The Thousandth Floor

Fabulous futuristic setting, terrific character development. I was, however, completely taken aback by the abrupt ending, having no idea it was intended to be part of a series. Imho, a "next in series" blurb should have followed that final chapter to give readers some context. Otherwise, the ending is far too abrupt and not at all believable. The character development of the final chapter's character in no way prepared me to believe that she has the skills and capability to right a wrong of that magnitude, given the skills, capability and money of those she will be up against. This was an editorial oversight, I think, that could have been rectified easily with just a few more hints throughout the story development.

Problems are the same in the future as now, and decisions still have consequences, but the author draws you in with descriptions of the conveniences and manufactured nature that are all too possible. Tell me there's a sequel!

Leda, Eris, Rylin and Watt all live in the Tower. But whereas those at the tops lives seem absolutely perfect, the lower floors lives are not so idea. All four are trying to find their place in this world.

I really like the world that was created. It is a great futuristic gossip girls world that was a lot of fun to dive into. For me, this was a solid-4 star book for most of the story. But I found the ending to be surreal. For Leda especially, the ending seemed so out of character. So my last feeling upon finishing this book was one of disappointment. I am willing to give the sequel a chance because the rest of the story fun to read but I am not as excited as I once was at the prospect.

It was ok. Wouldn't say it was amazingly written but it was somewhat fun to read.
The course of the book was being built so well and then suddenly the climax arrived, the whole plot started to sound out of character for most of them, and it started to seem too simple. I feel it had so much potential but the way the storylines converged was poorly managed.
I have to say the world is very interesting and the purpose of being intrigued about this tower and the tech side and the different social classes was very well done, but at the end the poorly way it was wrapped up is what makes me not want to follow and that is why I am not reading the sequel.

Do not buy this book. It's a waste of time. It's a futuristic Gossip Girl wanna be with an "ending"....note the quotes.....that is a blatant set up for a sequel. Katharine McGee -- is this the only story you can tell? By not finishing the story is that the only way you can get another contract for your publisher? Very sorry I spent my beach time at Christmas sticking with this, when I should have put it down after the few first chapters.

I was skeptical when I bought this book because it's sort of futuristic. I'm not into stuff like that. At all. But I could NOT put this book down! I read it in a matter of hours! The characters & the plot is so amazing & you get hooked instantly & wait on the edge of your seat for what's next. The plot & characters were so amazing that the whole futuristic idea of the book isn't overpowering. I cannot wait for the second book in this triology! I'm VERY anxiously awaiting its release date! I highly recommend this book!!!

Written for the 'teen audience' this has some interesting ideas about the future and how life is for the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. You will undoubtedly see a movie from this in the next few years and from the book that is being published this month as a follow up. Writers have learned that this age group wants action, fashions, some sexy interplay with these characters and a bit of a surprise ending that will leaving you hanging a bit. All of that is in this not very good book.

First of all, I think this book is more accurately labeled YA. I like some YA but I don't like to be surprised with it. Second, the book claims to have all of these crazy secrets and plot twists but really I found only one (maybe one-and-a-half) particularly compelling. I won't read the second book and I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not reading it. The best part of the book was the sci-fi stuff (the tech, culture, etc.).

I really enjoyed reading this book a lot and I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I loved the futuristic setting because it made the book more fun, the characters were great too and sell seemed realistic, and the storyline was super cool! I found myself rooting for the main character instead of hating her for being so perfect because she was very likable. I didn't know I'd be giving this book a 5 star rating when I started it and almost didn't because it does leave you hanging at the end but I really did like it that much and now I can't wait to read the sequel!!

The first thing to know is that this book is clearly the first in a series. I didn't know that going in, so I was a little disappointed in the ending. There is an ending (there's no cliffhanger) but it is completely open-ended, because the author is planning a sequel. I think if I had known going in it was going to be the first in a series, I'd have been better prepared for the ending.

As for the story, it's a decent bit of fun. The characters are interesting (weird how you can have so many problems when your family is SO wealthy). And the idea of this giant skyscraper that becomes a city onto itself is good. This does read a bit like a soap opera in that all the characters story lines intersect in some rather far-fetched ways.

Until I realized that this was a series, I wasn't going to keep this book (I only keep books that I LOVE). But I'm going to hold onto it and see how the second book goes.

A friend recommended this read to me, and I'm so excited for the upcoming release of book 2!!! I thought the characters had a lot of depth and complexity, and while it's set in the future, the issues these teens are dealing with are incredibly relevant today.

Also, I read some of the negative reviews so I would know what I was in for, and they all seem to either be about the abrupt ending or the fact that it's directed at young adults. I'm not really sure how those readers missed the fact that it was a YA novel considering it was on the top of the NY Times Young Adult Bestsellers or that obviously there was going to be a sequel if the book ends the way it ends....morons. If you haven't read it, you should! It's a quick read and the sequel is coming out really soon, so there's more instant gratification! Overall, I loved it!!!

The book never takes off - is it Sifi or is it a love story - after reading the book cover to cover I am not sure - seems like a stray about a group of bratty kids who do not know how to behave given their stations in life based on the floor #

The setting of city life in the future I found very creative & interesting. With all the comforts technology provided, still human experiences remain vulnerable to relationships & couldn't shield the characters from loneliness, jealousy, disappointment, & betrayal. The way it ended looks like there's going to be a sequel. I look forward to it.

The book never takes off - is it Sifi or is it a love story - after reading the book cover to cover I am not sure - seems like a stray about a group of bratty kids who do not know how to behave given their stations in life based on the floor #

The setting of city life in the future I found very creative & interesting. With all the comforts technology provided, still human experiences remain vulnerable to relationships & couldn't shield the characters from loneliness, jealousy, disappointment, & betrayal. The way it ended looks like there's going to be a sequel. I look forward to it.

The premise of the story was great. The world woven around it was convincing. It was slow, but having started, I was happy to follow It. Right up to the end it was just setting up the story for the "main event". However, immediately after the main event the story ends abruptly, with absolutely no resolution. This was like reading an incomplete book with half of it missing. I would not have started on it had I known it was an unfinished story.

This book was ok. About a group of 16-18 yr olds playing grownup games. A bit unbelievable. The ending made it clear that there was another book coming. It was good enough to want to read the next one

This book was so addictive to read, I couldn't put it down. I haven't had this much fun reading in years - a story of love triangles, endless secrets and money set in a futuristic NYC known as the Tower. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

After reading about the concept for this book, and as someone who lives in NYC - the setting of this story - I couldn't wait to read this. It didn't disappoint. The story is told from the point of view of 5 different characters, so I knew that I wouldn't resonate with all of them. Even so, the POV switches every few pages, so it wasn't annoying and surprisingly not confusing. You're bound to find one character that you love the most - but watch out for the tragic ending. Really loved the inventiveness and detail with which McGee constructed this futuristic society - has me anxiously waiting for the next novel in the series!

Days after finishing the book I am still thinking about the characters and eagerly anticipating the next installment to his wonderful new series! Extremely well written, fun, and entertaining this is a great read for older teens and adults!

I purchased this book because both I and a friend thought it looked interesting and it was recommended by The Skimm. It was very readable, the editing was great and even though it is a bit YA, it was still written in one of my favorite styles, with each chapter dedicated to a certain individual. I'm not sure why it wasn't able to draw me in, but I just couldn't find myself caring about the teens that the story encompassed. The characters were fleshed out, but I just couldn't force myself to be that interested in their lives and the outcomes of said lives. Even the death at the end seemed a bit of a forced ending. It appears that the author envisions this as a series, but it is one I won't continue.

The Thousandth Floor was not at all what I was expecting. A skyscraper with 1,000 floors had me envisioning all kinds of dystopian elements, some sci-fi and plenty of action, but that's really not what this book is about. This is a teen drama that just happens to be set in the future in a skyscraper that really doesn't play all that big a role in things. This is more about family, love, friendship and betrayal among the super wealthy than it is about future society. I don't usually read this type of novel, so after about 25 pages when it finally dawned on me that I was going to be stuck in this soap opera for another 400 plus pages, I was not feeling good about this book. Then I got hooked. I admit it, I was glued to the page! I was certainly surprised.

The Thousandth Floor is very well written, well paced and well imagined. It's filled with characters that easily capture the imagination, and over the top bad behavior that scintillates and will certainly appeal to older teens. The dialogue is filled with energy and the plot delivers so many secrets, twists and turns that you never know what is coming next. The futuristic elements are interesting enough to provide effective window dressing for the continuing parade of characters and their secrets without distracting from their stories. The author handles a pretty sizable cast of characters with surprising ease, switching narrators frequently without losing the narrative flow or energy.

Be aware that this book is awash in alcohol, drug use and casual sex. These are all older teens but the casual attitudes they exhibit towards all these behaviors is worth noting. One of the romantic relationships is just plain icky and almost ruined the entire book for me. It was my least favorite story line. Also, I absolutely hated the ending. The author seemed to just quit, leaving absolutely no resolution for one of the story lines and little resolution for the others. This is obviously going to be a series, however I do wish the author would have been able to provide a better ending.

So even though The Thousandth Floor was not what I was expecting, and it had an ending that made me want to throw it across the room, I still ended up liking it quite a bit. It's a fast, entertaining read for older teens and adults not looking for sci-fi adventure, but instead maybe looking for a fun piece of escapist fiction full of family secrets, intrigue and love among the rich and beautiful.

Perfect for Labor Day Weekend! Great beach / plane read, have recommended it to all my friends and we all just love it. The author's futuristic vision is really fun, and very dramatic. Highly recommend!

One star for the book with no ending. Even if you are planning to write a sequel, the first book should have some sort of conclusion. Also, in the prologue, you find out someone falls off the top of the building to a gruesome death. By the end, I was hoping they would all fall off. No characters have any redeeming qualities. One thousand negative stars for brother on sister incest. Ick.

Well, if you're looking for glitz, gossip and gadgets, look no further. The problem? There's really not much in the way of substance here.

To give the author (and despite our surnames, there's no relationship as far as I know) credit, she has done a great job at blending all the cool ideas out there. It's the future, and there's a thousand floor building. The real Central Park doesn't exist any more, but that's OK, because the people in the thousand-floor building have an ersatz version. Her version of this carefully-sheltered reality is captivating, and it's inhabited by a 22nd-century version of the Gossip Girl crowd -- rich/privileged and very, very spoiled (mostly.) And troubled. And we know from page one that someone will fall from the very top floor all the way down -- miles down.

You rise and you fall -- literally, within the building, and in status. And that's about as insightful or thoughtful as this book gets, really. It's all about the kind of YA themes that are familiar to readers from most other YA epics you could pick up anywhere. Take a dash of science fiction and dystopia (Veronica Roth won't need to quake in her shoes) and some normal troubled overprivileged preps, set in the future -- imagine what it might end up sounding like -- and you've pretty much got it.

It's not actively bad. It just felt perfunctory. I ended up feeling that the author had the most fun when she was describing the technology and the imaginary building, rather than the characters, which is not a good sign in a 450-odd page book that is supposed to be all about the characters. Whoops.

The Thousandth Floor is a refreshing YA read with very special combination of science fiction and teen soap drama! So many unexpected twists and gripping plot that make the book unputdownable!

The Tower is indeed very interesting! And the people, they're like cyborgs with this thing called eartenna. Even though the setting of The Tower not being explained in a thorough way, I can see the great differences between the upper-floor (upTower) and downTower. The higher you live, the better social status you have.

