Floored - Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tayna Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood

I read the sample of this last time I went to YALC, so I was eager to read the full thing, which is why I requested this the moment I saw it on Netgalley.

The Breakfast Club meets One Day in Floored, a unique collaborative novel by seven bestselling and award-winning YA authors: Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood.

When they got in the lift that morning, they were strangers. Sasha, who is at the UK's biggest TV centre desperately trying to deliver a parcel; Hugo, who knows he's by far the richest – and best-looking – guy in the lift; Velvet, who regrets wearing the world's least comfortable shoes to work experience; Dawson, who isn't the good-looking teen star he was and desperate not to be recognized; Kaitlyn, who's slowly losing her sight but won't admit it, and Joe, who shouldn't be there at all, but who wants to be there the most.

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

This was such good fun and a really interesting concept! We have six POVs, but each of them had such a distinct voice it was pretty easy to follow along and get lost in the story. This all kicks off at a TV station, where Velvet and Kaitlyn have turned up for work experience, Joe who has run away from his school group, former TV child star Dawson is visiting his mum, Hugo the son of a politician is visiting his mum and Sasha is just trying to deliver a parcel. The six of the end up in a lift together with a man who keels over and dies before they reach their destination. Its a pretty intense meet-cute and this group are such unlikely friends you might wonder how they managed to make a whole book out of it.

This has been labeled Breakfast Club mixed with One Day and it does have the best bits of both of those two things combined. We have a group of misfits who somehow end up bffs and we only see them once a year on the anniversary of the terrible event. I think Dawson and Velvet were my favourite two perspectives, but there was so much going on with each of them and they're a pretty diverse set of characters, so there is something for everyone.

I'm super glad I finally got to finish the book and find out how these guys grow together and how their stories ended. I'm just sorry I took so long to get to it!

This was surprisingly enjoyable. The gimmick of 7 authors doesn't really affect the flow of the book, but I feel the marketing team shot themselves in the foot by not including who wrote what - I might have been tempted to delve deeper into their work. The book is an engaging, quick read but nothing special unfortunately - popcorn for a rainy afternoon.

May have been a case of too many cooks... I never felt fully connected to the characters probably because the story was set annually.

DNF

Well this was an unpleasant surprise. I thought I'd love this one, it features 2 authors I already love and the other 5 are all on my tbr so I was really excited to get to Floored.

Unfortunately, I knew I didn't like it very early on, the only character I actually liked was Velvet- everyone else was immediately self centred and facetious. I had no desire to carry on reading about any of them apart from maybe Kaitlyn, who at least had an interesting story to tell with her illness but this wasn't enough for me to continue.

Hugo was just a joke. I know he's supposed to be despicable but there are ways to make this clear without every single one of his thoughts being horrific. His internal monologue discusses how he as a straight, white, middle class boy is so oppressed and a 'one armed, black lesbian' or 'genderfluid scientologist' would be chosen over him for a job. My eyes rolled so hard they almost fell out. There isn't a single redeeming feature for him and making someone that obviously awful is, at best, lazy writing. I've also seen other reviews and apparently he magically turns into a decent person without a proper redemption arc.

I can't explain how disappointing this book was to me- I made it 20% before knowing that I was just going to end up hate reading and that's not my style.

A solid 3 stars. Melissa Sainsbury is a personal new fave, so I was excited to read her writing in a different genre, plus I was intrigued by the idea of six writers collaborating. The six characters are blended together smoothly, and I couldn't pinpoint who wrote what. Particular kudos to whoever wrote Hugo: they got that posh jerk stereotype perfectly, whilst managing to pull off a believable redemption arc. The others are all precious and I loved how many aspects of growing up and difficult situations were explored here, to the point that I want more stories about where they end up. That would be my one complaint, actually: while I like how realistic the ending feels, I still want to know how they all end up, as a lot of the stories still had aspects which weren't fully resolved.

Wonderfully authentic and relatable, Floored is a fantastic YA contemporary with six unforgettable characters. I would wholeheartedly recommend Floored to anyone who is looking for a realistic coming-of-age story (or six!) that will make you laugh, cry and laugh some more.

