Very distinctive voices as each of these writers (amazing in their own way) takes on a persona and brings us a rather unusual tale.
Seven very different teenagers find themselves together in a lift. Something extraordinary happens that day that binds them together in a way that you wouldn’t imagine.
Over the years we see them meet up annually, and we watch their developing friendships.
Unusually, this got me more at the end as we realise just how far each of them has come.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my thoughts.

1 book written by seven authors, a recipe for disaster or a concoction of success.

I'm definitely going with the latter.

A story with 6 characters, each with their own chapters, their own points of view, brought together with little interludes. It just flowed so well.

Seamless.

Each person has something in common and it all begins in a lift,

I'd describe this as a sort of coming of age tale. Teenagers making their way through life, each year discovering something new about themselves and finding friendships and solace in the most unlikely of places.

What's impressive about this novel is that it manages to keep you interested despite the fact that apart from right at the beginning, there isn't one massive moment that defines the book.

Clever, witty and emotional. Floored has it all.

If you've ever read any book by Holly Bourne, Lisa Williamson or Sara Barnard you already know that their novels are masterpieces. 'Floored' is a book written by the authors as well as fellow writers and there's no surprise that the book is pure perfection. Six complete strangers are suddenly connected by the death of a delivery man in a lift. They come from different backgrounds (a poor girl, a blind girl, an ex TV star, a rich kid etc) by the horrific experience connects them for life. It's a very up to date story where characters keep in touch via WhatsApps but still they feel more connected to each other than to people with whom they spend time in reality. I love the book through and through because it's very real. It depicts the struggles of everyday life and how people deal with them thanks to friends. Everyone feels lonely sometimes and as it turns out we find friends for life in the least expected places. I highly recommend 'Floored' as a really well-written book depicting things that are truely important in life.

This is one of the most hyped books of the year for teens and it's easy to see why, as for a start seven of most talented and popular YA authors have teamed up to write this collaboratively.



The cast of characters, Dawson, Hugo, Joe, Kaitlyn, Sasha and Velvet all end up in a lift which is where a delivery guy drops down dead suddenly as they're stuck in the lift together when the emergency stop button has been pressed by one of them. Following news reports about the incident as it happens at a broadcasting house building in Manchester's Media City.



The book follows them all year by year as they keep in touch and meet back up and we learn of all their dramas what have happened to each other, together we see a part of that year as a chapter from each characters perspective then also a narrator too and we learn how each of them has serious issues to deal with from sexuality, pregnancy, parents health worries, money worries, going blind, coping with loss, guilt and of course just maturing and learning about yourself too. The usual up and down of life is thoroughly shown in a truthful and emotional way.



The characters are all so different and over the course of the novel really come to appreciate each other despite the difference between them all. All the authors writing works well combined as they all write YA books and have a feel for the typical teen voice. I It's a novel to be celebrated and the hype around this book has been well deserved indeed.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Overall, I did enjoy reading this. However, I feel like we didn't get enough time to get to know each of the characters enough. Like we'd start to get to know one of them, and then it'd be on to another characters chapter.
The story was really interesting, and seeing how all of the characters dealt with their lives and problems, and how this unlikely group of friends helped all of them to get through was really nice.

I think the book could've done with being a bit longer, and spending some more time to explore the characters and get to know them more.

I really liked how it was set over a few years, and focusing on the one day every year. It was so different, which is one of the factors I loved about it tbh.
It was such a quick nice read, but it didn't blow me away or wow me.

So many wonderful authors that I love so much, I decided to keep my expectations low because despite how much I love all these authors I wasn't sure how well their voices would mesh together but this book is so good. Each author is given a character and their stories are so enjoyable absolutely did not disappoint!
I would highly recommend it.

I am a sucker for a good UKYA contemporary, especially when you throw in names such as Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne and Lisa Williamson; I just know it’s a book I will love! So, imagine my delight when I discovered that Floored is a thing and so it was the first book that I sent a begging email for since starting blogging! Despite not getting a copy, I was super lucky to get one straight away through NetGalley (thank you Macmillan!) and bumped this straight to the top of my TBR!

Floored is told from the perspective of six characters, and a narrator. What adds to its charm is how you don’t know which author wrote which parts – this makes for a fun game of “guess the author”! I loved how seamlessly the story seemed to flow between narrators and how all of the different writing styles complimented each other perfectly.

A key thing that makes Floored such a success is how relatable it is; the book spans several years and we “check-in” with our characters once a year, and so we see how in the space of a year so much can change when you’re in your teens and going into early adulthood. It’s during this time that our characters really develop and our friendships are evolving and you are beginning to realise what’s truly important. Floored is all about the ups and downs that these years can bring and it captures this perfectly.

I think that the only thing I really didn’t like was the bringing in of political parties to the story. I think that an unfair light was cast upon one party over another, especially when you consider the character narrating at the time, and this is something that put me off giving this book a higher rating.

Nevertheless, overall this book is a solid 4 stars – it tackles such a range of topics with some very likeable characters. Everyone will find some way to relate to what these narrators go through, you’ll see your positives and your flaws. I’d definitely love to see more collaborations from this group in the future!

I had high expectations for FLOORED – I love Melinda Salisbury, Sara Barnard and Holly Bourne’s works, and I’ve enjoyed books by Non Pratt and Lisa Williamson – but this book didn’t quite hit the mark for me. It’s written incredibly well style-wise – I can’t fault the voices! – but I think it suffered from having seven POVs (including the narrator) AND time-skips. This meant that certain things felt underdeveloped, and parts of the plot felt rushed. It’s a decent contemporary read, and every character’s voice feels authentic (I feel a bit flummoxed in that I can’t actually tell who wrote which part!). I’d recommend it if you’re a fan of any of the credited authors’ previous works.

