Burning Midnight

by Will McIntosh

For fans of The Maze Runner and The 5th Wave, this debut YA novel from Hugo Award-winner Will McIntosh pits four teens against an evil billionaire in the race of a lifetime.

Sully is a sphere dealer at a flea market. It doesn't pay much - Alex Holliday's stores have muscled out most of the independent sellers - but it helps him and his mum make the rent. No one knows where the brilliant-coloured spheres came from. One day they were just there, hidden all over the earth like huge gemstones. Burn a pair and they make you a little better: an inch taller, skilled at maths, better-looking. The rarer the sphere, the greater the improvement - and the more expensive the sphere.

When Sully meets Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres, the two start searching together. What they find will change more than just their lives . . . Because the entire world fights over spheres, but no one knows why they're here or what their powers are . . . until now.

• ISBN10: 1509803564
• ISBN13: 9781509803569
• Publish Date: 11 February 2016 (first published 2 February 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 4 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Macmillan Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

interesting

[Cocktails and Books]

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books

I grabbed a copy of MIDNIGHT BURNING because I was looking for something that might catch my fourteen-year-old son's attention.

Will McIntosh created a world that had me intrigued from practically the first page of the book. I wondered what these mysterious spheres were? Where did they come from? And what kind of repercussions would the people of this New York City have to deal with from using the spheres? The author does a fantastic job of keeping a reader hooked on what Hunter and Sully do with the spheres, intriguing us further as we discover exactly what the spheres' purpose is and how Hunter, Sully, Dom and Mandy fight to save the world.

As the teens fight to save the world, they also form a tight bond. Sully and Dom were already best friend, but when you add Hunter (who was the loose cannon of the group) and Mandy, the dynamics often causes fighting. But when push came to shove, they discovered they would all stand by each others sides. In the end, the knew who they could trust with their lives.

I enjoyed this book, which I then quickly walked to my son's room and told him he had to read it. It had some great twists and turns, making it hard to put down.

[Kelly]

An easy and simplistic read that is much more suited to the middle grade audience who enjoy action / adventure. Quick and entertaining.

[tweetybugshouse]

Ok first off I was not expecting the story to go where it went but this story had be on the edge of my seat by the end of the book. I was intrigued by the concept of these spheres that let you have enchanced powers if you "burn" them, that you can make money if you sell them, having the ability to hunt them. It really was a unique and then what happens towards the end wow just wow. Nice twist really had me just stunned.