The Thousandth Floor

May 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.

July 1, 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

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2016
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)

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July 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 In 2118 Manhattan, high society is literally sky-highon the thousandth floor of the Tower, where the Fuller family has its penthouse. Avery Fuller, a genetically engineered queen bee high-school student, lives there with her parents and adopted brother, Atlas. Her circle of high-dwelling friends includes Leda (who's fighting drug addiction) and Eris (who's just learned she's the product of her mother's affair). Much lower down in the Tower live tech genius Watt (hired by Eris to spy on her crush, Atlas) and orphaned Rylin, a housekeeper swept into a romance with high-dwelling playboy Cord. In the prologue, an unspecified girl from this cast falls from the thousandth floor, triggering the interlocking backstories that follow. It's a clever construction, and although it feels very much like watching an episode of Gossip Girl set 100 years in the future, readers who love uncovering scandalous secrets will find themselves staying up late to see who fell and why. McGee captures the backstabbing tendencies of teens, but takes care to flesh out characters so that no one is truly villainous.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: You might say this is a towering debut, with a six-figure marketing campaign including an author tour and original video content.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)