Sometimes I would get confused with the characters and tend to forget about their background. Too many characters perhaps? Avery is genetically perfect but she's still a human. She'll get jealous with her best friend. What a roller coaster ride for Eris. And I yearn to read about POV of Atlas and Cord. They're simply irresistible!

There are forbidden love, betrayal of friends, family issues and more that are so gripping! Like i said, unputdownable!

The ending is really shocking even though I knew someone is falling down from the top of the Tower (it's 10560 feet tall, over 7 times taller than the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia) from the first page of the book, I was guessing hard who will that be from the five main characters of the book. It's a WOW and "oh gosh" when I finished the last page of it.

The Thousandth Floor is highly recommended for YA readers who wants to have something different. This book is not just pretty at the cover.

***More reviews on Off to Amazing Places Blog .com***

Hi, it's Aashna! Today I am going to be reviewing The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee. I truly do not understand all of the hype for this book. I got absolutely nothing out of reading it. I will say the writing style was annoyingly addictive. However considering that I was constantly frustrated with all of the creative choices made by this book, I did not enjoy my time reading it.

The only thing that kept me going with this book, as I mentioned above, was the writing style. It was so powerful. No matter what I thought about the events happening, I could not stop reading. I don't know why, because there were so many points where I just wanted to set the book down.

Ugh, where do I even begin with the characters? I have always been adamant that the absolute most important aspects of a book are the characters. If there are no strong characters that I enjoy reading about, then I will not enjoy reading the book. I absolutely HATE every single one of the million main characters. They are stuck up and have no perspective beyond their pathetic lives, whatsoever. I cannot stress enough that there is NOTHING redeeming about them. That is not to say that I don't enjoy having a cast of characters I am meant to hate. That is not a problem. The problem is that I think I am supposed to love these despicable brats. Every page goes on and on about how they are just so physically perfect. Shut up! I get it! I do not care anymore about any of them.

The romances were all absolute messes. I could not care less about any of the relationships.

For such a long book, there is not much of a plot. The characters keep ignoring their issues, and are shockingly impacted by them. Nothing compelling to read here.

A book with a premise this ambitious needs clear, thorough world building. But is any of that provided? Of course not. I am just expect to buy all of this scientific nonsense, since it is the future and by the twenty-second century, science will be so advanced that it is basically magic.

Please save your time. It is not worth wasting on this barely 2 star books. There is so much more out there that is worthwhile.

Thank you for reading my review and I hope you will join me again as we go off to amazing places.

The lives of rich teenagers in the future – perhaps, will still be the same drama that it is now. Well, mostly. The Thousandth Floor takes the rich-poor divide and casts it onto a future world where sprawling towers containing entire cities in them are built worldwide. The first such Tower was built in NYC and that’s where this story takes place. The second generation Tower residents – our protags – have never known a life outside the Tower. They have lived there all their lives and it is their home/city – why would they ever want to go anywhere else except for vacations. The lives in the Tower are dictated by the floor you live on – the higher you are, the wealthier/more influential you are. Makes you think what they think of the people who DON’T live in the Tower but the areas surrounding it.

I won’t go into the drama of the teens because, frankly their plots intertwine a lot, and this review would go on forever. What I will go into is how the world of the Tower reflects our own, but with a greater, literal and visible divide between the haves and have-nots. There is an issue of perhaps the same kind of attitude like now, which I felt was a bit unrealistic for the next century. The author, however, paints a very realistic picture of what the future may look like – the technological advancements and the ease of life depicted involves a great degree of imagination, yes, but also seems quite plausible. And the best fact was that it wasn’t bombarded onto the reader, even though plenty of them were mentioned, but subtly written onto backgrounds and the attitudes of the people. There is also the grim consequences woven into the subtext, of a world where humans have advanced but also sort of destroyed the Earth. Good news is, there is still SOME petroleum left.

Since this is mostly a character-driven story than a world-driven one, it also means that story could have happened in the current world too. There are some things, yes, that needed the world of the Tower, but most events were generalized. The quantum computer, for example, is just an extension of Her. Then there is the Tower hierarchy, which is basically the suburb versus city thing. But I must mention, I loved how the characters were fleshed out. They were real teenagers, with mostly the same issues as current ones – failed loves, rejection, parent issues, and more. The story is certainly enjoyable, but the slow pace throughout the book and the five POVs (which give a wholesome storyline, sure, but dang if I didn’t forget what was happening the last time they got the voice) kind of dragged the plot. In summary, it is definitely an interesting read and a well-written one, but I wasn’t awed.

This story will probably be familiar to most adult (and some teen) readers. The plot is largely cribbed from the 18th-century French novel Dangerous Liaisons - better known to today's audiences as the NYC-set '90s romantic dramedy film "Cruel Intentions" - to which this book has some quickly identifiable similarities.

The way that Cruel Intentions updated de Laclos' novel for the New York of the late 20th century, Katharine McGee updates it for the future in a decent, readable addition to the YA SF subgenre kicked off with the success of "The Hunger Games." Keeping with today's trends in YA literature, McGee mixes an entertaining, scandalous story with "woke", class-conscious themes.

The plot: several teenagers live - dependent on their parents - in a giant skyscraper, with each level stratified by social class. The top floors house the higher classes, while the lower floors house their servants. These teens enjoy wild, free-wheeling love lives, though not without lots and lots of drama, including relationship cheating and a forbidden, semi-incestuous affair. This is especially the case when one of them, due to circumstances out of her control, loses her status and has to move to a lower floor - struggling to keep up appearances as the world crumbles apart around her and her friends engage in all manner of duplicity and betrayal.

The plot wasn't unexpected and had an obvious basis and model in classic literature, but was nevertheless an entertaining read that provided lots of character drama mixed with a healthy dose of modern-day economic anxiety. Fun read! Looking forward to picking up the sequel.

I had the pleasure of meeting Katherine at a book festival in October, and talking with her for those brief moments was like sampling a tiny burst of her world.

Fair warning: I'm officially dubbing The Thousandth Floor the Anaconda Book. Similar to the Jungle Book's Kaa, The Thousandth Floor is a hypnotist, sucking you in with its gripping opening which unfolds like some tragic murder mystery and hooks you there with its superb world building and suspense. Whether its diverse, multiple characters, high rise party lifestyle, fashion do's and don't's, or sharp contrast between the upper and lower floors, Katherine's novel reads like a futuristic soap opera on steroids. Even the tiniest details as it comes to advancements in technology are not brushed aside whether it's a screaming gummy bear treat or a super speed train that can get one from New York to Paris in a couple hours (may I visit, pretty please?). The Thousandth Floor's world is just as decadent and perpetuated by drama as one expects and demands. Everyone will form their own favorite characters whether it's the genetically-engineered-to-perfection penthouse Avery, the super-brain and unwavering Watt, the hardworking and relentless Rylin, the riches to rags Eris, and of course the cunning yet lamentable Leda. One will not just be able to sample this book. It's a hide-under-your-blankets-with-a-flashlight-until-2am kind of book. And yes, I went on a 100-page bender for the final chunk while my bath water got cold. The ending was a tad bit rushed in its wrap up and I missed out on a couple characters' conclusions, but I think that's the point of a cliffhanger. My only regret was picking this up so swiftly after it was published because I'll probably have to agonize over the cliffhanger ending for another year! Two thumbs up for a well-written novel. Now give me the damn sequel already!

Warning for younger teens. Some Content is rated Pg-15 (drugs, drinking, hook-up sex) and meant for a more mature audience

3.5 stars

According to Goodreads, this book is 448 pages, and it felt like it was 448 pages! It’s not even that it was a long read, I just felt like it was a heavy read, which brings me to my first point. One of the things I find very interesting about this book is that I think you can decide how much you’re willing to invest in it. For example, if you wanted a light, superficial read, I think you could get that from The Thousandth Floor; it would be easy to be dismissive of these characters and their ‘first world problems.’ But I also feel like you could turn this into a heavier read (which is what I did,) if you let yourself go and just be swept up in the story. If I recall correctly, this book was compared to Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl, and I have to say that this is one of the more accurate comparisons I’ve seen, right down to the fact that this felt very episodic. There were several POVs here that lent to that feeling, and oddly enough, it made it easy not only to walk away from this book, but also to pick it right back up and not feel lost. I was worried at first that I wouldn’t be able to keep all of the POVs straight, but the characters were so different and the problems unique enough to each one that it made it a breeze to keep them straight. I will say that there were parts of this book that felt slow, but that didn’t bother me. The story was quick to grip me, and even with the slower parts, it held my attention. There was a lot of drama here, and it could be easy to label it as drama for drama’s sake, but when you’re a teenager, everything is a big deal. And everything was definitely a big deal for these teenagers. That’s not to make light of their issues – one is an older sibling trying her best to support her younger sister after her single mother’s death, one is a young man who’s lost both of his parents and has only a troubled older brother to look up to, and one finds herself losing the life she’s accustomed to when her true parentage is revealed. Those are real issues that would mess with anyone, but there are also things going on that seem trivial by comparison. This book does kick off with a murder (character unknown,) but rest assured. Unlike Pretty Little Liars, the mystery will be solved by the end of this book. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t enough loose ends to warrant a second installment. I have to say, I really like the fact that the identity of the murdered character is withheld from the reader. It removes any opportunity to purposely distance yourself to soften the loss, and the attachment makes it that much more of a blow.

I was purposely ambiguous in this review, but trust me. It’s in your best interest to go in blind if you have any intention of reading this book. I enjoyed the heck out of The Thousandth Floor, and I can’t wait to read The Dazzling Heights!

This review was originally posted on Books & Beauty Are My Bag.

The Thousandth Floor is what you get when you move the bitchiness and backstabbing of privileged teens from Gossip Girls' Upper East Side to a dystopian future where a 10,000 feet high skyscraper separates the working class from the filthy rich.

The wealthier someone is, the higher they live in the building, and no-one is more privileged than the Fuller family living at the very top on the thousandth floor. Siblings Avery and Atlas Fuller seem to have everything they could possible want in life, but there is one thing that has always been out of reach.

On the fringes of their lives are friends living a few floors down; Eris, Leda, Cord, to name but a few, each leading a more glamourous life than the other, but none happy with what they've got. And then there are those that live much further down, the plebs that work in tthe fancy clubs the rich kids frequent, such as Muriel, Watt and Rylin.

Through a series of twists and turns, all of their individual stories collide on a faithful night at the Fuller apartment when a terrible accident binds the unlikely teenagers together. Despite the opening prologue hinting at the novel's conclusion, it still came as a shock to me. While I was already gripped by the glitz, glamour and slightly sci-fi world of The Thousandth Floor, after THAT ending I am completely hooked and ready for the next installment in the series.

4.5 stars

[...]
Lets take a moment to appreciate this absolutely gorgeous cover!

Yeah?

Moment over.

