THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR BY KATHARINE MCGEE
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction/Dystopia
“I believe in happiness. I’m just not sure love will actually get you there.”
― Katharine McGee, The Thousandth Floor
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. Everyone there 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 this 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 for 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.
Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you’re this high up, there’s nowhere to go but down….
A Futuristic Manhattan Gossip Girl!
~Drama, Lies, Friendships, Secrets, Relationships~
I really had not heard much about this book except for when it first came out. I saw it at my library as an audiobook and thought I would give it a try. I was extremely happy that I did. This book was no mean perfect, it had its flaws but overall it was fun and delivered on what it was. I struggled with a rating because there were areas in which I wanted more, but I decided that I really enjoyed the read, it surprised me and had a lot going on that I definitely thought it could earn the 5 stars from me.
If you have ever watched/read Gossip Girl you will definitely notice some parallels with some of the characters, but don’t let that deter you because it is completely its own story with some awesome futuristic creations and a mystery that the whole books lead up to solving.
The book starts off with an event that happened with little detail and has you trying to figure out the whole time who it was and what happened. It is told in multiple POV and had tons of drama, lies, secrets and intrigue that keep me flying through the story. So much was going on with all of the characters that had that guilty indulgent pull of needing to know more and had me lapping up all of the drama going on. On top of the dramatic pull there was the layer of science fiction. This is one area that I would have loved more on, but it was not needed for the overall story. The concept of this futuristic Manhattan and all the cool innovations that are in this world definitely added to the story. I really enjoyed the idea of how the tower works and thought it very well described the way our society would look like in this setting. The mode of transportation was definitely my favorite, especially the transatlantic.
The cast of characters were all diverse and each had their flaws. No one is safe from secrets and lies, but it was true to the way people that age act. And although there was not a lot of parental presences, I enjoyed that they were there and that it wasn’t like much of futuristic/dystopian YA with all of the parents missing.
I do not want to go into much because I do not want to give anything away. But overall I really found this book to be a fun quick read that was full of surprises and had me trying to figure out the ending the whole way through. It is loaded with drama and has some really interesting innovations and science fiction add ons that make this a great thriller that can be enjoyed by a variety of people. And even though the one mystery is solved at the end, the book definitely leads off with you needing more and wanting to know what comes of the event that takes place.
My biggest struggle with audiobook usually falls onto the narrator. I really enjoyed Phoebe Strole. She had a narration style that did not bore me to pieces or annoy the crap out of me. She did not try and change her voice to sound like a male (which is my biggest pet peeve with narrators). I would definitely listen to other books she narrated!