Floored Book Review

Floored by Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood.

From Goodreads: When they got in the lift, they were strangers (though didn’t that guy used to be on TV?): Sasha, who is desperately trying to deliver a parcel; Hugo, who knows he’s the best-looking guy in the lift and is eyeing up Velvet, who knows what that look means when you hear her name and it doesn’t match the way she looks, or the way she talks; Dawson, who was on TV, but isn’t as good-looking as he was a few years ago and is desperately hoping no one recognizes him; Kaitlyn, who’s losing her sight but won’t admit it, and who used to have a poster of Dawson on her bedroom wall, and Joe, who shouldn’t be here at all, but who wants to be here the most.

And one more person, who will bring them together again on the same day every year.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for letting me read an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was difficult not to get excited for this book, considering the amount of awesome YA authors who wrote it. I heard all about it in the build up to YALC and it seemed like everyone I know who reads YA or blogs about it had a copy of the novel to read. When I read the synopsis, I wasn’t sure if it was the kind of thing I’d usually pick up, but I have read a few books by Melinda Salisbury and Holly Bourne and they have an awesome track record for me. So I requested it and when I was accepted I was super-hyped.

I was a little concerned that the amount of authors writing this book could make it seem a bit like a puzzle put together; you can see the seams where the pieces slot together. Co-author books do this a lot just because people don’t have identical writing styles and sometimes they’re not actually suited to appearing side by side on paper. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case with Floored. I confess I haven’t read anything by any of the authors besides the two  I just mentioned, so maybe it’s because of my lack of familiarity with their writing styles, but I couldn’t really pinpoint which author wrote what. It flowed nicely and whether they all wrote a different character or they all took turns writing chapters… I can’t actually tell. Which sounds like it should be a little thing, but like I said so many co-author books fall into this pitfall so it’s actually really huge.

Floored is a very character-driven book.  If you’re the kind of person who likes a lot of plot, this might not be something I recommend for you. The characters meet, go on their separate ways again and then meet again over the span of several years. There’s little bumps in the narrative road, little dramatic scenes to spike interest, but there’s not really an overarching plot to the whole thing except the whole being together in the lift stuff at the start of the book. Once I realized this, I wondered if it would be a hard book to get through, but it was actually an easy read. I liked all of the characters, even Hugo who is a huge ass, and it was nice to see them all develop over the course of the novel and overcome their own challenges. Each of them has a very distinct voice, and there’s a helpful illustration of each person’s legs and shoes [I guess because of the lift thing] to make sure that readers know who is the main focus per chapter.

All in all, I found Floored a pretty fun read. The lack of plot sometimes did make it a bit of a struggle, but I loved seeing how each character changes and it was just such a nice read. Overall, I’d give the book a 7.5/10 stars.

Has anyone else read this book already or wants to read it? Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings on this book.