I really loved this book, particularly the end. I feel like I say this with so many books, that I loved them but that if because I tend to read books that I am excited about and know im going to love or are super hyped. Anyways, I was super excited about this because it all seemed super Gossip Girl-ish and I am a huge fan of Gossip Girl
The whole world of the tower is just super cool but scary to me, like some people dont leave the tower at all, there is absolutely everything in this tower, even fake parks and sunlight, like I cant begin to comprehend how this thing was built and how massive it would look like in real life!
Which also leads to the whole, what sort of things must happen inside of this tower.
There is drama of all sorts, stealing,cheating, drugs, alcohol, incest, and good old basic lying.
It started with the fall, goes back some time until the time of the fall and the funeral. The whole time you are reading this is makes you wonder oh my gosh, who is going to fall and you think you know or you want it to be a specific person because you hate them but in the end, you are just as surprised as the person who actually falls!
I was hooked from page 1 and by god you will be too!
Katharine McGee, you did it, you have made the book that I will not shut up about just as I wouldnt shut up about Gossip Girl until I finished it.

“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.” •
•
Told from the perspective of five teenagers, each living different lives on different floors. Each with a secret that could destroy their lives and the lives of those around them. The higher you go the further you have to fall. •
•
I am shocked that this was @katharinemcgee’s debut novel. She fills the pages with exquisite world building and character development. The story felt evenly paced and easily enticed me to invest as a reader. I will be honest and let you know that I was wanting to give this book four stars simply because there is one individual character that infuriated me. But isn’t that what good writing does? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️//5 stars and perfect for any fan of Gossip Girl. The end will have you wanting to jump straight into book two. Book three releases late August so it is the perfect time to try it out.

THIS BOOK! I had no idea I would love this book as much as I did. It was so much fun. It was the perfect mix of a good drama in a futuristic world. Set in New York about 100 years in the future, the story takes place almost solely from the giant tower with 1,000 floors. The lower floors are smaller and less expensive, while the higher floors are reserved for only the wealthiest in New York. The story opens with a nameless girl falling from the thousandth floor. Did she fall? Was she pushed? I was already intrigued.

We have quite a few narrators in this book and at first I thought it would drag, but all of the characters interacted so much that I was quickly immersed into the story.

Avery lives on the thousandth floor. She appears to be a beautiful, perfect girl. She was quite literally genetically engineered to be perfect. However, she is in love with her adopted brother, Atlas. I know they are not genetically related…but what is up with all this brother/sister love?! This is the second book I’ve read lately with this plot line. Anyway, their sexual tension was definitely palpable and I enjoyed all the drama that went along with it.

Eris is Avery’s best friend. She is also very much an “it” girl. Her life is quickly shattered when she learns the truth about her past. Eris really grew on me throughout the book! Her character definitely developed most throughout the story. Leda is also in the Avery/Eris group, but she has some extreme jealousy issues that get her into trouble. And she has a pretty big drug habit she tries to keep secret.

Rylin lives on a lower floor, but when her job brings her up to the upper levels she is quickly swept into the drama and the romance of the other characters. Finally, we have Watt (I loved Watt!) who quite literally has a supercomputer in his head. He knows everything about everyone and this made for some very interesting plot developments.

This book is definitely a sci-fi Gossip Girl, but I loved it. The characters were all interesting in their own right, the giant tower sounds like an awesome place to live, and the pacing was excellent- right up until we discover the events that lead up to someone falling off the thousandth floor. I didn’t think this was my typical genre, but it was so enjoyable. I think the setting, plot and characters were all so unique and well-thought out that I really really appreciated this book. I will definitely be looking forward to the second!

Katharine McGee starts her book off with an explosive scene of a girl falling off a 1000 story building but you don’t know which girl it is.

The rest of the book’s chapters are told from the alternating perspectives of various characters: Avery, Leda, Rylin, Eris and Watt. We can gather that the falling girl is one of the 4 girls whose story we are learning as we read through the book.

Apparently in 100 years technology has become crazy advanced:
A subway has been created to go from New York to Paris
Food is grown in a lab, even steak, no more using animals at least in The Tower. All the Anti-GMO groups and legislation have apparently failed then
Shoes with live jellyfish floating in the heel are an actual fashion so that means PETA went defunct at some point
People can openly create the kind of child they want through DNA alterations
Plastic surgery and orthopedic surgery has entered sci-fi levels
In a nod to the Hunger Games, people are modifying their bodies with tech
AI exists. AI along with non-AI tech can fuse with a human and function so they become like a parasite and its host
We can’t forget the extremes in engineering and architecture since in this future world an actual 1000 story building has been created which is all the more amazing because right now the tallest building has less than 200 stories. Our current technology has not yet reached a point where they could safely build more than that; roughly 100 years from now though technology advanced to the point they were able to create a livable and sustainable building 5 times what we can do now.

There’s a nod to evil AI in the book. Apparently when society had a near scare of some AI going haywire they banned it to avoid a Terminator reboot.

Even with all the cool technology that the story relies so heavily on I was still left a bit confused as to how the world is set up, not a whole lot of detail as to how it got from where we’re at now in the real world to where they got in the book’s world is given. It’s mentioned that Central Park was leveled along with a good chunk of New York City in order to create this Tower but it’s never fully detailed as to why government officials allowed this to happen, how/why legislation was passed in order for this to occur, what is going on with the world at large, why is New York the only place that gets one of these Towers in the US and is the advanced tech and society they talk about widespread or is it isolated to New York.

I have to admit, I need these details, I don’t do well reading books that make such sweeping changes to the world as we know it and claim it’s in the future but don’t offer explanations as to what happened to make us get from where we are to where the story purports humanity will be at this point in the future.

If you ignore these background holes and just focus on what we’ve been given then McGee has done a great job in character development because she provides fully developed A list and B list sets of people to keep her story going to the point you become glued wanting to know who fell, why and what will be the repercussions.

Unfortunately the story literally ends where it started. You find out who fell and why but as to the consequences those won’t be discussed until The Dazzling Heights coming out in Summer 2017. Still she's convinced me enough that getting Book 2 is worth it.

The Thousandth Floor is a novel wherein Pretty Little Liars meets Gossip Girls...in a deeper sense.

When I started reading The Thousandth Floor, I admit I thought it was just another YA science fiction and dystopian novel. But of course, I was wrong.

From the middle part up to the last part of this novel, I couldn't stop reading it. It just kept getting better and better; more lies were made; more revelations were exposed; unexpected things happened.

At first, the characters seemed like really different from one another, considering the fact that they are from different floors and social status. But then when I read further into the novel, I realized that they are so much alike: liars, pretentious and coward people. They are so annoying and yet it's also hard not to love some of the characters (by that, I mean Watt and Cord and Eris) because of their inner beauty and wit and aura. McGee introduced, presented, and developed the characters really well. There will be a point wherein you will realize that, "That's why that character was so strange... or acted like that."

What I like about this novel is that it always has surprises. I was surprised by the characters (in so many ways, I can't even....!!!!). I was surprised by the setting. Honestly, the way the Tower was described made me wish that it was a real place that I could go to in New York. Plus, it's New York! Who doesn't love New York?! I was also surprised with everything that happened. Everything happened so fast. I was so enthralled to it that I didn't even flinch to say, "Wait. What?" I just kept on reading from one page to the next, from one chapter to the next. I love how fast-paced it is, but still it is so riveting!

But most of all, I was surprised on how everything in this novel seems to reflect today's reality. As what I have said in Goodreads, the social relevance of this book is like no other. It is not your typical dystopian story wherein people are divided into different categories and that's what sets people apart. The Thousandth Floor is so much more than that. It is not only about people being set apart. It is not only about high people versus low people. It is also about how both the high and the low people also have lots in common. This is where you will realize that not all those in the higher status are always happy and living a perfect life; and not all those in the lower status are always miserable and problematic.

Katharine McGee perfectly illustrated the importance of equality, family, friends, dignity and character.

The Thousandth Floor is a poignant and socially relative story that deals with the world's reality today.

**I received an e-ARC via Edelweiss. This does not affect my opinion about the book.**

Yeah, I did love Gossip Girl and the Jetsons was one of my favorite cartoons from when I was a kid. So I was pretty excited to read The Thousandth Floor, a book about rich, glamourous teens and their secrets (GG) in a futuristic setting (TJ). For a while there, I thought I’d grow to love this book as much as it's comp titles, but the ending pretty much ruined the whole experience for me.

Thing number one you should know about The Thousandth Floor: It’s not a stand alone. For some reason I thought it was, and while I did enjoy the world building A LOT (the best thing about this book by far is the futuristic world the author created), I didn’t want it to be stretched into another book. There’d be no need for that if the ending had been different—and, in my opinion, it should’ve been different.

Now, this book is written in multiple POVs and that much is clear from the blurb. Did I hate it? No. Do I think it needed as many POVs? No, either. Not when their voices weren’t distinguishing enough. Sure it’s easier to get away with similar voices when you’re writing third POV, but Eris and Leda, for example, were so interchangeable it took me a while to figure out who I was reading about. A few chapters in, the differences became clearer, but only because I started loathing Leda with everything I had.

Leda was, by far, the worst character in this book, and the one who suffered the least, which, of course, pissed me off even more. I don’t know if it was a good idea to have the POV of such an unlikable character take so much of the story, but I have to admit she was the one getting things moving for the story overall. So, yeah, I can’t say it was a horrible idea, either. I guess I wouldn’t have minded it so much if the rest of the characters had been much more likable. None of them were as bad as Leda, but I didn’t warm up to them as I wish I had.

Eris was fine, but I expected her story to speak to me in a deeper level. So much went wrong for the poor girl, and while I was sorry for her, I wasn’t sorry enough.

It was hard to feel much for Avery and Atlas since they were both so damn rich, perfect and untouchable. I needed some of Eris’ problems to be Avery’s. While one girl got all the crap, the other just had a “forbidden romance” arc and nothing else.

I did like Watt, but I liked Nadia more. I need a supercomputer like hers for me. Watt was super smart and not at all like Eris, Leda and Avery, so that was interesting. He was a little more like Rylin, but, honestly? I had totally forgotten about Rylin until I saw her name on the blurb just now. That says a lot about my connection to her and her importance to the story. While Eris, Leda, Avery and Watt’s story connected in an interesting way in the end, Rylin was the outsider and I’m not sure what she contributed to the story at all.

The ending, like I said, was incredibly disappointing to me, but I don’t want to get into details because it’ll spoil the book so bad there’ll be no point in reading it. I can honestly say the biggest reason I kept reading was because I wanted to learn who the victim was.

So, while this author managed to create a super interesting world (I want all the gadgets and tech supplies!!!) and hook the readers with the suspense presented in the prologue, the book failed in making me connect with the characters. And that ending? Well, it simply pissed me off.

the actual rating i’ve given this book is 3.5 stars.

overall, i really enjoyed reading this book. i think it’s helped me get out of a slump, which is fantastic. but i did have some problems with it.

i see this mentioned in nearly every review but i feel the need to say it again: this is literally a futuristic version of gossip girl. i haven’t finished watching the show, but i did enjoy it as a guilty pleasure type thing. the general plot about rich new york kids is very similar to gossip girl. there’s also quite a few characters that i can name the tv show character that they were inspired by. if you like gossip girl, then you’ll love this book.

the book starts off with an unknown girl falling to her death. i thought this was a very good hook. unfortunately, the novel then goes “2 months earlier”. the first 50% of this book was so boring and slow paced as nothing interesting really happened. i quite liked watt’s chapters because he was doing things somewhat interesting (probably because they were illegal acts and added some tension to it all).

there is 5 main characters in this book, which was extremely confusing to begin with. at first, i couldn’t remember each characters back story or who looked like what (because it kept jumping around from character to character.) once i learned who was who, it became quite interesting following along the storylines and relationships. there were some that i didn’t like and others that i loved.

one thing i love about this book, and was totally unexpected to encounter, was a f/f relationship. i know there’s definitely one confirmed bi character (however there could be others that i missed). i really liked how this book got to explore sexuality so freely.

the last thing i want to point out is the use of ableist language. leda is often described as “crazy” and “insane”. there is nothing crazy about this girl, aside from her extreme jealousy of a guy she likes and her friends.

