On Aug. 29, 2017, Katharine McGee released the second book in a planned trilogy. McGee managed to do an excellent job of capturing the attention of her teenage audience, just as she did with the first novel in the series, “The Thousandth Floor.”  

In the year 2118, the world has become incredibly technologically advanced, with a thousand story tower being in the epicenter of it all. Five teenagers from incredibly different parts of The Tower came together in the first book of this series. After the death of one of these characters, every event afterward tunnels off of it creating a whole chain of events that spiral out of control in “The Dazzling Heights.” Each person has something to hide about that awful night and some of them will do anything to keep it a secret.   

This novel, like its predecessor, is set in The Tower, a futuristic thousand-story building that houses the five main characters: Rylin, Watt, Avery, Leda and Calliope. As before, The Tower is a central piece in the story that is also used to show the luxury and futuristic setting that the characters live in.

McGee expands on this futuristic universe by describing a few new places and how extremely advanced their technology is, showing that The Tower is not the only high-tech place in this universe.

Similar to the last novel, the prologue of the story again describes the death of a character whose name is not given. McGee picks up right where she left off with the sequel’s predecessor. The cliffhanger that the last book ended with is mentioned immediately and will keep your impatient side at bay. This cliffhanger also raises the stakes for the five main characters. New secrets arise.

Many of those secrets seem to surround a new character, Calliope, which also brings a different feel to the book by adding a new voice to the story. Readers do not know much about her to begin with, but McGee slowly reveals more and more as the story continues.

In addition to the new character, romance picks up in this sequel. Romance in a futuristic setting may seem like a huge opening for cliches, but McGee does a terrific job of combating this by adding twists every step of the way. The relationships she writes are not typical in any way and will keep you on the edge of your seat.  

In “The Dazzling Heights,” the author does a much better job of distinguishing between the voices of her main characters, creating more depth to the characters beyond the main storyline. It is clear that her writing has improved with experience while also keeping the best parts of her writing. The suspense and thrill is still there, as well as breathtaking twists and turns in and out of the romance. This sequel by Katherine McGee is definitely a must read.