Audio Friday

The Thousandth Floor by Katherine McGee

Read by Phoebe Strole

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.
Debut author Katharine McGee has created a breathtakingly original series filled with high-tech luxury and futuristic glamour, where the impossible feels just within reach. But in this world, the higher you go, the farther there is to fall….

Confession:

This is an amazing and interesting story.  It is quite the mix of genres.  It is mostly a typical high school YA novel, with teens doing what they do best.  Dating, drinking, partying, back stabbing, jealousy and lots of angst.  But it is also a science fiction and a mystery.  I loved the science fiction aspect of it, although I don’t think a building with a thousand floors could ever exist, it just isn’t physically possible. But the author manages to make it sound amazing!  Also the society within the building was interesting, although predictable.   Of course the lower class and poorer people would live on the bottom and the rich at the top.  Some of the tech mentioned and used by the everyone was amazing too.  The mystery was interesting as well, the book starts with end, sort of.  You know from the start that someone will fall from the tower, you just don’t know who.  It was fun to try and figure out who it was.  I was down to two people and one of them fell, so I thought I did pretty well.

All of the characters were well done.  They all had their secrets and dreams, some good and some bad.  I really liked Watt and Eris.  Watt was the lone male point of view, but he was very interesting.  Not your typical nerd, but he has a secret weapon to help him negotiate society.  Eris, was the one girl I really liked and could relate to.  I felt so sorry for her and was really rooting for her life to get better.  I really came to hate Leda by the end, she was just a nightmare with all of her backstabbing and scheming.  I was sympathetic towards her at first, but by the end I was really hoping she was the one going to fall.  I also really liked Rylin, she was an underdog who really wanted something better for herself.  Avery ran hot and cold with me.  Sometimes I really liked her, but there were times that I just didn’t get her.  I’m hoping we get to hear from some of the characters that we didn’t get to hear from this time, especially some of the guys, in the next book.

The reader, Phoebe Strole, did a good job, I liked her voice and she tried to make each character sound a little different.  Although I usually prefer one or two readers over many, I think this audio book would have been better with a different voice for each character.  Each chapter was told from one person’s point of view and it was hard to keep the girls straight when they all had the same voice speaking for them.  Also I would have loved a male voice for Watt.  But still a good listen and I would recommend the audio.