The Thousandth Floor was on my short list to read for quite some time. I finally picked it up and was a little disappointed. It reminded me of Gossip Girl, but in the future and with much brattier characters. There were several different POVs and I found myself constantly becoming irritated with the characters.

There were good parts to the story, but not enough to make me really like it. I did like the futuristic feel to everything, but the high importance of money and wealth really wore me down. The characters weren't relatable and most of them were pretty terrible people. I constantly found myself just shaking my head and saying, "why... why would you do/say that? That's just horrible". I find it difficulty to read books with lots of gossip, drama, and teenage emotions, and this book just had way to much of all three of those things.

I know there are a lot of people who really enjoyed this book, so I don't want to completely write it off. There are rumors of a sequel, and I would be interested to see how that turns out. I'm not great at starting a book/series without finishing it, so I'll try to check out book two when it is published, just in case the story takes a turn for the better. I would recommend this to people who really enjoyed Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. I didn't particularly love The Thousandth Floor, but don't let me talk you out of it!

AMAZING, STUNNING, SERIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL and soooo much drama. I have to say I flew through this book. I think I finished it within a week, which is really good for me considering I have 3 jobs, a wedding to plan, being in that wedding, and doing makeup for the upcoming Dracula play in my town. If you don't know what this book is about, please look it up on Good Reads or the store, also make that purchase. It is REALLY worth it.

The story is very interesting. Honestly, I loved how much my mind wondered to build up the characters and all of their futuristic technology. (Seriously, to them, a car of our time is OLD and ILLEGAL because of all the wrecks we have). My favorite characters- Avery, Eris and Cord. Least favorite- Hiral, Leda, and, believe it or not, Atlas.

Avery is genetically made to be perfect, but she isn't a snob. She hates the word perfect and wants to be anything but. I admire that about her, because while all these women out here (myself included) are trying to be perfect and desirable to others, she isn't happy with herself even then. Even though there are no flaws, she still isn't happy. She isn't happy with how people treat her because she is perfect. She isn't happy that she has a lot of fake friends who just want to associate themselves with the most beautiful girl in the world.

Eris- Bless her heart. This isn't going to be a spoiler so that's all I'm really going to say. She had a chance to change her life for the better but she just couldn't stay out of the lime light. She had to be apart of her old life one way or the other and in the end, it won. Not her.

Cord- I really like how the author portrayed him. He is basically the Chuck Bass of this book (see Gossip Girl for a reference). He tried so hard to keep people out of his heart, but ended up letting one person in. It scared him, no doubt. He was just beautifully written.

Leda-WOW. I didn't see that coming at all. She was pretty whiny throughout the book. I get you and your best friend are fighting , but you're both being petty. Get over it. Talk to each other. Maybe the awkwardness between you two could have been avoided. At least a little.

Hiral and V- Ugh.... I don't even want to waste my breath, or rather fingers, on them.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It is perfect for those Gossip Girl, elite lovers like me. Just remember, the higher you are, the harder the fall.

When I had my first look at the hardcover of this book it was what initially made me what to read it. That golden tower and the swirling text was a luxurious invitation into the high-rise prestige and sophistication of The Thousandth Floor. I wanted to read it even more after I read about the actual plot of the book! It sounded exactly like the sort of book that I love to gush and squeal about as thrilling and exciting things happen throughout.

I wasn't sure about the comparison to Gossip Girl. It’s fine if the author wants it that way but personally, I don’t like when books get compared so strongly to another specific book. In this case, I can see why people would compare it to Gossip Girl and I think it’s fine because it would appeal to those readers. I have read the whole Gossip Girl series when I was younger and watched the show so when I started reading this book I could really see which characters reminded me of which. Avery reminded me of Blair, seemingly she has it all but inside she’s hollow and always yearning for something else. Leda was like Serena, suffering from issues that make her leave and then coming back and having to hide it from her friends and deal with the boy she wants. Although Avery has the perfection Blair never had and Leda has the effort and striving Serena wouldn’t have to aim for so they have bits of both characters. Rylin was like Vanessa, in the lower class and never at the same level as the rich kids she has to be around. Eris was kind of like Nate, everything was going fine until there was a huge shake-up in her family that pushed them over to issues they weren’t prepared for. Wyatt was sort of his own but I could relate him back to Gossip Girl because he has the technology to always know what everyone is doing.

It also took me about seventy pages to get into the story while all the characters were being introduced. I enjoyed reading about them all but it was a bit overwhelming reading into the minds of these five teenagers and I didn’t find anything to really grab onto until it started getting more of a story-line around the 70-80 page mark. After the first hundred pages, things became so very exciting. I was glued to the book by then and I had that wonderfully torturous feeling when you’re not reading the book and it’s all you can think about until you get back to it! Even when I was getting to the last hundred pages I was thinking that it needed to be longer because I wasn’t ready for it to end so quickly and I knew I’d be feeling the wait until the second book came out. When I did finish the book it felt complete and like the whole book was all wrapped up and everything I wanted to happen did! I can’t wait to read the second book and find out what drama lies ahead…

So, it’s definitely an excellent book for fans of Gossip Girl but it’s so much more than that. The technology and futuristic vibe in the book are strong all throughout without being confusing or too technical for readers and the characters were all pretty diverse for the setting. There was a lot of reference to the tower being a new beginning for people, a new life and there was clearly a large range of cultures living in the tower. I think it’s an excellent book because it has excellent writing, a brilliant setting and a range of topics that young adult readers love!

Told from multiple perspectives, The Thousandth Floor is set in the year 2118. Katharine McGee tells many different tales of love, but there is always a catch, a lock on the gate to happiness. The prologue and epilogue are linked in a perfect way, the latter providing the barest hint at what a tragic ending it'll be.

Each character in this book has a definite role, not always public, and a set personality differing from others. Also, they all had a hidden connection to the ending. Atlas is the character I enjoyed reading about the most, but he infuriated me as well due to his actions. From the start I saw Leda as someone who would do a lot to get her will, and this is proven by the way her character is tied into the storyline and her actions specifically in the later part of the book.

I have no words... The synopsis pulled me in, and the prologue just solidified that, two pages of solid gold. Just when every drama dissipates and things start to return to normal the most explosive scene of the book happens, taking us back to the prologue, and the style in which it is written.

If you've ever read dystopia, I'm sure you enjoy the differences between the dystopian world and our world. Really, it's just a futuristic this-may-become-reality universe. The Thousandth Floor embodies this desire for a different reality and takes it to another level. The romantic relationships that occur also have another message, specifically acceptance of those who are different.

Katharine McGee torments her characters and puts them through hell to the seventh power, especially at unexpected moments throughout the book. The first few chapters make you wonder who the character telling the story is and how they tie in to the general storyline. By halfway through, you may believe you've finally figured it out, but only at the very end do we learn how entangled these characters really are.

A fun guilty pleasure read with lots of drama and an interesting mystery, The Thousandth Floor had me intrigued from the start!

The Players:
Since there were SO many characters and POV's in this book, I'll give you a little rundown of the major players. I really enjoyed almost all of them!

Avery and Atlas:
These two live on the top floor in the penthouse. Even though Avery is obviously the richest girl in the tower, and therefore has the highest social standing, I love that she isn't a snob. She's actually one of the warmest characters in the book, and she genuinely seems to care about her friends, whatever floor they live on. Atlas, Avery's adopted brother, has been away for quite some time and he's left a hole in her life that she can't seem to fill.

Leda:
Leda is Avery's best friend, but she secretly went off to rehab after she turned to drugs out of loneliness (boy troubles). When she comes back, nothing is the same for her, and she can't seem to get her life back on track. Leda's my least favorite of the gang because she seems more than a little obsessed with the boy who broke her heart. I felt a little bit sorry for her at first and then ... not.

Eris:
Poor Eris is probably my favorite character in the book. As I was reading, I felt horrible for her because of her family drama. And I seriously wanted to punch her father in the nose. Eris does not deserve the way he treats her, and it made me so mad! She has to deal with so much throughout the book, and her problems seem a lot more real and substantial than a lot of the other characters'.

Rylin:
I know I just said Eris is my favorite, but Rylin is a very close second. She's from the lower floors and she's been trying to take care of her sister since their mother's death. When Rylin accepts a job on the upper floors it changes things for her in a lot of ways, but there are developments that make her life even more complicated.

Watt:
The only boy POV we get in the book, Watt is a sort of computer genius/hacker. He's been hiding an illegal computer in his brain! Watt was also from the lower floors, but he's not quite as down-to-earth as Rylin. Of course, since Watt is male, we know that he's not the person who falls to his death at the beginning/end of the book, but he still has an important role to play!

What Fed My Addiction:

The skyscraper.
I loved the idea of the thousand story skyscraper and how it's a society within itself. Of course, the higher the floor, the higher your social status (which makes perfect sense) - people on the lower floors of the tower are considered the bottom of the totem pole - though simply managing to procure a life within the tower is an advantage in life. Most people don't even have to venture outside the tower at all except for the occasional vacation - there are shopping plazas, clubs, swimming pools (complete with non-UV "sun"), restaurants, and even parks all within the tower. The floors were so large that people use hover cars to get around - and express elevators, of course. The lower floors are especially expansive, which makes the upper floors more and more exclusive as you go up. It was really interesting how social standings and tensions were so cut and dry - what floor you lived on determined your rank.

The future.
When I jumped into reading this, I hadn't realized how futuristic it was going to feel (I forgot that it was going to be 100 years in the future). I really loved all the little technological touches that McGee added in - it felt like just the right amount of sci fi.

The mystery.
Since you know from the very start that one of the girls falls from the thousandth floor, the whole book keeps you guessing who it is. And why! All of the girls in the book have some pretty messed up stories, so you could easily see any of them being the one to end up dead. As the book went on, the girls' stories got more and more dramatic until it culminated in quite a shocking end! (Even though I knew someone was going to fall, it was still shocking how it all went down!)

What Left Me Hungry for More:

Gossip Girl/Pretty Little Liars feel.
I actually loved this book right up until somewhere close to the end when it all seemed to veer a little too far into petty jealousy and feelings of revenge. Even though lots of people have compared the book to these two teen shows, I didn't feel like anything was over the top until we got really close to the end. I felt a little unsatisfied with how it all ended up - but I'll definitely still be reading the next book to find out where it all goes.

Weird relationship.
This one's a little bit of a spoiler (though I figured it out pretty early on), so I can't say anything specific. One of the romances is a little strange.

I think McGee did exactly what she set out to do with this book - gave us some mystery, some drama and a whole lot of backstabbing. Sign me up for book two! I give this book 4/5 stars.

