Character Analysis: The Thousandth Floor

Many tried to survive, all have lied, but one died. What would you do to save your status and image? Would you die for it? In Katherine McGee’s novel, The Thousandth Floor we explore the lives of five characters that live in a tower in Manhattan, the year being 2118. Three of the characters, Leda Cole, Eris Dodd-Ranson, and Avery Fuller all live on the upper floors of the tower, while the other two main characters, Watt Bakradi and Rylin Myers live on the lower floors. All five of these teenagers struggle keeping up an image to survive. Leda just returns from rehab for her drug abuse problem without telling her best friend Avery. Eris learns her father isn’t really her father, causing her to move down almost eight hundred floors. Avery has everything she could possibly want except the one thing she can’t have, lying to everyone, including herself. Watt is a hacker, looking into the life of his newest client’s interest, Avery’s adopted brother for her best friend. Finally, Rylin works as a maid on the upper

After one died, no one could tell the truth because they were too worried about themselves. “None of you are going to the police until we have our stories straight. Eris got drunk; she slipped and fell. If anyone says otherwise, then I can’t promise to protect your secrets.” By the end of the novel, Leda pushes Eris from the roof of the tower, with everyone else to witness it, but no one will speak against her because she knows too much about all of them. “Avery knew about nothing, because it was exactly what she had done for Eris. She hadn’t told anyone the truth about her friend’s death...The truth wouldn’t change things, she tried to rationalize to herself. It wouldn’t bring Eris back to life. But Avery knew those thoughts were cowardly and self-interested, and she despised herself for harboring them.” All of the characters were too concerned with the consequences to face the