Floored is without doubt one of those YA novels that seems to have had a buzz about it for over a year now and when you look at the authors involved and the concept, the buzz is hardly surprising. It features a story written from six different perspectives by six of the most talented YA authors in the UK right now. I had read some of the authors before but the combination of writers made this one a must-read.

There’s the whole who-writes-which-character, which I was inevitably drawn to in the opening chapters of Floored. When the narrative starts to develop into a rhythmical year-on-year dynamic of the shifting relationships between the main characters, you begin to just appreciate the story for what it is: a collaborative contemporary YA by writers at the top of their game.

The characters are all strong, whether you connect with them all or not and there’s a clear arc for all involved. There’s enough time to flesh out rich worlds for all the characters but in different ways. For example, Kaitlyn’s personality as a tenacious friend with a low tolerance for bullshit shines through really well. We learn plenty about Joe and Sasha’s families and how that shapes their personalities.

The framing device of these characters coming together once a year as a collective is what drives the story. From an innocuous, Sliding Doors type moment, their lives are changed irrevocably and it’s fascinating to read the evolution of the group from aspirational teenagers to adults.

Each character finds their role in the group and it must have taken a lot of work as a writing collective to achieve this. Collaborations can be tricky endeavours when two people are involved, so I can only imagine the work in writing Floored into a coherent story. The six authors here deserve a lot of praise for even overcoming the logistics involved!

By the end of Floored, the reader is fully invested in the group and you would even love to see more of these characters and how their lives develop around each other, both independently and as part of this lifelong ‘Lift Lot.’

It’s worth noting as well that the authors of each character were recently revealed over on @MyKindaBook where it is their pinned tweet. Read and guess along with everyone else and then find out who wrote which parts!

When the six of them got into the elevator they were strangers: Sasha is trying to deliver a parcel; Hugo who knows he is the best looking guy there; Velvet who knows that look she gets when her name doesn’t match how she looks; Dawson who used to be a star but isn’t deemed ‘good looking’ enough anymore; Kaitlyn who is losing her sight but won’t admit it, and finally, Joe, who shouldn’t be in that elevator at all but who wants it the most.

Floored is a unique novel. It is a collaborative novel by seven different authors and the skill and craft that went into this to actually pull it off effectively was impressive. I was looking forward to Floored for a while. It really intrigued me to read a book with SEVEN different authors and I was really wondering whether they could really pull it off and yeah, they managed it pretty damn well. It was very smooth and cohesive and I wouldn’t even begin to guess which author wrote which character.

When I first started Floored I wasn’t gripped. I wasn’t keen on how Dawson’s storyline started – the child actor who lost his acting career because he became ‘ugly’ and how he had gained weight so it definitely came across as a bit fatphobic, but the emphasis definitely shifted later on and there was no expectation he needed to change how he looked. I also really disliked Hugo, so much so that it really did impact my enjoyment of the book and no matter how much he ‘changed’ I can’t help but dislike him. So yeah, I was a bit ooh-ing and ahh-ing but later on it actually really gripped me as I really did love the rest of the characters.

I loved how their friendship changed over time and how their dynamics changed. I loved how we saw them together for only one day a year over six years and we really saw that friendship blossom but we also saw how each character grew as a person.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend Floored for fans of contemporary fiction looking for a book with little to no emphasis on romance but are really looking for a good character-driven book full of great friendships.

Book Review:

When Floored was announced, I was so excited. Combining the Queens of YA, Floored was going to be an epic read. I was so right and Floored was amazing, definitely one of my favourite reads of the year so far.

I do think that the whole idea of this book is so ambitious but it definitely pays off. All of the characters are so loveable and I think that the way that they develop over the five years that this book is set is so great. I do think that Hugo develops a lot through the course of the book and I love how he goes from being the arsehole to less of an arsehole and has feelings. He does some bad things in this book that I do not agree with but he does change in the book.

All the characters in the book are great. I did like Joe as a character as he was just really sensitive and I felt for his whole situation. Also, Dawson and Sasha and Kaitlyn and Velvet are great and I feel like they all have individual voices which are so good but it is written by lots of authors so that kind of is expected.

