The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor Series #1)

by Katharine McGee

Overview

New York Times bestseller

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.

Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and Big Little Lies, 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….

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062418593
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Series:	Thousandth Floor Series , #1
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	546,552
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.70(d)
Lexile:	830L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Katharine McGee is from Houston, Texas. She studied English and French literature at Princeton and has an MBA from Stanford. It was during her years living in a second-floor apartment in New York City that she kept daydreaming about skyscrapers . . . and then she started writing. She now lives in Philadelphia. The Thousandth Floor is her first novel and The Dazzling Heights her second.

Editorial Reviews

05/30/2016
In a confident debut, McGee creates a fascinating 22nd-century world set in a single thousand-floor mega-tower that houses all of Manhattan. Centering on the genetically flawless Avery Fuller, 16, who lives on the top floor and has everything a wealthy girl could want or need, McGee shifts smoothly among the intersecting stories of a handful of teens. Avery is always the most beautiful girl in the room, much to the chagrin of her best friend Leda, who is hiding a serious drug addiction. Meanwhile, Eris’s perfect life crumbles when she learns that her father is not her biological father and, therefore, she and her mother are penniless. Rylin, an orphan, takes a job as a maid for spoiled Cord Anderton, only to begin an uncertain courtship. Watt, a computer genius, creates an illegal “quant” named Nadia that helps him navigate the social structure of the tower. Replete with romance, jealousy, and enticing future fashions and tech, McGee’s story delivers more than enough drama and excitement to hook readers and leave them anticipating the next book in the trilogy. Ages 13–up. Agency: Alloy Entertainment. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

McGee has done her work in world building and character development to make a juicy, memorable future that readers will want to revisit.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Twenty-second century Gossip Girl-like fun. Sexy and engrossing!

Melissa de la Cruz

An unparalleled mash-up of romance, mystery, and science fiction unlike anything I’ve read before. Katharine McGee gives the speculative fiction genre a much-needed make-over with a novel that’s as glamorous as it is fiercely intelligent.

Kass Morgan

The luxe lives of Manhattan’s elite are even more extraordinary in Katharine McGee’s futuristic, highly addictive page-turner. The Thousandth Floor will give you vertigo and leave you eager for more.

Cecily von Ziegesar

Compelling and imaginative - I loved everything from the fascinating vision of the future to the scandalous lives of the characters.

Amy Tintera

A clever construction, readers who love uncovering scandalous secrets will find themselves staying up late. This is a towering debut.

Booklist

Twenty-second century Gossip Girl-like fun. Sexy and engrossing!

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Melissa de la Cruz

A gleaming future where a dirty secret still has pull on any human heart.

Anna Godbersen

Katharine McGee’s vision of glamorous twenty-second century teens makes for an addictive and compelling read that left me longing for the second installment!

Alyson Noël

07/01/2016
Gr 10 Up—One hundred years in the future, New York City's skyline has been dramatically altered by the addition of a 1,000-story tower. The wealthy dwell in the upmost levels, while those who support the infrastructure of the tower live below. The book opens with an unidentified young woman plunging to her death from the penthouse. The remainder of the title flashes back two months and follows the points of view of five teens. Perfect Avery Fuller lives in the penthouse. She harbors a secret love for her adopted brother, Atlas. Meanwhile, her best friend, Leda, is tentatively dating Atlas. Cool girl Eris is about to lose everything. Rylin, who works for party boy Cord, tries to juggle her feelings for her boss with her loyalty to her incarcerated boyfriend. All of these plotlines intersect with the expected amount of fashion, scandal, partying, drug use, and hookups. Readers will spend time wondering which teen's dark secret would lead her to jump or be pushed from the tower. This will be gobbled up by fans of "Gossip Girl" and its ilk. High-tech elements are prevalent throughout, but it is the characters who will keep young adults reading. VERDICT An excellent hook and familiar tropes make this title a likely hit with teens.—Kristin Anderson, Columbus Metropolitan Library System, OH

School Library Journal

2016-06-01
Five teens experience emotional ruin resulting from the rigid socio-economic caste system that rules their futuristic vertical city—a 1,000-story residential/retail tower—in the year 2118. The novel's vivid prologue depicts an unnamed girl falling to her death from the tower's roof. The novel then begins two months earlier, exploring how these five teens' decisions led to the tragedy. The suggestion that one of them may even be the victim adds delicious tension, though drawing the uncertainty out for 400-plus pages may be a stretch for some readers. Juggling the large cast of characters and storylines results in early uneven pacing and erratic character development, both of which improve in the novel's latter portion. The characters' web of secrets, misunderstandings, jealousies, and unrequited loves may engage patient readers, especially as the novel suggests that technological advances will not necessarily improve human nature. However, the futuristic setting won't offer enough innovative details to satisfy serious science-fiction fans, instead relying heavily on the predictable narrative of rich girls with emotional problems that money can't solve. And while there is ethnic diversity—including a character of Iranian descent and another of Korean descent—the conflicts focus primarily on the challenges of romance between members of different economic stations. Individual elements are appealing, but sometimes the novel feels like an awfully long setup for a sequel. (Dystopian romance. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

The luxe lives of Manhattan’s elite are even more extraordinary in Katharine McGee’s futuristic, highly addictive page-turner. The Thousandth Floor will give you vertigo and leave you eager for more.” — Cecily von Ziegesar, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gossip Girl

“Katharine McGee’s vision of glamorous twenty-second century teens makes for an addictive and compelling read that left me longing for the second installment!” — Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times Author

“Twenty-second century Gossip Girl-like fun. Sexy and engrossing!” — Melissa de la Cruz, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

“An unparalleled mash-up of romance, mystery, and science fiction unlike anything I’ve read before. Katharine McGee gives the speculative fiction genre a much-needed make-over with a novel that’s as glamorous as it is fiercely intelligent.” — Kass Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of The 100

“A gleaming future where a dirty secret still has pull on any human heart.” — Anna Godbersen, New York Times bestselling author of The Luxe

“Compelling and imaginative - I loved everything from the fascinating vision of the future to the scandalous lives of the characters.” — Amy Tintera, author of Ruined

“A confident debut, replete with romance, jealousy, and enticing future fashions and tech, McGee’s story delivers more than enough drama and excitement to hook readers and leave them anticipating the next book in the trilogy.” — Publishers Weekly

“A clever construction, readers who love uncovering scandalous secrets will find themselves staying up late. This is a towering debut.” — Booklist

“This will be gobbled up by fans of “Gossip Girl”. An excellent hook and familiar tropes make this title a likely hit.” — School Library Journal

“McGee has done her work in world building and character development to make a juicy, memorable future that readers will want to revisit.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher

A clever construction, readers who love uncovering scandalous secrets will find themselves staying up late. This is a towering debut.

Booklist

McGee has done her work in world building and character development to make a juicy, memorable future that readers will want to revisit.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Katharine McGee’s vision of glamorous twenty-second century teens makes for an addictive and compelling read that left me longing for the second installment!

Alyson Noël