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via BEA16 in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. There is a big cast of characters and the chapters are constantly switching to different POVs, but as other reviewers have stated, it worked for the whole narrative of the story and was easy to keep up with. I liked hearing about all the futuristic aspects in the story and I liked how the story was essentially about friendships, family, love, revenge, secrets, and the hierarchy that would inevitably arise in a living structure thats 1000 stories high. The ending definitely wasn't quite what I was expecting- it almost makes me wonder if there will be a continuation of the story or not.
Things I did not like: sometimes I found it very difficult to figure out if we were still in the tower or not. The tower has high ceilings (in some parts) and technology has evolved enough that there can be real trees and and holograms and stuff to simulate being outside, but sometimes the story took us outside the tower and I always had trouble in figuring out where exactly we were. In terms of the overall story, not a big deal, but it did distract me when I was suddenly "oh we are outside the tower?"
I also didn't like just how predictable our characters situations were, if that makes sense. Maybe its just because I've read a lot of YA books that have this particular theme, but having a bunch of older teenagers that are super rich and catty and doing stuff on their own (with parents who are largely uninvolved and not present) just seems so overdone and it kind of had me rolling my eyes a little. I wish that particular aspect was different but overall didn't affect my reading experience.
Overall I really did enjoy this and would definitely reread and would also recommend.

This is a spoiler free review of The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, the first book in the Thousandth Floor Trilogy.

I gave this book a 4/5 stars. Though it is in the Sci-Fi genre, this book reads as more of a contemporary story that is just set in a futuristic world.

General Thoughts

“A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future where anything is possible—if you want it enough.”

This novel follows 5 main characters living in the Tower as all their lives become intertwined in a web of lies, deception, and power.

The story takes place in what once was New York City. Now, rather than the city’s countless buildings, homes, parks, and shops all spread out, they are all found within this thousand floor colossal tower. (For some imagery, the Tower houses the entirety of Central Park comfortably on one floor, so not only is the Tower tall, it’s vast.) The higher you live in the Tower, the more prosperous and powerful you are.

Characters

The Thousandth Floor its story through the perspectives of five main characters. (Though later in the book a sixth character does get a short perspective.)

Starting from the bottom of the Tower, there’s Rylin Myers- an orphan who dropped out of high school to make a living for herself and her sister, Chrissa. They live on the 32nd floor and when Rylin gets a job working on one of the highest floors, she gets swept into world of upper floor drama and lies.

Living on the 294th floor is Watt Bakradi, a tech genius who hacks for people on the side using an illegal quant of his own making. Trying to make money for college, Watt gets a hacking job for an upper floor girl and with that job comes the lies and deception of the upper floors.

Leda Cole, from the 962nd floor, has just left rehab after struggling with addiction- to drugs and a boy who suddenly disappeared. Now with her return, she attempts to hide her time at rehab and begins to make a recovery. That is, until the boy she believes caused this, returns.

Way up in the Tower, on floor 985, is Eris Dodd-Radson. As a heartbreaking betrayal threatens to destroy her family, she and her mother move downTower to the 103rd floor to avoid a full catastrophe. Now, Eris tries to hide the secrets of her family as she struggles with her new life downTower while still trying to live her old, upTower one.

Finally, living up in the 1,000th floor penthouse is Avery Fuller. Genetically altered before birth, she is the epitome of beauty and perfection. And though she seems to have it all, Avery is plagued by the one thing she can never have.

Of all the characters, my favorites were definitely Watt and Avery. Avery was genetically designed to be beautiful and was the wealthiest character in the novel, but even still she was kind, intelligent, and compassionate. She did not need to be any of these things, with her beauty and money, she could have easily been a terrible person and people would still have loved her, but she was not, which is something I admire. Watt Bakradi and his quant Nadia, added lots of humor and sarcasm to the story which was always enjoyable to read. Even through the end of the book after facing heartbreak and betrayal, Watt was still loyal to those he cared for and was willing to do almost anything to protect them.

Plot

The story begins with a two page prologue about a girl who had fallen off the two mile high Tower to her death after a party on the 1,000th floor. The beginning of the story takes place two month before the incident and tells of the events leading to the fatal fall of the unknown girl.

The ending of the story truly took me by surpise. After a whirlwind of events leading up to the end of the book, I was left on the edge of my seat. Closer to the ending of the novel, I tryed to piece together the puzzle of information to figure out who this mystery girl that fell off the Tower was, and what happened to her. (I was very wrong in my prediction.)

Final Thoughts

This book read a lot like a contemporary, which I generally am not too fond of, however, this book completley resonated with me and I absolutley loved it. It has been about two weeks since I finished this novel and the events are still so prominent in my mind because of how much I enjoyed it.

In this review I originally rated the book 3.75/5 stars, but since I have finsihed it, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this book and had to change my rating to a full 4 stars.

This first book was amazing and I cannot wait to pick up the second one!

So I am still in two minds about this book: on one hand I was completely drawn into the mystery, but on the other, I struggled to connect with the characters which made it hard for me to boost the rating. Prepare for some slightly confusing and potentially contradictory opinions.

One thing you need to know about this book is that it is told from about 5 different viewpoints.

While I think this served the story brilliantly, I did find it made it harder to connect to the characters on anything but a surface level; this isn’t to say that they aren’t well developed. Author Katharine McGee has clearly taken great care to make sure every character is outlined with just enough intrigue to serve the overall arc.

The issue I had was that there seemed to be too much drama and not enough chance for a resolution because of the alternating POVs which started to impact the likability of the characters. Everyone is hiding something and for the majority of the book, you don’t know who you can trust.

While the characters might be let down by the narrative style, McGee’s fast paced writing and ability to interlock the different story lines is what makes this book worthwhile. With drugs, family, relationships, high stakes, murder and money galore, this is the kind of book that you can easily get hooked on.

The ending was a bit of a shocker and boy oh boy will there be some mystery to unravel in book 2!

While this isn’t exactly a high-praise review, I definitely think these characters and the futuristic New York setting will find a comfy home on your book shelf. I know I will still be picking up the sequel because I suspect there will be some sweet revenge plots brewing.

Review copy

Plot: Over 100 years in the future and NYC has welcomed The Tower. Only the richest can afford to live luxuriously in The Tower and as we all know, it's the wealthy who have the worst secrets.

The Thousandth Floor followed a group of teenagers who lived in the Tower and how they influenced each other. Much like Gossip Girl, there were lies and deceptions that kept me interested, but it felt like I was only brushing the surface of everything. The Thousandth Floor ended with a bang that has me curious about what is in store for the sequel.

Characters: The main characters weren't very likable, which made it hard for me to truly get invested in their lives. For the most part, they were bored, rich, and used their powers for evil instead of good. I want to mention right now that these kids do a lot of drugs and drink heavily, this is not for readers who are looking for a cleaner read. I appreciated the diversity in The Thousandth Floor but still wished that the characters had more depth to them. Here is hoping they are better fleshed out in the sequel.

Worldbuilding: The Tower and its setup was really interesting, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't picture The Tower. I didn't understand the relationship between The Tower and the outside world or how people traveled throughout The Tower. I really wanted McGee to take more time explaining how the world functioned instead of explaining the effects of the latest drugs or other fun gadgets.

Short N Sweet: The Thousandth Floor is, by definition, drama to the extreme. If you like rich kids with dirty secrets, you'll enjoy this one!

When I started reading this I had to let out a little groan and actually stop reading because of how many points of view there are. I am definitely one of those people that gets attached to one main character so after realizing what type of story I was reading I put the book down with the intention of not completing it. However, my fascination with Avery and the scene that McGee had created regarding the world they live in kept me intrigued so I picked the book up a couple of hours later and managed to finish it within a few hours.

This is definitely a seductive and fast paced novel that keeps you in tuned no matter whose point of view it is. I liked how McGee created a villain whose point of view was also available to us and I'm so glad she decided to go with this particular character as I did not like her from the start. Leda is a great antagonists and is crazy enough to make the reader actually worried about whats going to happen next. I loved the characters of Eris, Cord and Watt and I assume they are going to be fan favorites of this series. My favorite point of view however was Avery. I absolutely adored her character and how in tune with the world she is and how much she craves to be more than just a pretty face. If anything, Avery felt the most human in the novel. I was immensely invested in her relationship with Atlas, you could actually feel the chemistry between the two coming out in the novel. They are definitely a couple I am rooting for in the series.

And speaking of, I was rather disappointed when I came to the end of the novel and realized that it actually is going to be a series. The way the story ended was so infuriating and left unresolved that I wished that the series was a standalone just so I could see everyone happy in the end. However, I think there are going to be whole lot of twists and turns in this series and I just pray that Leda's story line won't completely ruin the story all together. I am definitely rooting for Avery/Atlas and Cord/Rylin and even though I know there's definitely going to be whole lot of struggle between the characters I hope it doesn't entirely spoil the romance.
Overall all I still loved the novel and am waiting patiently for the next one.

Rating: 3/5 stars

"Do you ever feel like people think they know you, but they can't, because they don't know the most important thing about you?"

This book is Great Gatsby in the future, with teenagers. I really enjoyed the technology aspect, wondering what could be possible in Manhattan, 2118. Some things, though, never change. No matter the wealth, jewels, genetic engineering, luxury, or latest gadgets, people will still go to great lengths to find and keep love. Mankind's inclination to destroy others in that process is still the same.

There were numerous times I wanted to yank a character through the page and give them a good lecture. A "what-in-heaven's-name-do-you-think-you're-doing" verbal lashing. Even though the characters frustrated me, I also ached for them. Numerous times, they could have been spared so much pain and grief if they had been honest and genuine with one another. But instead, they masqueraded as having beautiful, perfect lives when each of them was broken in their own way. Life lesson: be honest with yourself and others.

"Her life was falling apart, piece by gilded piece."

Some of the characters were hard to relate to, because you could clearly see that their deception and attitudes had caused the mess they got themselves into. I'm not usually a fan of teen drama and angst novels (my inner mom just wants to scold them the whole time). However, the story was engaging and the writing style propelled me forward. I had to find out what happened to the characters, but I'll have to read the next book when it comes out for that because it ended on quite a cliff hanger.

Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I expected, and although it's not my book "type," I will probably read the next installment in the series when it comes out.

In Manhattan 2118 stands a thousand-floor building, kind of a city within itself. It contains homes, schools, parks, clubs, and plenty of futuristic goodies. Welcome to the vertical urbanism of Katharine McGee's THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR.

The prologue shows a girl in a dress plummeting to the ground outside. Who is she? Did she jump, or was she pushed? The series is marketed as the new GOSSIP GIRL, but once I put away notions of who represents Serena and Blair, I was able to appreciate these new characters for themselves. Leda is fresh out of rehab. Eris loses her wealthy lifestyle and is forced to move way down the Tower. Watt is hired as a hacker, but the case turns personal. And then there's Nadia, who's altogether awesome.

The drama is contemporary, but the extravagant futuristic setting adds delightful spark. There's life outside the Tower, too, including travel to other continents in just a few hours. Not all of the sub-plots appeal, but there's an undeniable addictiveness to THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR that's left me impatient for more. Book 2, THE DAZZLING HEIGHTS, is scheduled for publication later this year.

I didn’t know too much about the book except it’s set in a futuristic New York where there’s a building that’s a thousand floors. After reading the prologue, I was immediately reeled in by the air of mystery and the contemporary/sci-fi nature of the plot. The story follows various characters living in this mega high-rise with all their juicy secrets and individual problems. This high-rise is the epitome of social class distinction. The higher up you are the more money you have and vice versa and somehow, all these characters are connected to each other as the author weaves the story. The futuristic world that McGee created is one I want to jump into. There are so many neat gadgets mentioned like hovers, copters, contact lenses that are like laptops where you can virtually do everything just by blinking or nodding your head. The technology added to the intricate world of the high-rise, which in itself is a bustling city. What’s more amazing is that every character has a separate story to tell with all their differences but as the end of the book nears, they all seem to intertwine with one another on some level. The many layers of this novel pleasantly surprised me and I cannot wait for the next novel because the ending wasn’t something I saw coming and I certainly never would’ve guessed. I highly recommend this book to those who dream of how technology will change our live in the future and those who like a book with juicy little secrets.