The breaks also have a WhatsApp group which I loved reading about and seeing the characters in the book. The ending definitely broke me and I loved it. I would love so much more from these characters but I feel like that is a massive ask for the authors so I will just gush about how much I love this one!

The Verdict:

Floored is a masterclass of YA showing complex characters and an engaging story so is definitely worth the read!

Brilliant work of fiction combining so many of my all time favourite authors. Fun and interesting and exciting, one of my anticipated titles of the year and didn't disappoint.

Really enjoyed this - such brilliant writing, lots of important issues without feeling too heavy and characters you really care about (even Hugo!)

Floored is a concept book from a collection of UK Young Adult authors, that brings together seven different lives as they begin a friendship on work experience in a media office.

The characters are pretty good, but there’s a certain character in this book that just appears near the beginning of this book that makes me hate humanity, I know people like this - I’ve met them, sadly - but I just don’t know why he has to exist as he pretty much puts you off reading about him forever.

I think the plot is okay. The jumps between different times for these characters can seem to not allow for us to get a full pictures of the people they are becoming, but it ends nicely - I wish I could have more feelings about this book but it really didn’t capture me like the premise of this book did.

It’s a good book with an idea that I so wanted to happen, it’s just not quite there when it comes to the characters for me.

I had somehow managed to get it into my head that this entire book would be set in the lift, that it would be an entire book about that one day. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the lift is merely the beginning and in fact, the action takes place over quite a long period of time. These six characters grow together and apart and variations thereon through the progress of the story. I thought that the ebb and flow of those relationships felt very realistic, anyone who has made these kinds of 'we met that one-time' friends or even anyone who has friends from childhood that they've kept in touch with will know that it isn't a binary system. You aren't either friends or not friends, there are plenty of fuzzy places in between that shift and change as time goes on. 

As far as representation goes, I think that the choice to include characters from different backgrounds, of different sizes, of different abilities, of different classes was well done. A book of this scale (essentially having to weave six stories into the space of one) was never going to completely tackle all the various intersections of these characters but nor did it feel as though things were half-arsed. I have yet to read a review from someone who is visually impaired but it did come across as a realistic representation as far as I could tell, though the fact that I can't seem to find an audio version of the book at this point is a little concerning. I also thought that the exploration of the fluidity of sexuality was important to bring up. I liked the sense of confusion, again it felt like a very real representation of what those kinds of feelings are like.

I have one thing that would have made this book absolutely perfect, at least in my opinion, and that would have been a final check-in with these characters. I was desperate for a 'ten years later' epilogue or similar just to find out what had happened. I think that's because I was left a little (read eensy weensy tiny) bit flat at the ending. True a good book should leave you wanting more, but I didn't feel like all of the character arcs got resolutions. Perhaps that's another way in which this book is a reflection of the reality of being young people - not everything gets solved by the end of one story. 

As I have said before, it takes something particularly special for me to read a YA contemporary and Floored certainly has that something. If you've been hearing all the hype and are wondering whether it lives up to it - I would say that for the most part, it does. Allow yourself some time to really get your teeth into this one, you don't want to lose track of what's going on!

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a digital advanced review copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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.

Brilliant collaboration, the stories and characters wine together seamlessly. Thought provoking, touching and funny in equal measure

This is such an interesting and innovative book!

I was automatically sold by the authors - they are some big names in British YA and I was interested to see what would happen when they got together to produce a collaborative work.

The book itself follows a group of teenagers as they meet by chance in a lift and witness something horrible. The difficulty with having such a large cast is I found myself getting them mixed up - there were some characters who we’re automatically more memorable or interesting than others. It didn’t read like there were seven authors of the book as the ‘voice’ remained consistent throughout. I’m definitely intrigued by the writing process. The book follows the teenagers over the course of a few years and this means there’s a lot of information-dumps on a regular basis as the story jumps forward a year and we need to find out what’s changed with everyone and for this reason it became a little confusing to keep track of everyone.

All in.all this is a really interesting and unusual book which I’m glad I read.

