Review: Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh

Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: February 2, 2016
Book Format: ARC
# of Pages: 309
Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads)
Seventeen-year-old David Sullivan’s life is about to change—all because of one tiny, priceless item found in the murky bottom of a Brooklyn water tower.

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 mom make rent.

No one knows where the brilliant-colored 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 math, better-looking. The rarer the sphere, the more expensive—and the greater the improvement.

When Sully meets Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres, the two start searching together. One day they find a Gold—a color no one has ever seen. And when Alex Holiday learns what they have, he will go to any lengths, will use all of his wealth and power, to take it from them.

There’s no question the Gold is worth millions, but what does it actually do? None of them is aware of it yet, but the fate of the world rests on this little golden orb. Because all the world fights over the spheres, but no one knows where they come from, what their powers are, or why they’re here.

My Review:

I received this book from the publisher and this is my honest review.

Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh is about a world (I would like to think in the future) that has been affected by the dropping of millions of little spheres which give a certain ability to the individual who burns said sphere. There are a plethora of different colors which have different abilities and are all ranked on the rarity chart talked about in the book. The main character, Sully was famous for finding the rarest sphere cherry red which leads to the second wave of spheres all over the world. Millionaire Alex Holliday paid Sully and his mom off for the sphere but then cut them off when he realized the cherry red did nothing but lead to more spheres.  

The premise of this novel was not what I expected, but I loved every second of it while reading. The concept of colorful spheres being hidden all over the world, and if burned they would give off abilities like being able to sleep anywhere anytime, good looks or incredible strength is nothing I have ever read before so I could not but the book down. One of my favorite parts in this book was the times Sully set up his sphere booth at the flea market. The book seemed to take place in the future, and so the fact that it had elements of the past (being the flea market) was nice and kept me especially connected since I used to go with my family to set up at flea markets all the time.

I also enjoyed the relationship between Sully and all of the other characters. He and Hunter were cute together, I enjoyed the fact that it was not love at first sight but did appreciate that Hunter pretty much gave Sully a run for his money. She was a spitfire and I loved her personality, I have to say her character brought out every single emotion a human could have from time to time. Sully also had a good relationship with his best friend Dom, I feel as though there are not that many good bro friendships in books, or on TV anymore. These two had a relationship they were both there for each other no matter what happens they had each others back and that was really great to see.

My last thoughts about this book would be that it is so refreshing to read something original, there were no vampires or werewolves. Everything in this book was nothing I had ever heard of before, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I definitely recommend this book and am excited to read other works by this author in the future.