The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee | Spoiler Free Book Review

Title: The Thousandth Floor
Author: Katharine McGee
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: August 30, 2016
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fiction,
Source: Purchased from Book Outlet
Pages: 448
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Synopsis

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….

Review

BookTube Video Review:

I had no clue what to expect going into this book. I honestly pick it up because the cover is gorgeous and I saw the sequel going around Instagram and was intrigued. Like many of my recent reading months, I’m just having a weird reading mood. Also, I’m hitting slight reading burn out after reading so many books these last few months that I’m trying to slow down and absorb the stories more, but not force myself to read. This weekend, I just skimmed my bookshelf, glanced at the audiobooks I had on Audible and Overdrive, and just picked up something that peaked my interest. Boy, am I glad it was this book. I loved it.

I honestly had no clue what to expect going into this book, even when trying to find a genre for this book, my library and Goodreads has classified it as different things. I think the most accurate placement is realistic fiction with a little bit of romance, dystopia, and sci-fi. It really is a mix of everything. Audrey was created with gene therapy to be physically perfect. Several characters become involved in complex relationships, resulting in a character heavy plot that reads like a teen mystery drama.

You find out in the first few chapters how all the characters are connected, learn little secrets about them, and begun to see what there motives are. As the story unfolds, the character connections turn into a tangled web which leads to most of the conflict. Just some slight content warnings: there was some serious drug use in the book. The drugs were all fictionalized for this world, but if that something that bothers you, you’re going to want to pass. There was also some minor sexual content, mostly kissing and making out. One of the kisses were completed under unknown drugging to extract info from another character and another couple is….questionable.

[MINOR SPOILERS: It’s kinda not really insesty, like they’re related, but not by blood. I’ll leave that up to you about your level of comfort/acceptence. It made me a hair uncomfortable and I do not ship.]

Like the television shows this book reminds me of, there were some parts I really loved and other parts that were eh. I mostly took off that half star because of the couple of slow parts. There were needed to balanece out the pacing, but they still lost me a hair. Also that questionable couple did make me uncomfortable. That aside though, I still highly recomend this book.

Final Thoughts

I was so pleseantly surprised with this story and I can’t wait to see where the series goes. Plot-wise, this book is PERFECT for fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. There was a lot of manipulation and misunderstandings; romance, hookups and heartbreak; and a climax that will leave you speechless. This book is not for everyone. The rich kid focus and constant drug use will be off-putting for some, but if that’s your kind of entertainment, this book will keep you hooked from page 1.