The Secret Hour

The Secret Hour

The Secret Hour first edition cover.
Author	Scott Westerfeld
Cover artist	Kamil Vojnar & Karin Paprocki
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Midnighters Trilogy
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	EOS Books
Publication date	2004
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	297 pp
ISBN
OCLC	52287815
LC Class	PZ7.W5197 Se 2004
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 Books, a now defunct branch of HarperCollins, in 2004. It is the first book of The Midnighters Trilogy.

15-year-old Jessica Day moves with her family to Bixby, Oklahoma after her mother is employed at a high-tech aerospace company. Soon after the move, Jessica awakens to find time frozen and 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. Once outside, the cat transforms into a snake, revealing that it is actually a slither. It, along with other slithers and a darkling in the form of a large cat, attacks 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 time freezes for an hour every midnight and that only Midnighters - people born at the moment of midnight - can enter it. Creatures known as darklings live in this secret hour where they can hide from advances in human technology. Darklings hate people and fear new inventions, complex concepts and the number 13. It was the darklings who took one hour of each 25-hour-day and hid inside it so that people couldn't get to them. They also explain that each Midnighter has a special power - Dess is a polymath, Rex is a Seer (someone who can read the lore - the ancient history of the midnighters) and Melissa is a mindcaster (meaning she has a variety of telepathic abilities). They don't know what Jessica's power is, except that it isn't the same as any of theirs.