The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

“Do you love her?” Cord asked.
“I don’t know.”
“If you aren’t sure, then you definitely aren’t in love.”

Well, this definitely took me by surprise. I kept seeing this book pop up everywhere, and usually when a book is over hyped like that, it ends up being really bad. But I’ll swallow my words because this was good and well-deserving of the hype. Everyone calling this a futuristic Gossip Girl type drama is completely right.

At first, I was quite sceptical of the fact that this novel is told through the perspectives of not one, not two, but five people: Avery, Eris, Leda, Rylin, Watt. When I first began reading, I was like, nope, no way is the author going to pull off this many narratives. This is way too confusing, and all their names are amazing and sound similar! (Avery and Atlas, am I right?!) And yes, for the first set of chapters, I did have to get my head around everyone’s character but after that, it was totally smooth sailing. McGee completely manages to give each character their own uniqueness and voice. It never comes across as too “samey”, and is very well-executed, especially seeing as the plot contains some intricacies.

The world building in this is also a pleasant surprise. It’s set in 2118, so naturally the technology is out of this world. McGee introduces some pretty cool and unique (at least to me) concepts. Things like nanodollars, being “surged” to physically augment things like your eye colours or giving yourself freckles, and even uploading crazy dreams into the Dreamweaver. Let’s not forget to mention Nadia, but I won’t spoil that for you just yet. Oh, and the food! Gummy bears that scream when you rip their heads off, pumpkin seed milk bars, hundred-layer lasagne, appleberries, and pizza cones. Ugh! Somebody bring me a picnic basket back from the tower please. I also love how McGee acknowledges and plays with the idea that technology is and may continue to go too far in the future when Avery says:

“I do love the romance that everything had, back when there were more obstacles in the world. Like, listen to this song.” She sighed. “It’s about being in love even when you never get to the see the person, because you’re a thousand miles apart. No one would write anything like this now, because our lives are so automated and easy.”

That brings me to the last thing I loved about this debut: the romance, the drama, and the suspense. I loved all of the romances in this (especially the inclusion of same sex relationships). They all felt natural and yet intense at the same time. Rylin’s was by far my favourite, with Avery a close second.

“That’s why I went away – to escape the way I felt about you. I kept hoping that if I just ran far enough, eventually I’d figure out a way to stop loving you.”
“I’m glad it didn’t work.”
“Of course it didn’t work.” Atlas smiled. “There’s no way it ever could.”

Yes, they were dramatic at times but that’s what this book is all about: the drama! And hey, I don’t mind a bit of self-indulgent drama every now and then. The suspense is also top notch and I did not see the ending coming.At. All. When I reached the last chapter my jaw literally dropped open and this does not happen to me very often! I do love a good twist. So overall, this was a really solid debut, full of some excellent world building, a very unique setting, tonnes of drama, and great romances. After the cliff hanger ending, I cannot wait for the next one!

*Thanks to Edelweiss for the advance copy*
*Note: Quotes were taken from an advance copy and are subject to change in the final edition*