Midnighters, Vol. One: The Secret Hour -- Scott Westerfeld

As a Scott Westerfeld fan, I'm not sure how I've managed to NOT read this series yet.  Odd.

There aren't twenty-four hours in a day.  There are actually twenty-five.  For most of us, the extra hour passes in an instant.  The secret time belongs to dark shadows, creepy-crawlies and the Midnighters.

The Midnighters are the very few people who experience that extra hour in real time -- and they prefer it to the other twenty-four hours a day.  And who wouldn't?  In the secret hour, they have superpower-like talents.

Although the dark creatures -- slithers and darklings -- can certainly be dangerous, the Midnighters have never had real problems outrunning or avoiding them. 

Everything changes when Jessica Day -- a new, seemingly talentless Midnighter -- moves to town.  Within days, the slither population has skyrocketed.  They've also become much more violent -- and Jessica Day is their primary target.

It's got suspense.  It's got romance.  It's got family drama.  It's got monsters and secrets and superpowers and mysteries and infighting and battles and lots and lots of tridecalogisms.  It's heavy on the action, reads very fast and has short chapters, so it'd be worth giving it to reluctant readers, despite its length.  I'd also try it on Darren Shan fans and teens who gravitate towards sci-fi/fantasy series fiction.  It might be a stretch, but I'm also going to try it on an older Diane Duane fan.