A thrilling series starter brings Jessica to Bixby High, where she gains mysterious powers. Though Jessica quickly becomes popular, she fascinates the light-hating school outcasts. Rex, Dess, Melissa, and Jonathan watch Jessica carefully until she awakens as a midnighter: one born at the stroke of midnight, free to move about in Bixby’s magical 25th hour. In this blue-lit time, when all normal life is frozen, the midnighters enjoy their special abilities and easily avoid the dangerous darklings and slithers that roam the town. But when Jessica arrives, the midnight creatures increase in number and viciousness, and must be fought off with steel and 13-letter words. If the night children do not solve Jessica’s mystery, midnight might never be safe for them again. A satisfying conclusion to Jessica’s mystery leaves open intriguing interpersonal questions and the potential for a possible conspiracy to lead into the next volume. (Fiction. 12+)