Ever get stuck hmming and hahing over a book? The Thousandth Floor was a book that was hard to pick up. A gorgeous cover can be hard to resist but the premise had me a little hesitant. I've never been into the whole Gossip Girl type thing but the futuristic elements ultimately won me over.

From the start it was a challenge to get into TTF. There are a LOT of characters and the chapters switch around to introduce them and establish their various connections and relationships with one another. It's pretty complex to sort them out but once the board is set with pieces it's easy to start connecting with them. McGee did a great job of making each of them a multi-faceted and interesting person. It just takes time and is a slow process which can be a challenge. Once the plot picks up about 2/3 of the way in it becomes really enjoyable and the twists and turns don't let up.

I wasn't sure I'd want to continue the series until the last chapter but it definitely ends in a way that will have you ready to see where the secrets, lies, and betrayals lead these characters. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoy books with futuristic tech too, that was what I wound up loving most about the book.

Overall, a bit slow to get rolling and challenging to connect as often happens in high and epic fantasy but well worth the read if you're craving something that's a hearty blend of futuristic, mystery, romance, and YA.

It was actually quite amusing, because I had to keep reminding myself of the beginning and where the story was supposed to be heading. It starts off with a dramatic fall, suicide, accident or death and ends the same way. There is so much drama in the middle that it just slipped my mind completely.
It’s a pity the premise is more of Gossip Girl scenario, because McGee has some really interesting ideas. The towers and the caste structure are worth exploring in more depth. Then there is the Nadia the quant, both this and the futuristic communication in combination with the world-building is quite fascinating.
What it comes down to in the end is rich people vs poor people and the ex-rich who want to be rich again, because they hate being poor. Oh and girlfriend and boyfriend trouble. Nothing too complex. Again, such a contradiction in the mixture of ideas. A bit like creating a complex void structure and then filling it completely with candy floss.
Even in the future the young still seek a high and spend all their time worrying about their love lives. So much for advanced technology and spectacular development. I shouldn’t be surprised by the fact humans will always be shallow entities no matter how many centuries into the future.
*I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.

Rating: 3/5 stars

"Do you ever feel like people think they know you, but they can't, because they don't know the most important thing about you?"

This book is Great Gatsby in the future, with teenagers. I really enjoyed the technology aspect, wondering what could be possible in Manhattan, 2118. Some things, though, never change. No matter the wealth, jewels, genetic engineering, luxury, or latest gadgets, people will still go to great lengths to find and keep love. Mankind's inclination to destroy others in that process is still the same.

There were numerous times I wanted to yank a character through the page and give them a good lecture. A "what-in-heaven's-name-do-you-think-you're-doing" verbal lashing. Even though the characters frustrated me, I also ached for them. Numerous times, they could have been spared so much pain and grief if they had been honest and genuine with one another. But instead, they masqueraded as having beautiful, perfect lives when each of them was broken in their own way. Life lesson: be honest with yourself and others.

"Her life was falling apart, piece by gilded piece."

Some of the characters were hard to relate to, because you could clearly see that their deception and attitudes had caused the mess they got themselves into. I'm not usually a fan of teen drama and angst novels (my inner mom just wants to scold them the whole time). However, the story was engaging and the writing style propelled me forward. I had to find out what happened to the characters, but I'll have to read the next book when it comes out for that because it ended on quite a cliff hanger.

Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I expected, and although it's not my book "type," I will probably read the next installment in the series when it comes out.

In Manhattan 2118 stands a thousand-floor building, kind of a city within itself. It contains homes, schools, parks, clubs, and plenty of futuristic goodies. Welcome to the vertical urbanism of Katharine McGee's THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR.

The prologue shows a girl in a dress plummeting to the ground outside. Who is she? Did she jump, or was she pushed? The series is marketed as the new GOSSIP GIRL, but once I put away notions of who represents Serena and Blair, I was able to appreciate these new characters for themselves. Leda is fresh out of rehab. Eris loses her wealthy lifestyle and is forced to move way down the Tower. Watt is hired as a hacker, but the case turns personal. And then there's Nadia, who's altogether awesome.

The drama is contemporary, but the extravagant futuristic setting adds delightful spark. There's life outside the Tower, too, including travel to other continents in just a few hours. Not all of the sub-plots appeal, but there's an undeniable addictiveness to THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR that's left me impatient for more. Book 2, THE DAZZLING HEIGHTS, is scheduled for publication later this year.

I didn’t know too much about the book except it’s set in a futuristic New York where there’s a building that’s a thousand floors. After reading the prologue, I was immediately reeled in by the air of mystery and the contemporary/sci-fi nature of the plot. The story follows various characters living in this mega high-rise with all their juicy secrets and individual problems. This high-rise is the epitome of social class distinction. The higher up you are the more money you have and vice versa and somehow, all these characters are connected to each other as the author weaves the story. The futuristic world that McGee created is one I want to jump into. There are so many neat gadgets mentioned like hovers, copters, contact lenses that are like laptops where you can virtually do everything just by blinking or nodding your head. The technology added to the intricate world of the high-rise, which in itself is a bustling city. What’s more amazing is that every character has a separate story to tell with all their differences but as the end of the book nears, they all seem to intertwine with one another on some level. The many layers of this novel pleasantly surprised me and I cannot wait for the next novel because the ending wasn’t something I saw coming and I certainly never would’ve guessed. I highly recommend this book to those who dream of how technology will change our live in the future and those who like a book with juicy little secrets.

Ever get stuck hmming and hahing over a book? The Thousandth Floor was a book that was hard to pick up. A gorgeous cover can be hard to resist but the premise had me a little hesitant. I've never been into the whole Gossip Girl type thing but the futuristic elements ultimately won me over.

From the start it was a challenge to get into TTF. There are a LOT of characters and the chapters switch around to introduce them and establish their various connections and relationships with one another. It's pretty complex to sort them out but once the board is set with pieces it's easy to start connecting with them. McGee did a great job of making each of them a multi-faceted and interesting person. It just takes time and is a slow process which can be a challenge. Once the plot picks up about 2/3 of the way in it becomes really enjoyable and the twists and turns don't let up.

I wasn't sure I'd want to continue the series until the last chapter but it definitely ends in a way that will have you ready to see where the secrets, lies, and betrayals lead these characters. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoy books with futuristic tech too, that was what I wound up loving most about the book.

Overall, a bit slow to get rolling and challenging to connect as often happens in high and epic fantasy but well worth the read if you're craving something that's a hearty blend of futuristic, mystery, romance, and YA.

It was actually quite amusing, because I had to keep reminding myself of the beginning and where the story was supposed to be heading. It starts off with a dramatic fall, suicide, accident or death and ends the same way. There is so much drama in the middle that it just slipped my mind completely.
It’s a pity the premise is more of Gossip Girl scenario, because McGee has some really interesting ideas. The towers and the caste structure are worth exploring in more depth. Then there is the Nadia the quant, both this and the futuristic communication in combination with the world-building is quite fascinating.
What it comes down to in the end is rich people vs poor people and the ex-rich who want to be rich again, because they hate being poor. Oh and girlfriend and boyfriend trouble. Nothing too complex. Again, such a contradiction in the mixture of ideas. A bit like creating a complex void structure and then filling it completely with candy floss.
Even in the future the young still seek a high and spend all their time worrying about their love lives. So much for advanced technology and spectacular development. I shouldn’t be surprised by the fact humans will always be shallow entities no matter how many centuries into the future.
*I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.

I usual like YA. But this book just wasn’t great. The particulars about the why of the tower and how it was built and how it ran were not in the book. All the interesting bits were left out. Instead, you have switching teen angst from one narrator to the next. There were no characters you could really route for. I found myself disliking all of them. It just wasn’t an enjoyable read. A story whose premise could open the gates for so much of a better story than what you get.
As far as being a teen book, here is my parental blurb. Teen drinking, teen drug use, lots of “hooking up”but nothing graphic in nature. And the main love interest is a brother and sister.

This novel drew me in with what seemed like an inventive premise (futuristic NYC), but upon finishing it I realized that it all fell quite flat. The speculative direction of technology wasn't that interesting, and the writing style wasn't particularly appealing. I enjoyed many of the characters and how their lives were interwoven, and I think that may be one of the highlights of the novel. If you like drama amongst teens, this is the book for you, but it wasn't the book for me. I'll go into more detail below, but it will include major spoilers:

***SPOILERS BELOW***

First of all, McGee's thoughtless contribution to the "Bury Your Gays" trope soured the book completely. I loved the LGBT character, and their demise ruined it for me. I felt incredibly disappointed by the end of the novel, and not in an emotional way. Sort of in a "oh no a character I see myself in has died, just like the LGBT characters always do" sort of way. It killed any passion I had for the story.

Secondly, McGee clearly has no concept of sibling relationships; I find Atlas' and Avery's relationship both repulsive and unbelievable. There was no reason for them to be in love, they just "always had been." Very trite and cliche. I feel like the lack of backstory may be because, in exploring their history, the reader would have been forced to confront the fact that they are siblings in all but blood. Apparently shipping genetic siblings doesn't bother some folks anyway, but I digress. Also, aside from Avery's regard for her friends, she didn't seem to have much of a personality, which was unfortunate. I wish this book had lived up to my expectations.

I had some different expectations going into this book than what I got. One that there would be more of an emphasis on the technology that got the world to have thousand-story buildings, etc. And while there is some of that, the emphasis is largely on the characters and their relationships to and interactions with one another. It is not a book about technology but a book about people, but I think that makes an interesting point about the unchanging nature of humans. No matter the advancements society makes, some things remain almost painfully the same.
Though the characters aren't always "likeable," I did stay engaged with them through the whole story, trying to figure out how it would end. The tension in the climax made it almost painful for me not to read ahead. I think it does benefit a reader going in to know that this book does have a sequel coming because without that knowledge, the ending does not seem complete. Once I found that out, I was much more satisfied with the place the book left off, and it's conclusion stayed with me for days.

Classism aside, my biggest issue with this book is the stretching of the story. I have this theory that all authors are in competition to reach the highest word count, and this causes them to write books that are unnecessarily long. If you are one to "scene hop" you know this is true. Often times you can skim or completely ignore several scenes in a book with little consequence because those scenes added nothing to the story beside more words to contribute to the count.

About 200 pages in it felt like the story was wrapping up, and I was happy with where it was at, but then a new set of dilemmas had it feeling like the story was starting up all over again.

My next biggest issue (which I was willing to over look) was McGee's writing style. It was on par with a $5 Walmart romance novel, with a little something extra (which again I wasn't opposed to). I understand that every writer develops their signature writing voice, but the too long sentences and odd comma placements stick out far too much to make this a smooth read.

Like I said, any of these three issues could have been over looked. It was more the combination of them that was difficult to digest...

I gave this book 3 stars because despite the cramming of information the author was able to move the story along, and the gadgets were kind of cool.

I post reviews containing SPOILERS on my Instagram @whitespacebooks Check it out if you'd like to further discuss ^_^'

This was super addicting! I just loved all the secrets and deception!

