Book Review: The Dazzling Heights

Title: The Dazzling Heights
Author: Katharine McGee
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: The Thousandth Floor (Book 2)
Reason: On TBR

So, in my Instagram post I compared this book to Thor: The Dark World. I feel like I should explain that a little. Basically a ton of people hated the 2nd Thor movie because its plot resembled the first one quite closely. Personally, I didn't mind. The same goes for this book. The structure is the same as the first one (introduce dead person in the first chapter, now try and figure it out throughout the rest of the book), and normally that would bother the heck out of me. We all know my patience is about the size of a shot glass, maybe even smaller. But I was too wrapped up in all of the drama and the twists and the turns to give it a second thought. Like I thought about it at the very beginning, and then forgot about it until the very end. Basically what I'm saying is that while normally that type of structure would bother me, it didn't in this book because the story was so good.

So this basically takes up the story where the first book left off, and one of the things that made me really happy was the fact that what the characters had experienced wasn't trivialized. A lot of times in books the characters will wake up the day after the big crashing event only to realize that life is perfect and the sun is shining with happy flowers and all that jazz. Not here. The characters are (rightfully) struggling to come to terms with what happened on the roof, and how it will affect the rest of their lives (along with all of the dirt Leda has on them). There are still all of these misconceptions that the main characters have about that night on the roof, and the events leading up to it. Man and the dramatic irony... sometimes I just wanted to scream at the characters that they were wrong but I couldn't because... you know... it wouldn't do anything.

Calliope became my official new favorite character in this series. I can't really talk about why without spoiling it (dang it) but let's just say her character development was wonderful, and I really liked it at the end when [can't say what happens because it's a spoiler!]. It took me a second to remember who the old characters were from the first book, but they were so distinctive that eventually my brain decided to actually, you know, be useful, and it was a lot easier to follow the story after that. I loved learning how the characters were living their lives after everything that had happened, and watching them figure out new power dynamics and all of that.

This book had a great plot, great characters, and a great story. My only minor complaint is that I predicted basically all of the twists ahead of time, but it was so twisty that I began doubting myself anyway so I'm not sure that I can really complain. And the DRAMA. So. Much. DRAMA.

I would like the next one now. Please.

See this review on Goodreads.