Review: The Towering Sky

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

Author: Katherine McGee

Publication date: August 2018

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance, Mystery

Pages: 540

Punctuation:2/5

PREMISE:

“Welcome back to New York, 2119. A skyscraper city, fueled by impossible dreams, where the lives of five teenagers have become intertwined in ways that no one could have imagined. Leda just wants to move on from what happened in Dubai. Until a new investigation forces her to seek help—from the person she’s spent all year trying to forget. Rylin is back in her old life, reunited with an old flame. But when she starts seeing Cord again, she finds herself torn: between two worlds, and two very different boys. Calliope feels trapped, playing a long con that costs more than she bargained for. What happens when all her lies catch up with her? Watt is still desperately in love with Leda. He’ll do anything to win her back—even dig up secrets that are better left buried. And now that Avery is home from England—with a new boyfriend, Max—her life seems more picture-perfect than ever. So why does she feel like she would rather be anything but perfect? In this breathtaking finale to The Thousandth Floor trilogy, Katharine McGee returns to her vision of 22nd-century New York: a world of startling glamour, dazzling technology, and unthinkable secrets. After all, when you have everything… you have everything to lose.”

REVIEW:

This book is a great way to spoil the series. For what it actually was in terms of plot, character development and real substance it was too long. I feel like it would have been great as a 300-page book, but I guess the author wanted to maintain the length of the previous two books. Big mistake. This book was supposed to be a DNF for me but because of the lockdown I couldn’t go to the store and buy books, so I reopened this one. I was a bit over the 50% mark when I decided to quit it but when I picked it up again, I decided not to reread it. I felt like not much had passed, and I could follow the story even if I had forgotten anything. I forgot a bit about Leda’s and Watt’s stories, but I was right, I had no issue following the story.

All the book does is showing the consequences of the two previous books, there’s no new plot which seems like it wouldn’t be a problem, but it makes it repetitive and I don’t need +500 of tying up loose ends.

Also, all the couples act the same and as a reader, I’m supposed to believe it feels different. How are Watt and Avery any different than Atlas and Avery? Because of the backstory, sure but that isn’t shown on their dynamic and how fast the relationship evolves. Calliope and Bryce are just like Rylin and Cord, and Watt and Leda and Avery and Max. The dynamics are the same even though the relationships have completely different backgrounds and are supposed to feel different, some of those are exes back together some are basically strangers, yet they blend all together.

My advice to anyone who has read the previous two and really wants to finish reading the series; form the 20% mark to the 70% you can skim it and you will not be lost. Besides, the climax has little to do with what happened in this book. The part of the middle did not have any substantial development and it felt like fluff. About the climax, or better yet climaxes. Because the book follows various POVs each character had a climax of its own and they weren’t aligned, nor they were matching in level. I don’t think all the characters need to be at the same level because they are supposed to have lived different things through the story but the gap between Rylin’s climax and Avery’s was abysmal, even Leda’s and Watt’s contrast was too big.

I really enjoyed the ending but the fact that it came after 200 pages of nothing made me disengage with it. “This huge thing is about to happen… well, it was about time”, if it’s not clear those were my thoughts when the biggest thing was happening.

I would only recommend this book if you really want to finish the series and if you are a fast reader naturally. To me, a couple of days reading fluff is too annoying but if you can turn those days into hours you might enjoy it because the ending is satisfying.