The Thousandth Floor Series by Katharine McGee

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If you like Gossip Girl and futuristic societies, boy do I have the series for you! I recently read both books currently available in The Thousandth Floor series by Katharine McGee (The Thousandth Floor and The Dazzling Heights), and loved every minute of them! The story follows a set of teenagers from different backgrounds living in The Tower, which is basically New York City built upward into one building. With one thousand floors, The Tower boasts schools, homes, hotels, restaurants, shopping, and even a "Central Park." Technology is insanely developed, as people now wear contacts that allow them to communicate with one another, and use hovercraft to get from place to place. Movies are now called holos, hair and makeup can be done at the push of a button, and in-home computers can do anything from picking out your outfit to procuring a glass of water for you before bed. 

Main characters include Leda, a formerly poor but now wealthy girl struggling with drugs; Eris, the Serena Van Der Woodson of the group who recently discovered a terrible family secret that turns her life upside down; Rylin, a less-affluent girl who takes a job cleaning the home of one of the hottest boys on the upper levels; Watt, a technology obsessed boy who takes hacking jobs to provide for his family; and Avery, who is as wealthy as they come and lives in the thousandth floor penthouse pining over the one boy she is never allowed to love.

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I loved that both books immediately started off with a death, then flashed back to the story leading up to it. The whole time you were left to wonder who the person was that ends up dead, only finding out at the very end. Each chapter is told focusing on one character or another, allowing the reader further insight into him or her, and showing us how the different social classes interact with and rely on one another. While sometimes this method of storytelling can be confusing, there were no gaps and each character's chapter flowed seamlessly from one to the next. The class relations were realistic, and I loved envisioning the technological playground that these teens called home. McGee paints a very realistic picture of how technology has advanced, and even though so many of these things are still far from reach, it was easy to imagine how they all fit into daily life in 2118.

A third book, The Towering Sky, is coming out this August, and right now this is set to be the last book in the series, but I have my fingers crossed for more! I could definitely see this being adapted into a TV series as well.

The Thousandth Floor Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

The Dazzling Heights Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi

Pick a dandelion and close your eyes

make a wish

blow it into the wind.

Watch it

change

the

world.

-From  Juliette's Journal

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Let me start out this review by saying I hate myself for waiting so long to read this series. I've seen it so many times and heard numerous people rave about it, but I just never made an effort to read it. Well I finally ordered it from Amazon and gave it a try, and I DEVOURED these books. I honestly think I read the whole series in a total of less than 24 hours. It was just that fantastic. While many of my reviews don't contain spoilers, this one will have some pseudo-spoilers because it's simply impossible to talk about characters, etc. from the second two books without revealing some of the earlier plot.

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The Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi (so far) consists of Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me, and Unite Me (a collection of two novellas: Destroy me and Fracture Me). This dystopian series follows Juliette, a teenage girl who has a lethal touch. It starts off with Juliette in an asylum, but she is soon taken hostage by the controlling government: The Reestablishment. Her captor Warner hopes to use her as a weapon against resisting rebels, but Juliette wants no part in being anything intentionally hurtful. Luckily Juliette escapes with Adam, a soldier who she knew from school long ago. They find refuge in an underground bunker and discover that there are others with abilities similar to Juliette's: invisibility, powers of healing, psychokinesis, and more. Adam and Juliette fall in love throughout this ordeal, and hope to finally have put the Reestablishment behind them. Unfortunately Warner still wants Juliette, and he sets out to find her. The remainder of the story details what happens when Warner finds her, resulting in rebellion, love, and self-discovery.

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I have so many things to say about this series! First, it got better as it went on. The first book was good, the second was great, and the third one was incredible. Many series just taper off as they go but this one was a surprising exception. I absolutely loved the character development (and the novellas are almost necessary to get some of that...so don't skip them!). Obviously my favorite character was Warner. He was such a deep character and had so much hiding behind his rough exterior. Juliette really annoyed me for the first half of the story, but she grew up and put her big girl panties on and then I really liked her strength and determination. And Adam, well Adam was kind of an ass. He gave me bad vibes from the beginning and I loved saying I told you so when his true colors came out later in the story. Kenji provided outstanding comic relief and was a great sidekick for Juliette, as you could tell he really cared about and supported her but wasn't afraid to be hard on her when he needed to be.

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There was some problematic instalove at the beginning of this story but it was very well explained as the books went on. I'm really glad that the characters were able to recognize that the relationship was unhealthy and more for convenience/out of default than anything else. The writing style was so unique. There was a lot of stream of consciousness from Juliette, and there are lots of thoughts crossed through to show how Juliette was afraid of thinking certain things. While this proved to be a bit of a challenge at first, I easily adjusted to how the story was written and it wasn't a hindrance at all.

The ending of Ignite Me definitely left it open for a sequel, so I'm really happy that Tahereh Mafi decided to write more onto this story. Restore Me comes out March 6th of this year, and you better believe I already preordered it!

Shatter Me Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Unravel Me Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Ignite Me Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Unite Me Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Overall Series Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars