The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGeeSeries: The Thousandth Floor #1
Published by: HarperTeen on August 30, 2016
Genre: Drama
Pages: 448
Book Details
Rating: ★★★★★
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. But people never change: everyone here 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 her 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 by 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.
My excitement for The Thousandth Floor went like this:
- Receive the book at BEA16 and go, “Holy shit this sounds AMAZING!”
- After a few months, see that it largely gets 3 stars from my Goodreads friends, and go, “Well fuck. Maybe I won’t read it.”
- Take the book with me to Greece on a whim, read it, and LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!
Sometimes not listening to reviews pays off!
1) I LOVED the idea
A thousand-story tower? A “glittering vision of the future”?
So. Cool.
I don’t even know what else to say here except that I LOVED imagining this world. It’s funny because I would never ever ever want to live in such a place (I’m not a fan of New York City in general) but it was so much fun to imagine. Such a cool concept!
2) Every character was FANTASTIC
There are multiple points of view, which for a second really overwhelmed me. Whenever there are more than two points of view, I have a moment of panic.
- Will I be able to tell them apart?
- Will I be able to keep all these people straight?
- Will I forget who’s who?
But with The Thousandth Floor, this was a total non-issue. I had no problem keeping everyone straight. And every character was so interesting an unique. I loved them all! (Or in some cases, I loved hating them.)
Plus, there’s a tech guy. YES! <3
3) The stakes are high
Everyone has a different motivation or a different problem or a different secret. It seemed like everyone had something to lose, but it was always different.
- Family
- Money
- Freedom
Everyone had a reason for what they did, and goddamn it was interesting.
But hmmm.. it’s a series?
I’m iffy on the fact that this ended up being a series.
On the one hand, I LOVED this book and I will absolutely read the second one.
But on the other hand, The Thousandth Floor seems like EXACTLY the kind of book that would be perfect as a standalone. It certainly could have been. I guess my first reaction to finding out it was a series was disappointment. But I’ll do my best to reserve judgement until I read the second book, because I absolutely will read it!
Have you read The Thousandth Floor? What did you think?
The Verdict
I also was intrigued and then lost some interest when I saw a lot of “meh” reviews. I think, though, I’ll still give it a chance at some point. I never expected it to be the next Great American Novel or something. It just looks creative and entertaining.
I think most of the people who are disappointed expected it to be like Gossip Girl (due to the marketing), and then were let down. I’ve never seen/read Gossip Girl so I didn’t have that expectation to begin with. I had sort of a vague idea of what it might be like, and it fulfilled that, but I guess it let down the people who know Gossip Girl more intimately.
Yes! I always get worried when a book is as super-hyped as this one was. But like you, I just loved the concept and ended up loving the book, too. It’s not a “good” book, in that it will win awards and be held up as a big literary achievement, but DAMN if it wasn’t entertaining — and that, more than anything, is what I look for in what *I* consider to be a good book. I’m right there with you – LOVED it! Great review, boiling it down to these top 3 highlights.
It was SUPER entertaining! And I totally agree with you—that’s what I look for in a book. I don’t really care about “awards” or certain writing styles or subject matters that make something a “classic” or “award worthy”. I just want to be entertained and love every second of reading it… and for me, The Thousandth Floor checked those boxes!
I’m so glad you loved it too. 🙂 🙂
This one has been on my radar also and I had the same thoughts as you about the 3* reviews… Ok, you’ve convinced me to give it a shot!
I hope you like it! 🙂
Oh man, I want this book for the cover alone! I do the same thing with Goodreads. Right now I have Stealing Snow sitting on my desk waiting for me, but a lot of my fellow book bloggers have found it really disappointing and I’ve been reluctant to pick it up. This is a nice reminder hat i need to make up my own damn mind, even if I end up not loving it as much as I hope!
I hope you enjoy it Margot. 🙂 And YES! I have Stealing Snow still sitting on my shelf for the exact same reason. Perhaps I’ll give it a try too.