Monday 15 August 2016

Review: The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)The Thousandth Floor

Author: Katharine McGee
Release date: 30/08/2016
Publisher/Source: HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult / SciFi

Synopsis (Goodreads) 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….

Review: 3 out of 5 stars

I almost didn’t finish reading The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, I was fascinated by the futuristic premise but I found the start confusing and with it being told from so many POV’s, I couldn’t initially connect with any of them.

The Thousandth Floor is set in the year 2118 in a high tech NY City tower, the higher up in the tower that you live then the richer you are; the lower the level the poorer.

At the beginning of the book, someone falls from the thousandth floor, throughout the book we try to determine who it is or who we’d want it to be, I certainly tried to guess but I guessed completely wrong. We meet everyone two months prior to this event.

The characters:

Each of the characters were interesting but none of them really wowed me and I wasn’t fully invested. What I did enjoy is how they were all connected in one way or another.

We meet Avery Fuller who lives on the highest level with her parents, her brother is Atlas and she was genetically created to be perfect. I couldn’t quite figure her out but I was most curious about her life.

Rylin Myer is a character I felt for, taking on numerous jobs to take care of her sister after the death of her mother; she takes up an opportunity to work on a higher floor but doesn’t realise how it will change her life. She was an interesting character.

Eris Dodd-Radson is a fascinating character and Avery’s oldest friend; we see her life slowly spiral out of control as the book progresses.

Watt Bakradi is intelligent and a great hacker, he is secretive and for good reason.

Leda Cole is Avery’s best friend and is fresh out of rehab for being addicted to drugs, she has many secrets that she holds close to her chest. She was my least favourite character.

Setting / World-building / Plot:

The tower was a unique setting and I enjoyed learning about how it all came to be. We aren’t inundated with a lot of information but there are aspects that could be further explored.

The futuristic aspect is one that I appreciated, with all of the advanced technology explanations and advancements, I thought that it was written well. It’s a vast and intriguing world and showed what wealth depending on the tower level could afford.

I liked the mystery aspect, the ongoing drama and the complex relationships between the characters; learning about their lives, their secrets and their families was entertaining and kept me wanting to know more. I especially curious to learn about who had fallen at the beginning of the book.

Overall:

As I mentioned, I almost didn’t continue this book; I found the pacing at the beginning to be slow and there were too many character POV’s for me but as I continued each stood out for themselves and I became intrigued by the mystery within the tower.

Katharine McGee’s writing is gripping and the overall story is mysterious and engaging. The Thousandth Floor is a nice debut.


Thank you to HarperTeen via Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review The Thousandth Floor.

12 comments:

  1. Damn, I was hoping it would be better. Oh well, I'm sure I'll still try it at least. I'm too curious not to.

    Great review!

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  2. Oh man a slow start that is confusing is hard to overcome so I get why you almost didn't finish it. Glad you did and enjoyed it - Great review!

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  3. I'm curious with the setting and everything, but all those POVs scare me. I still want to give it a try because it sounds unique though. Sorry you didn't have the best luck with it though. :/

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  4. I've not heard of this one before but that synopsis certainly had me intrigued. But then seeing that it had the slow start, plus a little confusing with the multiple POVs, makes me a little unsure about this one. I really do think the premise is unique and interesting and I'm glad that it ended up being worth it.

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  5. Oh nice! I have a bit of a conflict going on with this book. It's in my maybe possibly review it pile and I can't decide if I want to read it or not! There's been a lot of buzz over this one, but the first review I read made it sound like more of a contemp with a great deal of drama, which isn't something I like, but since you mention a mystery I'm intrigued, but also wary of the multi-points-of-view situation. Those can confuse me greatly if there are too many. Guess I'll just keep this in the maybe pile for now. But glad to see you liked it! Nice review!

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  6. Damn, that's too bad. It does have a really interesting premise. I actually like multiple POVs, but they have to be clear and done right.

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  7. Sounds like we had the same experience with a book lately. I know exactly what you mean. Described my experience pretty well. It's too bad as it looks like it would be a good one, but multi-POVs can be hard to write.

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  8. I meant to pick this one up b/c I heard good things about it during BEA but now I'm incredibly grateful I forgot. I would have probably got bored and uninterested in it, too. Bummer but awesome review!! Thanks *shrugs*

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  9. Great review! This is one of those books that I want to read, yet I don't at the same time (that makes no sense, but whatever). It sound interesting, it just didn't really grab my attention. I have a hard time with lots of POVs though so I probably won't be reading this anytime soon at least.

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  10. I'm debating on requesting the audiobook or not. It sounds good but this genre is out of my comfort zone and too many pov's scare me, especially in audiobooks... still debating :)

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  11. Hmm, futuristic high fantasy? I have been curious about this.

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