Seeing how all these character's lives interweave--sometimes in ways they don't even know--is so entertaining!

What surprised me was that I was intrigued by all of these characters at some point or another. (usually I gravitate to only one or two) I really enjoyed their stories--and their secrets. There were definitely some characters I enjoyed more than the others.

Perhaps this is one disadvantage of the multiple POVs but you don't get to see these characters on a deep level. I feel like each character briefly has a moment when we get to see more than the surface; but we change to another character so quickly that it never gets elaborated on. So I never felt like I knew more about these characters than what was necessary to drive the plot forward.

Everyone has a story, and everyone has a secret, even the girl on the thousandth floor who was genetically engineered to be perfect. All her friends think she has the perfect life and that they are the only ones with problems, but she's not as happy as they think she is.
This is a mystery written in a way that you almost forget about it until the very end. A girl falls from the impossibly high Tower. But then a few pages into the book you are so engrossed in the story that you almost forget about it until the end. Then you suddenly need to know - who is it going to be?
There are a lot of characters in this book which took me a while to get used to but it was really worth it. Each chapter is written from the character's point of view, putting you into their lives and making very interesting reading.

Iso enjoyed The Thousandth Floor and all the characters and read it in two days. It is for sure a light read which is what I wanted (started it on a beach trip) and I prefer light reads on holiday after reading The Kite Runner and having it put me in a funk on my vacation years ago (and Ellen Foster on a plane where I sobbed halfway through my flight). The book has several love stories, teen obsessions (I have a teen and like to get into their minds) and a probably pretty accurate and intriguing look at future a few hundred years from now. I am guessing there will be a second book as the book leaves a lot of stories undone at the end and really hope so. I wish I could talk about the ending but don't want to spoil it. Great first book by Katherine McGee!

Teenagers will be teenagers... even in the future in 2118. I was captivated by the alternating points of view in this book as each character had their own dramatic life event revolving around love, friendship, family, or money. Set in a tower in Manhattan, a group of teenagers show us what life would be like if we all lived in one building, in a place where the higher the floor you live on, the wealthier you are. This eclectic group also displays an important lesson about secrets and what happens to us as we try to hold onto the secrets we can't let on friends in on. I was somewhat disappointed by the rushed ending, but if this is going to be a series, you can bet I will be reading the second installment.

3.5/5

I did not have very high expectations going into this despite the hype surrounding it because quite a few of my friends who had read it were dissapointed or didn’t even finish it. I would describe this as Gossip Girl in the future and as a Gossip Girl type novel it’s enjoyable, but I think that type of book is one a lot of people don’t particularly like. It’s a lot of blackmail, backstabbing and heavy romance. I also saw some similarities to Sara Shepard books in it as well.

Personally, I enjoyed the Gossip Girl books, and stayed with PLL until the end. As such, I liked The Thousandth Floor even though it did have a somewhat slow start in part because of the many POVs that had to be set up. The book opens with a girl falling off of the thousandth floor and no one knows who she is. We then go back to two months before the party where the girl fell. The question of who fell off the tower is one that I almost forgot about for much of the book but as tension built in the story, the girl who fell became more relevant to me as a reader. The many POVs in this were somewhat overwhelming but after an adjustment period I forgot about it for the most part. If you enjoyed Gossip Girl or PLL in their book or TV formats I think you’d like this book. If you don’t like superficial, campy dramas then I’d steer clear of this one.

Loved the concept and the trashy, glittery lives of the uber-wealthy. Enjoyed reading about those wastrels who have enough money to live and party (and party and party) at the top of the super-ginormous skyscraper that's actually a city in the sky. Did NOT like the stepbrother/stepsister makeouts. Technically, it's not incest but this trope has always squidged me out. Except for that, this would be a 4-star read but I just couldn't get over my dislike of that trope so the story lost a star. Still a fun read!

This just wasn't what I was expecting. I wanted more to it since the book was so long. I feel like only a couple of storylines should have been active in this book and then there should be a companion novel with the other storylines. There was just too much happening for me to enjoy it. I felt like we kept back tracking and there were a lot of times where we were in a perspective that I just didn't want to be in. It was definitely a fascinating story and I will probably read the next one. I appreciate that this one concluded, but left you wanting more without a terrible cliffhanger. If you're a fan of multiple perspectives then you should definitely check this one out.

I really enjoyed the futuristic atmosphere and the multiple perspectives addressed to illuminate all of the character’s different personalities. The way the story unwound was extremely intriguing and masterfully written. Being thrown in a world that doesn’t exist yet I still saw the underling messages and consequences of being human. Those thoughts and soliloquy will remain in my thoughts for days if not years. Good read.

It's Gossip Girl with a tall tower and lots of holograms. The book is long and pretty vapid (although somewhat fun, in it's I'm-okay-to-fall-asleep-reading-this way), then ends abruptly because the author wants to sell another book.

This book was an enjoyable read that I found even more enjoyable from the futuristic telling and the future technology. It is always fun to see what writers dream of how the future will be. This book takes place in the future (obviously) with this building with a thousand floors. A gitl falls to her death an the book examines the different characters and what they know about this. The upper floors are where the wealthier kids live and it goew down from there. Well worth a try.

I went into The Thousandth Floor with zero expectations and it blew me away! The night that I started it, I only meant to read a couple of chapters but I ended up reading the entire thing that same night.

If you can get past the first paragraph and not want to know more, I will definitely be judging your taste. Reading The Thousandth Floor was like reading a futuristic Gossip Girl. It was absolutely fantastic, and it's definitely one of my favorite surprises of the year. The world-building is incredible and well-developed, and best of all, it draws on the universal love of New York City.

Besides the awesome world building, I truly enjoyed the overlapping storylines, as well as the mystery and suspense that is fantastically woven into the plot. The characters all come from different backgrounds and yet, they are all inexplicably tied together from the start. This book gave me chills and thrills, and it left me simultaneously flailing and breathless.

The Thousandth Floor is at the top of my recommendation list for 2016 debuts, so do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy! You can thank me later.

Full review: [...]

I'm not usually a big fan of lots of character and viewpoints, but she tied them altogether in some way. And it was so interesting! Reading the prologue, I kept trying to figure out who it was gonna be the whole time and did not figure it out until it actually happened. This was a great novel and not overly inappropriate like many young adult novels. I cannot wait to read book 2!

This is a novel about teens in the future. It was about teens, rich and poor, and the problems they encounter. With all the technology and money in the world you can still be lonely, jealous and betrayed. The same issues as teens in today's world.

I like this book, it was a fast, easy read with a sequel.

Three and a half stars.

Sadly, deemed DNF. This book might have been great, but just not for my current mood. I'm 26 and this made me feel old. The teenagers gossiping and experimenting with drugs and trying to fit in. It might be a mixture of my mood as well, but it just didn't hold my interest and wasn't for me.

I've been looking forward to this book since I got a promotional poster for the book at BookCon this past May. So I was definitely excited to be able to finally read the book.

The Thousandth Floor is set nearly a hundred years from now in a new New York City. The Tower has pretty much taken over Manhattan. It's a thousand floors high a whole new city inside of it, including a new Central Park and whole neighborhoods. The book features characters from the upper and lower floors and how they mesh together at the end of the book.

Overall, I really liked the book. The material in it may be nothing new but it was a fun escape. There's some juicy drama in there and some good bad characters. My favorite characters are Avery and Watt. There's a major villain in the book but you'll have to read it to find out who it is. The book kind of ends of a cliff-hangar and so I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.

Fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars will definitely like this book.

When I first started this book I didn't think I would like it. I normally don't like books with multiple character povs since it can get confusing and I didn't know if I would be able to follow each characters stories. Luckily I stuck with it and eventually I was hooked and could not put it down. This book is well written and easy to follow. I agree with others that it is like gossip girl. Although it is set in a futuristic world, the story doesn't really focus on it rather it is about the relationships formed between the characters. I loved all the characters and was sad to see the death in the end ( I wanted it to be Leda lol). Apparently this is going to be a tv show and I can totally see it. Can't wait till the next book!

The idea was great, and the technology was fun. But I disliked nearly every single character. The characters are empty, vapid, and the drama and secrets are predictable, the pacing much too slow. I made it through the first 100 pages and then read the last 20 to find out what happened.

In the not so distant future of the year 2118, New York City has transformed into a city for the best of the best, with incredible technology and deeper secrets than anyone could imagine. The center of the city is a tower, one thousand floors high and soaring two miles into the sky. The higher the floor someone resides on the more money and power they have and the more secrets they most likely keep. Using five points of view, the reader gets an up close and personal glance at all the drama first hand.

First is Avery, a girl who lives on the thousandth floor and is genetically perfect, yet tortured with wanting what she can never have. Her best friend Leda is also hiding something, a tortured addiction both to drugs and to a boy. Meanwhile, another one of Leda and Avery’s friends, Eris, has her upper-class life ripped to pieces all because of a single betrayal from her family’s past.

On the lower floors, Watt is a hacker making money just so his family can get by and he can have a future behind the floor he lives on. But, his biggest secret is literally inside his head. Even lower, Rylin struggles to get by as she tries to make a good home for her and her sister. She gets a job on one of the higher floors but it quickly turns into more than just a job.
As stated previously, THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR has five different points of view. In many YA books, multiple point of views are very frequent and common, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with this many at once. Personally, I’m a fan of multiple points of view, but it can easily go wrong very fast. Rest assured, the author handles things perfectly. Each point of view is clear and contrasting from the rest, so it is not easy to mix up the voices of the characters. Plus, alternating the points of view create shorter chapters, making the book very fast paced. Though the book is long, I read it all in almost one sitting. Very early on, I got invested in all of the characters and their individual issues, curious about how they would all resolve them in the end.

Speaking of the characters, all of them were interesting and fun to read about. The author also managed to add some diversity to the book, both with race and sexuality. Each character had an extremely unique development, some for better and some for worse. The character arcs that everyone went through were extremely well-written and made the drama in the book that I would normally find cliché or petty more entertaining. That being said, by the end of the book some of the drama began to get a little old for me, simply because it is not normally my wheel-house.

Even with my problems with the drama carrying the plot, the setting of the book is what really won me over. McGee uses science fiction elements perfectly, including tons of futuristic technology in the book. If that technology is a taste of what we will get in a 100 years, I would love to time travel into the future. New York was so different yet similar to the one I know today and it was interesting watching the present and future mix together.

This book is often called “the futuristic Gossip Girl” and I could not agree with that comparison more. I highly recommend THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR to anyone that loves a book full of juicy drama just like shows like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. Debut author Katharine McGee weaves a tale of glamour and heartbreak, showing how far people are willing to go before they fall. The drama and secrets carry the story, leaving the reader wondering more and more where the author will take the story in the sequel and how much more all of the characters are hiding.

Reviewed by Brynn S., Teen Board Member.

Each character shows you how they are dealing with their teenage years in futuristic Manhattan. Each one of these character shows you their struggle to fit in and try to fit the part of living in the upper levels. These characters are great and fit in perfectly with this novel.

While reading this book, I kept waiting for the plot and waiting for the plot. But no, this story is really just about some high school kids and the crazy issues they have. I feel like the story could have really been taken to a higher level. But it was entertaining and written well.

