Book Review: The Dazzling Heights by Katharine McGee

10/19/2017

SYNOPSIS

New York, 2118. Manhattan is home to a thousand-story supertower, a breathtaking marvel that touches the sky. But amidst high-tech luxury and futuristic glamour, five teenagers are keeping dangerous secrets...

LEDA is haunted by memories of what happened on the worst night of her life. She’ll do anything to make sure the truth stays hidden—even if it means trusting her enemy.

WATT just wants to put everything behind him…until Leda forces him to start hacking again. Will he do what it takes to be free of her for good?

When RYLIN wins a scholarship to an upper-floor school, her life transforms overnight. But being there means seeing the boy whose heart she broke, and who broke hers in return.

AVERY is tormented by her love for the one person in the world she can never have. She’s desperate to be with him… no matter the cost.

And then there’s CALLIOPE, the mysterious, bohemian beauty who arrives in New York, determined to cause a stir. And she knows exactly where to begin.

But unbeknownst to them all, someone is watching their every move, someone with revenge in mind. And in a world of such dazzling heights, just one wrong step can mean a devastating fall.

Synoposis from Indigo.ca

PERSONAL REVIEW

I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Thousandth Floor but was open to reading the sequel to see how some of the characters I liked again. And once again, I thought it was “meh”. For the second time, we start the book knowing that someone will die at the end. And for the second time, the death is so anti-climatic that I really just didn’t care.

For those who haven’t read my review of The Thousandth Floor, you can find it here. Otherwise, read on to see why I just didn’t get that hooked on this book either.

Why I Didn’t Love It:

The Characters Are Still Whiny: Maybe I’m being too harsh, but these characters continue to spend the entire second novel whining about their incredibly charmed lives and how they hope no one tells anyone their secrets. Even Calliope, the new and supposedly interesting character, ends up spending every chapter wondering why Atlas doesn’t like her…so yay, another Atlas groupie. Is this guy a walking god or something? I’m still not getting how every girl immediately falls in love with him.

The “Villains” Are Boring: If Leda and Calliope are supposed to be the “bad” characters, they are really doing a poor job of actually being bad. I find both of them annoying more than anything. And Leda secret is a million times worse then everyone else’s (well, maybe except for Watt’s), but somehow everyone agrees to keep quiet because she threatens them? I’m sorry, but Avery and Rylin’s secrets are minimal at best and they would totally walk away without a problem. It's nice to see Leda changing at the end of the novel (at least she's always interesting!), but we'll see what happens to Calliope in the next book...

Not Enough Time with the Andertons: I honestly think that at this point, Cord and Brice Anderton are the most interesting characters, mainly because they seem to have so much going on in their lives that we are not hearing about! I’d love to get some POVs from them and actually get into their heads. It seems like there’s so much more to both of them – How did their parents actually die? Why is Brice so angry and jaded? Why was Cord given the house and cars in the Hamptons but not Brice? I need to know!!

Avery Needs to Stop Being So Boring: Just because she’s the most beautiful girl in the world (according to literally everyone we ever meet) doesn’t mean she can keep being this boring and naïve. If she’s not swooning over Atlas, she’s alternating complaining about not being with him or getting jealous of him talking to literally anyone else. And the whole end scene? Awful. I can’t stand how anytime she’s upset about Atlas, she makes out with basically the first guy she sees, regardless of their personal feelings or the feelings of her friends. She’s basically the Serena of Gossip Girl: pretty, boring, and has the world at her fingertips without no intention of actually doing anything with her life.

So once again, I feel like I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this series gets better in the next book. I surprisingly ended up liking Leda a bit more by the end, and Watt is still a good character, but Rylin and the rest just are doing anything for me. Even the death at the end of this book just seems like a last-ditch attempt to draw interest in reading the third novel in the series, but I didn't really care about the character at all and her death happened so quickly (and really out of no where) that I wasn't really bothered by it. I guess we'll see what the next book holds in store...

FINAL RATING: 3/5