power that has the potential to keep them all safe, and yet the times when Jessica is the most interesting is when she is "flying" with Jonathan. Each character of the book is well developed and compelling in their own ways but our heroine seems to have less flare than even some of the secondary characters. She is forgettable. Even as she "saves the day" the entire scene feels too quick and bland.

I know this review makes it seem like I was not very intrigued by this book, but that's not true. I am really enjoying this trilogy very much. The story itself doesn't fall short, there are just a few areas where the writing could have been improved. And I hate saying that because I really do love Scott Westerfeld's work.