I'm damned if I'm going to buy this thing. Larry Niven did it already, and better--in his novel "Oath Of Fealty". The premise there is that cities consist of a single gigantic building known as an "arcology". You live and work in the same structure, presumably commuting by elevator. Actually that's done on a smaller scale already. Here in Miami there's a 20-floor apartment building with a major chain supermarket on its ground floor. The store probably has to have employees search all over the upper floor hallways for missing shopping carts. But those employees don't live upstairs--when I checked the place out 10 years ago, the rents were so steep a supermarket employee could never afford them. Anyway, the major conflict in the Niven book is with an ecoterrorist group which regards such buildings as abominations and they constantly sabotage the building's mechanical workings. You're better off with that book than this one.

This book is so wonderful. I think the beginning is a little slow but man was it a joyful ride. The fact that she,the writter, actually got to do character development on every single one of them made me so happy. You wont even belive who falls from the tower.
Heads up its book 1 of a searies. I actuly got to talk with the writer and she says the the second one is coming out around august.

Love the world building and the character. Can't put it down, also I really like the different points of views, I'm normally not a fan of that but this was written so beautiful. THE only problem was Avery and Atlas didn't like their realtionship and how Avery treated her friend

Every page is full of suspense and excitement. From the first word on, I couldn’t stop reading until I finished the whole book I can’t wait to see the TV series based on the two novels about The Tower!

I loved the setting of this book. The tower was a beyond cool idea. But the characters...good lord. I couldn't have cared less about them. There was a bunch of hype surrounding this book and it ultimately just fell flat for me.

I enjoyed/tolerated the story up until the deeply unsatisfying ending. I was hoping for a stand alone book, but the end makes you feel like there's going to be another. I was ok with it droning on thinking the end was the end but I will not be reading a sequel (if there is one). I don't think I would recommend it.

this book was very disappointing for me. I was looking for an easy read but this book is just silly. The characters seem to have no depth in them whatsoever. At least Gossip Girl had some soul but this book is just a story about one dimensional, vapid, mean spirited people who now one would relate to. The girls are bitchy and the guys are jerks. It is interesting to me how none of them even remotely change throughout the book. For better or for worse.

Great book! Fans of Gossip Girl will really enjoy this read. Set in a future New York, it follows the lives of the elite teens of a thousand story tower. It is told through the perspectives of Avery, Leda, Rylin, and Watt. The unique personalities of all characters make you want to keep reading, if the plot didn't already do that. It's a great book!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
The premise is that a thousandth-floor Tower has been built, in this case in New York, in which all our characters interact: the richer families live higher up, the poor down below. There are five main protagonists, four of whom are girls (thus the female readership is targeted). Each of them has their own set of problems. Secrets are kept and eventually come out with tragic consequences
My problem with this book is that it is basically a novel about teenage problems but set in a futuristic sci-fi setting which is, to a large extent, irrelevant. Where contact lenses and earpieces replace tablets and mobile phones, the five main protagonists still interact as if this is five hundred years earlier: they face relationship problems, unrequited love, jealousy, envy, lust, sex, drugs, alcohol, family split-ups etc.. as it is was the 21st century.
Admittedly I am not a reader of YA female fiction so this may go down really well.

This book seems like it will be a 22nd century Gossip Girl, but it delves much deeper into the issues of wealth and want that a culture of riches produces. All of the characters are interesting and the relationships have all the urgency and drama of high school in the best way--you feel and feel for these people, trapped in situations and lives others have made for them, doubly trapped by their own uncertainties and desires. A gorgeous debut.

Love love LOVE this!! It's so diverse and the world building was well done. The characters were all three-dimensional, experiencing various conflicts, and just made me fall in love with them. I found the plot very interesting, so much so that I finished the book within a few days. Overall, I highly recommend this book.

Wow, is this a futuristic vision of urban life - on the top floor. GM humans and robotics and height. Yet this is supposed to be 2018 which is just tomorrow really. How close to real is all this now? I wonder. But as we explore this life we may want to end up where the main character does. Or is there an escape from perfection? If Plato could have imagined this I wonder if he would have rethought his theory of the ideal state?

There are quite a bit of characters and POVs in THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR and I don't want to bore you with going over them all, but I will say that we DO find out who falls in the opening chapter before the book is over. I think that is important to say, because there are a lot of pages and story to get through and at some times, you might be impatient to find out. DON'T skip to the end, the characters and story are important.

My biggest issue with THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR was the pace, it was slooooow. The story goes in a lot of different directions and although I LIKED the story, it was sometimes really hard not to skip some parts of it. I refrained from doing that and the story was better for it. Every characters and event ended up being pretty important to the overall story.

The ending was bit anticlimactic and it felt unfinished to me. Even having said that, I really enjoyed the story and the characters—some more than others. I have no choice to read book two because I have to see how things turn out.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Concept: fascinating, Execution: Poor, Characters: unbearably disappointing.

I got this book as a galley last year at a book expo and finally got around to reading it. The concept sounded brilliant. unfortunately, that's where Mcgee's genius ends. Five main characters, only two of which are from lower class families, and even their problems don't revolve around keeping themselves and their families alive. It's a romance book disguised as Sifi, the author attempting to live vicariously through her characters as the richest, most beautiful woman in the world.

Every character is a stereotypical Gen Z teenager: manipulative, petty, self-absorbed, and deceitful-- giving you no one to associate with and giving the intended audience no role models. As many other reviewers commented, there's no hint that this is a series until the last 10 pages of the book, and in truth, there's no reason for it to be one. Every single story could have been resolved in a reasonable if not happy-ever-after way if she had just changed the final dialogue and added about 3 more pages.

But most importantly, and most concerning, the book seems to center around one teen- Avery- who has been given everything she could ever want and is therefore hollow, miserable, and pathetically desperate to find some shred of real human connection. And the only person she feels that connection to? Her adopted brother, Atlas, who has been the unattainable love of her life since she was a child. The concerning part being that this is romanticized. The book is obviously pushing you to sympathize with her, to understand her, and to be happy and sad with her depending on how Atlas seems to be feeling towards her at the moment. It's all, of course, excused away by the fact that he's adopted, but it's still pointed out several times that he's been her brother since she was a toddler.

And no one's talking about it. In 65 "critical reviews" no one seems to be concerned. It's a problem, it's creepy, and it's the cherry on top of the cake of this weird, pathetic book.

Omg... I couldnt put this book down! (seeing as it was read in 3 days) I litterally just read the last word & had to give it a 5 star review. I can not stop thinking about the characters & what else is to come!

So good - finally we have the next (and better) Gossip Girl. It's a real page-turner - once you start reading, you can't put it down! Classified as Young Adult Fiction, but I'm pushing 30 and loved it.. so I'd recommend to anyone!

So much fun! I read it so quickly, savoring every word. I found myself really drawn into each character's story, and I was so intrigued by the fascinating, yet seemingly plausible future world in which they lived. Highly recommend, both for teens and adults! Jump on the bandwagon now, because I think this series will become the next big thing.

Great read. Entertaining. Hard to put down. The only reason for the four stars and not five, is that rich whiny kids who have everything but one thing, can get a little annoying after awhile. Otherwise terrific read. Def recommend.

There are quite a bit of characters and POVs in THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR and I don't want to bore you with going over them all, but I will say that we DO find out who falls in the opening chapter before the book is over. I think that is important to say, because there are a lot of pages and story to get through and at some times, you might be impatient to find out. DON'T skip to the end, the characters and story are important.

My biggest issue with THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR was the pace, it was slooooow. The story goes in a lot of different directions and although I LIKED the story, it was sometimes really hard not to skip some parts of it. I refrained from doing that and the story was better for it. Every characters and event ended up being pretty important to the overall story.

The ending was bit anticlimactic and it felt unfinished to me. Even having said that, I really enjoyed the story and the characters—some more than others. I have no choice to read book two because I have to see how things turn out.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Concept: fascinating, Execution: Poor, Characters: unbearably disappointing.

I got this book as a galley last year at a book expo and finally got around to reading it. The concept sounded brilliant. unfortunately, that's where Mcgee's genius ends. Five main characters, only two of which are from lower class families, and even their problems don't revolve around keeping themselves and their families alive. It's a romance book disguised as Sifi, the author attempting to live vicariously through her characters as the richest, most beautiful woman in the world.

Every character is a stereotypical Gen Z teenager: manipulative, petty, self-absorbed, and deceitful-- giving you no one to associate with and giving the intended audience no role models. As many other reviewers commented, there's no hint that this is a series until the last 10 pages of the book, and in truth, there's no reason for it to be one. Every single story could have been resolved in a reasonable if not happy-ever-after way if she had just changed the final dialogue and added about 3 more pages.

But most importantly, and most concerning, the book seems to center around one teen- Avery- who has been given everything she could ever want and is therefore hollow, miserable, and pathetically desperate to find some shred of real human connection. And the only person she feels that connection to? Her adopted brother, Atlas, who has been the unattainable love of her life since she was a child. The concerning part being that this is romanticized. The book is obviously pushing you to sympathize with her, to understand her, and to be happy and sad with her depending on how Atlas seems to be feeling towards her at the moment. It's all, of course, excused away by the fact that he's adopted, but it's still pointed out several times that he's been her brother since she was a toddler.

And no one's talking about it. In 65 "critical reviews" no one seems to be concerned. It's a problem, it's creepy, and it's the cherry on top of the cake of this weird, pathetic book.

Omg... I couldnt put this book down! (seeing as it was read in 3 days) I litterally just read the last word & had to give it a 5 star review. I can not stop thinking about the characters & what else is to come!

So good - finally we have the next (and better) Gossip Girl. It's a real page-turner - once you start reading, you can't put it down! Classified as Young Adult Fiction, but I'm pushing 30 and loved it.. so I'd recommend to anyone!

So much fun! I read it so quickly, savoring every word. I found myself really drawn into each character's story, and I was so intrigued by the fascinating, yet seemingly plausible future world in which they lived. Highly recommend, both for teens and adults! Jump on the bandwagon now, because I think this series will become the next big thing.

Great read. Entertaining. Hard to put down. The only reason for the four stars and not five, is that rich whiny kids who have everything but one thing, can get a little annoying after awhile. Otherwise terrific read. Def recommend.

I had a hard time getting through this one. It was a bit slow and centered too much around the strange love romance thing that felt icky most times. I am not a fan of books that use romance as their main focus and I think this story lost it's impact because of the romance. I fully think if the romance would have been taken out or changed things would have been different. I've felt this was the case with a lot of books lately and this is another one for that shelf. I really think my main problem is that the story just didn't move and it felt more soap operaish that what I thought I was getting. This could definitely be my fault as going in I never thought I would be in store for this type of story. For people who are fans of this type of book will love this. It wasn't bad just okay for me.

A good mystery-thriller read for the YA crowd. Every character has a secret and every secret causes problems. The whole cast fits together, secrets interweave with one another, and everything comes crashing down when some falls..... But who? And how?

The premise of the book drew me to it but the first 150 pages was like a reality show--some of the characters were seemingly spoiled rich kids with alcohol or drug issues. It did not draw me in as much as I hoped it would.

I love, love, love, love, love this book.

It was a little difficult keeping up with 5 different storylines at the same time but I was also shocked at how well they worked together. The character development was very well done, and at a decent pace. Even most of the secondary characters I got to know enough of to where as I can relate to/love/hate them.

And the ending I never saw coming; how all five different plot lines all came together to make an ending that I'm sure would leave readers speechless.

I highly recommend this book to any who love sci-fi, or teen drama, or both.