Book Review: The Thousandth Floor

Author: Kathatine McGee

Genre: YA Sci-fi

Release Date: 06.30.16

My Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis:

“NEW YORK CITY AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE.

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

WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you’re this high up, there’s nowhere to go but down….”

For the first time ever in my history of writing a book review I am at a loss for words. And, it isn’t because this book is particularly amazing or bad…it’s just that this book was underwhelming in more ways than one. I’ve been looking forward to starting this series for a while now and I wasn’t blown away like I was expecting to be. It was interesting and fast enough to keep me hooked but it fell short overall.

My biggest issue with this story falls on the characters; they are nearly impossible to relate to. All of them have extremely unrelatable problems and personalities that made it difficult for me to even care about them. For example, I cry A LOT while reading. I’m just an emotional person and that’s how I am. However, do you want to know how many tears I shed over this story? You got it, none. I didn’t connect to any of the characters and I just didn’t care about them.

On the flip side of things I was impressed with the world building in this book! McGee’s style of giving enough to paint a picture to begin the story with and then dropping in more as necessary made it easy to fall into the futuristic aspects. I loved the idea of the tower and all the unique types of technology that were included, I would even dare to say that all the futuristic features of The Thousandth Floor were my favorite things in the entire story.

Then finally, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the drama… because of course I did. This book is pitched for lovers of Gossip Girl and I’m guilty as charged. The web of lies and secrets were interesting, but I think I would have gotten to enjoy what went down even more if I had ever gotten to connect with any of the characters.

So I guess, overall, this really wasn’t a terrible book…but I won’t be calling it a favorite anytime soon. I’m hoping that if I move on with the series I’ll get a better chance to know the characters, because really, if I had managed to connect to them AT ALL ( like remotely, even the tiniest bit) I would have probably enjoyed this book way more than I did.