It always seems to happen that the books everyone is crazy about, I find fine but not amazing, and the books I stumble across on my own I find brilliant. This is a book everyone is crazy about. It's perfectly fine; a chance friendship that grows and deepens, becoming more important than any of the members could have imagined when it all began. But I found it just fine, not amazingly brilliant.

All the events take place on the same day each year, which means the first part of each new section is taken up with what happened in the year we've just missed. There's very little time to get used to the status quo before it shifts again. It's hard to connect to anyone in that short a time. And I personally found it hard to remember which character was which; Hugo and Dawson were ok, and after a while I got Kait, but the others just seemed to blur. It was hard to remember who was crushing on whom in which section.

I don't want to put anyone off; this is a perfectly fine teenage romantic novel, and I'm sure other people will really enjoy it. I liked Hugo's storyline, and the overall plot was good. There's nothing wrong with it at all. I think my expectations were just that little bit too high.


Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.

A clever book about how lives can change, intertwine, and grow apart in seconds. Nothing is *really* resolved at the end...one character is a bit nicer, one has stood up to an emotionally abusive parent...but that's kind of the point; life goes on, it can't be neatly contained, because it isn't neat.Not really.

I can't imagine the work and planning it took the six authors to coordinate this book, but I'm glad they did. It's a great read, one I really enjoyed.



I received an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

A group of teenagers lives collide when one day, they're in a lift together and a man dies. Over the years, an unlikely friendship forms...

I've been excited to read Floored since I got a sampler of it at Young Adult Lit Con last year, so when I got approved for it on NetGalley I was over the moon.

Initially, I loved reading Floored. I was so invested in the plot aswell as the characters backgrounds. I stayed up late and woke up early to read it, it had me gripped. I'm always a sucker for unlikely friendship and the fact friendship was formed from a loss was something I thought was really nice.

Where I struggled to keep interested was each time jump, with a year apart each time a lot happened with the characters and I felt I couldn't quite get a connection with them because of this. I did care about them to some extent and was rooting for each of them to live the best lives possible. Something else I struggled with was remembering their names, which was a smaller issue than you'd think as each character did have a unique voice and something to set them apart from the others, but the names just didn't stick.

There was some really important parts throughout this book that I loved. Unbreakable friendship being one, and some good life messages being another. I loved that the characters had struggles to overcome and the ability to grow with some determination.

Though Floored won't become a favourite of mine, it could easily become someone elses. I would recommend it.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Books via NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Floored is the story of six people who meet by chance in a lift at a TV centre, and a seventh person who changes their lives by being there. Dawson, Kaitlyn, Velvet, Sasha, Joe, and Hugo have their lives changed by a traumatic experience they all go through, one which causes them to meet every year. Through friendships, relationships, and a Whatsapp group, the six of them change and grow over the following six years, showing that coincidence can bring people together and life is about chance and consequence.

This collaborative novel between seven YA writers tells the perspective of each of the six main characters and a mysterious narrator who brings each section together at the end. Though written by so many voices, it feels very much like an integrated whole. The characters' lives are varied and show different elements of life aged fifteen to twenty-one. There are issues of class, disability, money, sexuality, relationships, friendships, alcohol, and more, all brought together by the narratives of the six characters. It is particularly good at tackling class issues in the UK and how disability (in this case, visual impairment) is treated by well-meaning friends.

Floored is an unputdownable YA read, urging the reader to find out what happens to the characters as each year passes. It shows how friendships aren't perfect, and sometimes people have to be self-centred, but that it is also good to have people who have got your back.

Floored is a collaborate novel between NAMES. I was really looking forward to this novel but was sadly disappointed.
Although the book is written by different authors, everyone sounds the same. Everyone is very flat, with only two or three defining characteristics, and everyone is friends in the end in a twee kind of way. Coupled with the gaps between each year’s anniversary, characters fall in and out of relationships, and then expect the readers to be upset over who broke up and why.
Hugo was the most annoying character of all. He’s written to be unpleasant, but he sleeps with a girl for a dare, oozes slime, and is just generally awful. We’re supposed to feel sorry for him because he does drugs and gets lost in Ibiza, and also his Dad turns out to be gay. Big deal. He’s still a dick.
Kaitlyn is actually the most interesting character, not just because of her visual impairment (shout out to all the people slowly going blind, hell yeah), but because she has interests outside of boys. I was really invested in her floristry career, and also the project she sets up which deals with scent.
There are a lot of plotlines that tail off in a very weak fashion, mainly because of the fact we only really get a snippet of one day a year. Joe goes from working in a biscuit factory to working on a television crew in the span of a paragraph, and Velvet manages to get an abortion, break up with her ex boyfriend, and get a new job in a couple of lines.
The Sasha-Dad plotline also goes nowhere. I wanted a dramatic showdown, I wanted creepy fathers, I wanted abusive parenting. As someone who has seen the dangers of overly invested fathers in their daughters life, I wanted something explosive. What I got was a man throwing clothes around a room whilst telling Sasha to go achieve her dream of going to France.
Overall, Floored looked good on paper, but was terrible when put into practise. It was a waste of literary talent, as I know that all of these authors can do better, and I wish that the book could have been so much greater.
Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC.