The Thousandth Floor By Katharine McGee

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!