(Thanks to the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review)

When this book was announced my some of my favourite UKYA authors, I was so excited and so intrigued to hear what it was about. Thanks to netgalley, I was able to read it a bit earlier and I’m so grateful for that. The plot of this book is that 7 teens on work experience get stuck in an elevator and one of them dies. Because of that experience, the other six are bonded together for life and must struggle with what they went through together. This event brought all six lives together and we follow them through out the years, through the twists and turns and all the drama. The drama in this book was very typical YA but definitely what I had expected. I can’t wait to get my physical book signed by all of these fantastic authors at YALC18. So happy to have some of these authors as my favorite’s.

Overall 4 out of 5 stars.

One of my more anticipated reads for 2018, this contemporary collaboration blew me away with the sheer amount of work this must have involved.

Following six people, who are thrust together after an unfortunate event, over the course of a few years, this book is reminiscent of The Breakfast Club, crossed with One Day. With each person their own unique personality, and each written by one of the collaborative authors, this book was full of drama and plot twists, and it definitely worth a read over the summer.



We're introduced to Sasha, who only wants to deliver a parcel; Hugo, a boy who's not only rich, but knows he's the best looking one there and eyeing up Velvet, who knows what you're thinking when she tells you her name purely from the look on your face; Dawson, an ex-child star who lost his good looks, and doesn't want to be recognized; Kaitlyn, who's slowly losing her sight, but recognizes Dawson because she had his poster on her wall, and Joe, who sneaks away from his group to pursue his dreams. A bunch of people you'd never think would end up friends when you really think about it.

Honestly, I adored each and every one of them (even Hugo, who was definitely supposed to be a big-ass douchebag you wouldn't go near in real life), and loved the way each was so unique and different. I couldn't tell who had written who (probably because I have yet to read half of the authors other books), but had a vague guess for each, and loved the entire 'guessing game' associated with each character.

If I had to narrow down my favourite characters, they would definitely be Joe and Kaitlyn, as they both struggled with things the others couldn't comprehend, and both were handled really well by their authors. I also has a soft spot for the 'narrator', who summed everything up at the end of each 'section'.

There were so many different plots because of the sheer amount of characters, but this actually gave some direction to the plot, as without this, I feel like the story may have fallen flat. The only downside was you only got to see snippets of their lives, as the story takes place on the same day each year. It was a little like a photo album; you only see the things they want you to see.

But despite the lack of information, and the inability to completely connect with the characters, I just fell in love with this book. It was so unique, and kept me guessing throughout, and if you're thinking of picking up the authors books away from this, I'd definitely recommend giving this a go if you want to get a taste of their writing first.

I'm definitely going to pick up all the authors books soon!

An exciting piece of UKYA history, Floored was an absolute feat. Seven authors came together to write such vibrant and diverse characters, that desperately want to stay in each other's lives after a tragedy. You can't help thinking that the friendship at the core of this story is reflective of the authors themselves.

Stand out characters for me were Kaitlyn, Dawson and Sasha, as I felt like they had the most subtle but serious character development over the six years that this book is told. Reading the bonds grow between the bunch was my absolute favourite.

I'll be fascinated to find out which author is responsible for which character (and the third person summary) if it does get revealed, but it's safe to say I'll be supporting these seven authors in whatever they choose to write next!

This was always going to be the big release of the summer. Six amazing authors coming together to write a story from six viewpoints (seven if you include the omniscient narrator who pops up from time to time) and it didn't disappoint. It was everything I expected from the authors pulled together in a seamlessly created story.

I loved each of the characters and how different they were from one another, each facing a different set of problems and anxieties and having to get through life. All the characters were beautiful and real but I think my favourites were probably Kaitlyn, Velvet and Hugo (from love to hate to actually quite like! What a journey!). Kaitlyn was so awesome and badass with an interesting journey throughout the novel. Velvet so much the contrast, so shy and insecure, watching her go through her struggles and come out of the other side having grown as a person. And Hugo, the one everyone loves, because he's a very different perspective from the others. The privilege prick who for most of the novel you want to smack, in a good way!

If I had to criticise it would be that there really wasn't enough time with each character for the amount of time the novel covers. Six whole years of their lives (and very changeable ones at that. It would have been nice to have had a longer novel and to have seen more of their lives.