Though it won't stand alone easily, McGee's sequel to The Thousandth Floor (2016) adds new intrigue, mystery, and characters to a well-imagined and even plausible future Manhattan, 2118. Eris is gone, victim of an unintentional push from the thousandth floor, and her friends are struggling to either find out or hide the circumstances of her death. Lower-floor Rylin receives a scholarship to the elite Berkeley School, where she must face her former lover, as well as deal with class prejudice. Avery struggles with her forbidden romance with adopted brother Atlas; and there's a new girl in town, the fascinating con artist Calliope, who longs for stability and real friends. Precise details of future technology (implanted computers, contact lenses allowing the wearer to gather all sorts of information, holograms, and much more), exotic locales such as Dubai, glamorous parties, and the consistently entertaining cattiness among the characters combine for a swift, entertaining read. With plentiful chapter hooks and lots of action, this is a great choice for a beach read.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2017 Booklist

Readers return to the luxurious skyscraper in 2118 Manhattan. Leda (The Thousandth Floor) threatens and blackmails her friends into covering up Eris's murder, but not everyone believes her. A new face and new romantic entanglements threaten everyone's secrets. Despite inconsistent characters that vacillate between emotions convenient to the plot, drama fans will eat up the juicy intrigue, sexy romance--and a new murder. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Guilty parties continue to party in this soap-opera sequel.Surrounded by extravagance and futuristic technology, the elite teens of the top floors of the 1,000-story Tower in New York City still manage to be miserable. Vicious and ambitious Leda Cole struggles to conceal her murder of Eris Dodd-Radson by blackmailing her witnesses over their darkest secrets. There's Avery Fuller and her semi-incestuous relationship with her adopted brother, Atlas; hacker Watzahn "Watt" Bakradi and his illegal quantum computer; and scholarship-student Rylin Myers and her criminal ex-boyfriend. Newcomer con artist Calliope Brown and her mother also seek to exploit the richer residents. The economically stratified Tower also seems racially segregated; black Leda fights to overcome her middle-class origins, and lower-floor (and therefore lower-class) Iranian-American Watt and "half-Asian" Rylin falter as foils for the mostly white 1 percent. While the multiplicity of narrators causes tiresome plot repetition, it mimics the self-absorbed world of the Tower's top tier. McGee offers intriguing sci-fi elementscommunication-enabling contact lenses, hovercraft, holographybut sacrifices social commentary or dystopian revolution for traditional teenage melodrama. In over 400 pages of dizzying excess and desperate partying, no one cuts through the "Gordian knot of these highliers' screwed-up lives." Readers wanting more substance should seek out J.G. Ballard's High-Rise. Only for avid CW viewers and tabloid-news fans, a shallow yet overlong tale of rich people and their problems. (Dystopian romance. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.