Review: Midnight City by J. Barton Mitchell (The Conquered Earth #1)

Title:  Midnight City

Author: J. Barton Mitchell

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: October 30, 2012
FTC: This book was given to me by the publisher on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In a world where all the adults have been taken by aliens called The Assembly, the remaining children struggle to survive.  Adding to their troubles is The Tone.  This disease was introduced after the invasion of The Assembly, taking over its victims slowly until the age of 18.  At the age of 18, the victim will finally become brainwashed by these voices and walk to the ships of The Assembly to be taken away.  

The story begins with 20 year old Holt Hawkins, a bounty hunter immune to The Tone, attempting to capture a girl named Mira Toombs and take her to Midnight City.  Along the way, they meet 8 year old Zoey, a young girl who has special abilities, abilities that can potentially take down The Assembly itself.  

Midnight City by J. Barton Mitchell is a combination of dystopian and science fiction, two of my favorite genres which made me really excited to read this.  But there are also elements of romance and fantasy, adding diverse storylines and keeping the book from being your typical aliens or post-apocalyptic novel.  The blossoming relationship between Holt and Mira was very well written.  Even though one was the captor and one the captive, they are equals throughout the novel, as they both save each other numerous times.  

Holt Hawkins is your typical hardened do-whatever-it-takes-to-survive guy.  Yet he becomes vulnerable as more of his sad history is revealed.  Zoey is the youngest of the trio but she may be the most powerful.  She reminds me of Angel, from the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson.  My favorite character by far is Mira.  Like Holt, she's also hardened and gutsy, but she's more in tune with her feelings which makes her more relatable.  She's also extremely clever, a talented Freebooter and an expert on artifacts.             

There were so many different things going on in this novel, a little too much.  Sometimes, the writing seemed a little messy and confusing, especially in the last quarter of the book.  The later parts of the book seemed really rushed and there wasn't enough closure.  Yes, I'm all for books in series having open endings with some unanswered questions.  But in Midnight City, the majority of the major questions go unanswered and some were not even addressed.  This was annoying for me.  

But overall, Midnight City was a very entertaining action packed book and I already cannot wait for the next book in the series (even though this one hasn't even been published yet!).