Book Review: The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

10/9/2017

SYNOPSIS

New York City as you’ve never seen it before. A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future, where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

Welcome to Manhattan, 2118. A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. But people never change: everyone here wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

Leda Cole’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

Eris Dodd-Radson’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

Rylin Myers’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will her new life cost Rylin her old one?

Watt Bakradi is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy by an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is Avery Fuller, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have. Debut author Katharine McGee has created a breathtakingly original series filled with high-tech luxury and futuristic glamour, where the impossible feels just within reach. But in this world, the higher you go, the farther there is to fall….

Summary from Indigo.ca

PERSONAL REVIEW

I feel pretty “meh” about this book. I kept seeing it on different lists as a “must read”, and I finally decided to read it for myself and it just didn’t hit high on my personal scale. When I love a book, I can’t stop reading it. With this, I felt like I had to force myself to open the book again.

That said…

Why I Didn’t Love It (no spoilers):

Shallow Characters: I felt no connection with most of these characters. They really felt like characters from Gossip Girl, but without any goals and set in the future. I really like Rylin and wish we were given some Cord POV chapters, but besides them and Watt, I felt like I was just reading the whiny diaries of most of the characters. **Avery, we get it, you’re literally the most beautiful girl in the world and you hate it. Why don’t you try actually achieving something so people will have more to talk about then you’re looks?
Moved Way to Slow: For the most part, I really felt like the majority of storylines were being dragged out without any real reason. Every Avery chapter is her lamenting about why she can’t be with the person she loves and Leda is creepily obsessed with her guy. Eris has a little more going on, but I found her relationship pretty boring overall. Hey, at least Watt and Nadia are interesting (when we get to hear her).
Not Enough Backstory to Make the Future Realistic: This could just be me, but I was really not into the concept of have a thousand floor building in the middle of New York. We would get tidbits about when it was being constructed and how they “excavated” Central Park, etc, and built it into the building, but I never felt like it was clear why they did this. And why was everyone so accepting of living inside for the majority of their lives? They can clearly go to other countries that are doing just fine (we learned this when two characters too the train to Paris for dinner), but for some reason, there’s mention of parts of the city being underwater, and basically everything outside the Tower has been abandoned. SO WHAT HAPPENED TO NEW YORK?!

I didn’t totally hate this book, which I’d like to make clear. I really liked the technology that they get to use and think it’s would be so cool to have that now! I thought it was great to show different floors of the Tower and how dramatically different life is the further down you go; it’s clearly not a paradise, so at least that’s still realistic. And I really like Rylin, Cord, and Watt (sorry, I thought Atlas was a pain and I don’t get why everyone loves him so much) so I hope their stories get better.

Either way, I’ll probably end up reading Dazzling Heights because I can’t leave a series only half-read. I’m hopeful that we’ll see more of my favourite characters and maybe the others will get a bit more development.

FINAL RATING: 3/5