The Thousandth Floor
This is one book with a reputation that precedes itself. Already optioned for an ABC television series on word of its tonal resemblance to the Gossip Girl franchise, HarperCollins is working mightily to make this the next big YA series on the block.
The setting initially carries far more weight than the soapy GG world. The book opens with the apparent suicide of a teenage girl and immediately and incongruously shifts back in time to 2118 and to another teenager returning from a party in the same building.
This is Avery Fuller, our main character, genetically engineered to be perfect by her hopelessly average yet filthy rich parents (that she is revealed to be thin and blonde is to side-eye the book and sigh once again at the young adult genreās lack of diversity). She lives on the highest floor in The Tower, a thousand story apartment complex and playground for the rich that has turned much of the five boroughs and lower Manhattan into a ghost town as its elephantine size has literally put most of the surrounding area in shadow. Avery is a country music loving fashionista with a greenhouse and an obsession with hanging out on the roof of the building. And an adopted brother named Atlas with whom, in the grand tradition of gothic-leaning YA novels past, she is secretly in love. Yep, ten pages in and we already have forbidden love and death on our plates.
The drama does not deescalate from there. We are rapidly introduced to other characters, each of whom get PoV chapters. Thereās tough-minded Leda Cole, Averyās BFF, of humble origins sheād prefer to forget, just sprung from a drug rehabilitation program. Leda was hopelessly addicted to the fictional drug xenperheidren, a sort of cross between Ritalin and Prozac due to HER one-night stand with Atlas and the fact that Atlas has blatantly ignored her ever since, causing her to obsess over him. Next thereās Rylin Myers, raising her little sister Chrissa on level 43 and living hand to mouth, drug to drug and party to party. She trades a job at a coffee concession stand for work as Cord Andertonās maid ā she soon has to decide between her rebellious lower-class drug-dealing boyfriend Hiral and grieving, jockish Cord ā and between dealing drugs on her own to ensure Hiralās safety or letting him swing for it. Then thereās Eris Dodd-Radson, a flirty, happy party girl whose family disintegrates in a single evening when she learns she isnāt biologically related to the man who raised her. She moves downtower with her mother and they are forced to learn how to live without luxury, leaving her torn between two cultural worlds, two identities ā and dealing with the fact that sheās started to fall for her neighbor, a waitress named Mariel Valconsuelos. And lastly, thereās Watt Bakradi, a downtower hacker and techno wiz with a super AI named Nadia uploaded directly into his brain (he uses her as a personal guide and an assist on the hacking and tracking cases he takes up), who is hired by Leda to blend into life on the upper floor of The Tower to gather info on Atlas and in the process falls in love with Avery. Each of these characters share the storyās narrative as events escalate throughout the course of the year – ending with that dramatic death.
The early buzz comparing this to the Gossip Girl series is, in a word, inaccurate. While The Thousandth Floor strives to give juicy angst and semi-risquĆ© melodrama, itās actually a car crash between the glossy pulp of the GG series, a cyberpunk aesthetic and entertaining world building. Thereās no mistaking this for something thoughtful; itās a popcorn read from start to finish, the kind of thing you sneak under the covers at midnight to sip incognito and highlight the āgood partsā to pass along to your best friend. If your teenager is old enough to consume Cassie Clare, then they should be able to handle this book; I expect it to be on the proscribed list for many a high school this fall anyway for its sexual situations, language and portrayal of casual drug and alcohol use.
Yep, this is a Twinkie of a book, sweet junk food, and when it tries to have a major point (as when it explores the ugly divide between social classes) it unintentionally exposes an ugly underbelly of racism on the part of the author. Why is every single poor character coded as a PoC except for Eris? Why is the epitome of genetic perfection and the narrative axis of the book a blonde, white teenager? The book simultaneously looks down on and rallies behind poor, unattractive people, with no central unifying position. The author doesnāt bother to confront the uncomfortable underlying business in their own story, resulting in a book laden with messages I wouldnāt want a teenager taking seriously. The key, therefore, is to have as much fun with the tale as possible. Thankfully thereās enough soapy, melodramatic, glossy meat to entertain anyone who might pick it up.
The characters are a mixed bag quality-wise. The best of the bunch is Watt, who Iād love to uproot and move to a much more complex novel; aside from his obsession with Avery heās interesting and compelling. Rylin, too, is complex and fun to read about, and itās possible to bond with both Eris and Leda. The very worst part of the novel is, frankly, Atlasā existence. He is a bland waste of space of a jock, thereās nothing particularly impressive or interesting about him; he runs around playing video games, participating in athletics, partying, and spouting off about traveling the world to ālearn as much as he canā like Johnny 5 with abs. In a last-act switch, he becomes so goopily obsessed with Avery that it intentionally adds another layer of creepiness to their already squicky relationship (there are several gross instances where Averyās sexual hunger for him is framed in context of their lives as siblings). I canāt figure out why someone as lively as Leda would obsess over him.
I must also duly inform you that Avery is a bit of a dud; her thought process revolves nonstop around Atlas. Weāre told she likes art, plants and country music, but these are informed attributes used to make her āquirkyā and she never comes together to form a fully thought-out being.
The prose and writing are generally smooth. The teenager lines of thought are also appropriately facepalm-worthy (Prime example: Eris is the kind of person who has super deep thoughts like āMaybe it was because she was named after a Greek goddess, but sheād attributed an omen like significance to even the smallest of things.ā Maybe the author shouldāve named her Cassandraā¦) At least one of the major twists remains obscured successfully throughout the course of the whole novel, which is something of a feat.
The world building is fun to great, and one of the reasons Iām recommending the story. It manages to modernize the world around Avery in a way that works for the novel; there are holograms, messenger bots and jump skiing via drone parachuting and vegetable hybrids and meat grown in test tubes. My favorite technological advancement is the hilariously over complicated Spin the Bottle replacement āspinsā, which will include holographs and privacy cones in 100 years. Also people will want to swallow nanotechnology in the form of screaming gummy worms.
The Thousandth Floor might be junk food, but itās fun junk food; operatically soapy, with world building thatās a lot of fun. Just donāt take it seriously. And watch out for those haluci-pensā¦
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
Book Details
Reviewer: | Lisa Fernandes |
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Review Date: | August 30, 2016 |
Publication Date: | 08/2016 |
Grade: | B- |
Sensuality | Kisses |
Book Type: | Fantasy |
Review Tags: | Young Adult |
This book is by far my most Favorited book in my library…