Review: The Towering Sky by Katharine McGee

The Thousandth Floor #3

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. 

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Welcome back indeed to Manhattan 2119. The final book in The Thousandth Floor trilogy coming to a spectacular finish. Once again we are thrown into the world of The Tower, a 1000 floor monstrosity taking up most of Manhattan. We have the Fullers up alone on the thousandth floor, and everyone else beneath them. After everything that has transpired in the first and second books, the third book comes presenting one last set of problems for our protagonists to face together.

The Towering Sky takes place a short time skip after the final events of the second book. The same protagonists from the second book living with the aftermath of what happens in book 2. Once again we are taken through multiple POVs of these teenagers, whose lives have become inexplicably complex and intertwined through a series of unlikely circumstances.

The author really does a good job with the emotional aspect, I must say. The climax of the book was great and I truly felt my heart breaking a few times for the rollercoaster ride of emotions that I was taken through. In that way, the plot was fairly excellent and had a good balance and flow of tension that really helped me read quickly through the book and really give it a forward drive.

The relationships. Ah yes, teenagers at their finest. It may not have been the deepest of relationships, and I may be too old now to truly believe in “I love you” from teenagers, but it’s still nice to see as far as that can be believed. The relationships were all of course fairly predictable and a bit sappy to say the least. That being said, if you’re into that kind of YA romance, I thought it was pretty good – nothing amazing, but certainly not bad.

Overall I’d say that it was a good ending to the series. It had the right level of satisfaction and resolution paired with the sense that the story will go on even if it’s no longer talked about. Also I just can’t get over the whole Tower idea. It would seriously be such a strange world to live in – one that I keep thinking about. That’s always one of the things in sci-fi novels – what if it were real? Anyway, if you liked the first two books, I definitely recommend finishing it up with this one!

Overall Recommendations

The Towering Sky is the final book in the The Thousandth Floor trilogy. Taking place in 2119 Manhattan in a giant 1000-story tower, it is a physical manifestation of the different socioeconomic classes realized in a modern sci-fi twist. Filled with technologies we all wish were possible, those who live at the top have vastly more than those who live at the bottom. What will happen as the lives of five teenagers continue to be intertwined? Will they all get their happy ending? Find out in this final book of the trilogy; if you enjoyed the other two, I highly recommend finishing it off with this one!