Review: The Thousandth Floor

Ｔｉｔｌｅ：The Thousandth Floor

Ａｕｔｈｏｒ：Katharine McGee

Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ：Book 1

Ｒａｔｉｎｇ：★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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….

✩ Avery was an okay main character. I didn’t necessarily dislike her, but I do feel like some people might find it annoying how many times people compliment her looks, or how much she brings up that she hates being “perfect” and prefers avoiding attention. I’ll get into this more in the review.

✩ Leda was just… wow, intense. She started off okay but by the end of the book I was pretty shocked at what she did. She was obsessive, had a lack of self control, and was really manipulative.

✩ Cord was my absolute favorite (even though he’s not one of the mains!) because of how he appeared to be a jerk but was actually really thoughtful, caring, and romantic. I loved him ❤

❝ In just three minutes, the girl would collide with the unforgiving cement of East Avenue. But now–her hair whipped up like a banner, the silk dress snapping around the curves of her body, her bright red mouth frozen in a perfect O of shock–now, in this instant, she was more beautiful than she had ever been.❞

Oh my gosh. I spent so much time in the beginning thinking things were so soap-opera worthy and then slowly… bit by bit, I got hooked. So really, if you enjoy those kinds of dramatic shows (you know, the slapping the guy that kisses you, finding out about affairs, or you’re adopted kinda thing) then you will LOVE this book.

The story gets told mostly from the point of view of five characters (the last chapter is from a sixth character not met until maybe… 1/3 or 1/2 through the book):

• Avery is genetically perfect, gorgeous, rich, popular. She has everything, yet she’s extremely unhappy because she’s in love with someone she can never be with.
• Leda is one of Avery’s best friends, and she’s keeping secrets of her own.
• Eris, another of Avery’s friends, finds out something that totally turns her life upside down.
• Rylin is living day to day and kind of just lost in the motions until she takes on a new job and finds herself falling for a guy from her past.
• Watt is a genius/hacker and a total flirt. When he takes on a new job it pulls him into Avery’s world and the things he uncovers set things in motion he’s helpless to stop.

It was really fun to see how things developed in each character’s own little worlds, and then how they came together and interacted. Each chapter had me practically frantic to find out what would happen next. I had so much fun trying to predict what cheesy trope/twist they would bring into the book.

I felt like I needed to gasp at the end of every chapter because it always ended in some dramatic line or event that affected someone else.

❝ There had never been a problem she couldn’t solve, once she set her mind to it. 

Except Atlas.

Well, she wasn’t giving up yet. Not without a fight.❞

 

The world was really tech-heavy, which I actually enjoyed. I think a lot of thought went into designing this vast world of the Tower. I feel like McGee did a really great job of building up the world and giving you just enough information here and there instead of just dumping it all on you in a moment. I liked the feeling of the Tower being it’s own city within a city. Sometimes people forgot they weren’t outdoors–hell, even I sometimes forgot this was mostly in the Tower.

As far as character development, I feel like it happened at a pretty good pace. And really, some characters grew while others totally fell apart. I liked seeing them all making decisions independent of one another and then seeing how it affected another character in the next chapter. It was all this just… crazy web of decisions, actions, and relationships. The character that probably surprised me the most was Leda because… god, half the things she did took me completely by surprise. She went from 0-10 so quick towards the end.

One thing that I think would probably bother people would be how many times people mention how beautiful or perfect Avery is, or even how much she mentions that she hates that people do that. Her life is pretty much perfect so some might feel like she’s whiny for no reason, but I think if you really read into it you could understand where she’s coming from. She’s tired of people thinking she’s flawless and not seeing her as just human, capable of mistakes like everyone else. She’s tired of being gawked at, seen as some standard, or having people flock to her just because she’s the “it” girl. I think besides her few close friends and family Avery felt detached from others. All these other interactions felt… fake to her, and in that sense, I could understand how it was tiring being around people who just cared about her image/idea of her rather than the actual person.

She’s tired of people thinking she’s flawless and not seeing her as just human, capable of mistakes like everyone else. She’s tired of being gawked at, seen as some standard, or having people flock to her just because she’s the “it” girl. I think besides her few close friends and family Avery felt detached from others. All these other interactions felt… fake to her, and in that sense, I could understand how it was tiring being around people who just cared about her image/idea of her rather than the actual person.

Honestly, it’s a little hard to review this without spoiling anything because so much happens that affects everything else. But it was a really fun, gripping, and intense read. I like that the prologue starts with a foreshadowing of someone falling from the Tower because it has you glued to every page, reading for clues about who it could possibly be. This is definitely a book people should check out ❤ And it’s currently on sale too because the sequel comes out in a few days (which I have the ARC for and plan to review soon!)