Book Review: The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

Blurb:

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….

My Review:

Fast-forward 102 years in the future to the Tower, stretching 1000 stories above New York City, shadowing and dwarfing everything below. 

The Tower is really a city unto itself, holding everything a person could need or want - schools, hospitals, stores, churches, restaurants, clubs, and of course apartments. New York City has essentially become obsolete thanks to the Tower. 

Step into the tower and there are social classes just like everywhere else. People on the lowest floors are poor, and the highest floors reserved for the rich and glamorous. In this 2118 world there are a lot of amazing technological advances, but only for those who can pay the price, yet another way the rich distinguish themselves from the poor. 

But no matter what floor you live on, everyone has something to hide. Insert the teens from the Tower - 

Living on the thousandth floor is Avery, who by all accounts is perfect on the outside, but the taboo secret she holds close to her heart, her feelings for the one person in her life she definitely shouldn't love, make her more twisted than anyone knows. 

Down on the 224th or was it 244th? floor is tech geek Watt with the illegal supercomputer in his brain. What's going to happen when spying for a client places him in the path of the most beautiful out-of-his-league girl he's ever met?

On the 32nd floor, Rylin is doing everything she can to keep her younger sister from entering the foster care system after the death of their mother even if it means stealing pills from her sexy new boss, who might be the guy of her dreams. Will Cinderella get her prince? Or will reality and social classes get in the way?

Eris had it all until a heavily guarded family secret comes to light and ruins her perfect little world. Can she learn that there are more important things than money and status?

And then there is Leda, possibly the most insane, vindictive character in the whole book. Everyone is about to learn that you do not get in between Leda and what she wants. 

The Thousandth Floor is OMG AMAZING! I've been holding off on reading this book for a while because I was afraid I wouldn't like it, but now I wish I had started it the day I got it. I loved this book. The technology was seriously cool, and the new modern world was fantastic. 

This book really does remind me of a futuristic Gossip Girl (although the structure itself reminded me of the doomed tower in the movie The Towering Inferno for some reason. I kept waiting for it to burn to the ground at the end), where the secrets are more scandalous and the stakes are higher. When you start the book you know that one of the characters is going to take a dive off the thousandth floor, but which one? Is it suicide or murder? 

You move backward two months and meet all the characters, moving steadily forward toward the moment when everything clicks into place. At first, I couldn't tell which character I liked the most. Avery was a sweetheart, even though her secret was the most scandalous of all, so I liked her instantly. I loved and disliked Eris throughout the novel, but once she got past the rich snob phase she became one of my favorites. Ultimately the characters I fell the hardest for were Rylin and Cord. Watching them interact was enjoyable and I felt all the feels for them. 

That only leaves Watt and Leda. Watt was your typical computer nerd who only wanted to make other people happy. But someone should tell him, the nice guy never gets the girl. And Leda. *sighs* Leda was truly a masterful villain and watching her descent into madness was truly interesting. The fact that I hated that character so much shows how great the writing is in this novel. 

Overall, I was addicted to this story from the first page and I enjoyed every minute of reading The Thousandth Floor. I found myself picking it up whenever possible and trying so hard not to read ahead to see what would happen next. I can't wait to see what comes next in book two, and what repercussions will come from the epic scene atop the Tower. 

My Rating:

6 of 5 Stars