Secrets. Everyone has them, no one wants them to be known. Though it seems like a teenage girl thing, everyone has dealings with secrets and blackmail. When exactly does a secret become juicy enough that it can be used as blackmail? I'm going to break this down into a few categories of young to old:

Children
- Stealing a toy
- Disobeying an adult
- Pushing someone
- Raiding the cookie jar
- Not doing a chore

For young ones, being caught in the act is a big deal. I'm sure we've all heard/experienced the classic "I'm telling" situation where another kid threatens to tell an adult, and the one caught begs them not to, likely saying something along the lines of "I'll do anything", which is always grounds for trouble.

Teenagers/Young Adults
- Crushes/relationships
- Cheating in tests
- School pranks
- Drug/alcohol use
- Private text conversations

Everyone older than these categories certainly thinks these matters are childish and trivial, but to those in these stages of live, they aren't. For many teens, reputation is everything. Katharine McGee takes advantage of this and puts her spin on it with the thousand floor tower; people with high status live on higher floors. She doesn't forget about blackmail though, so some relationships on the upper floors are a careful balance of secret atop secret.

Adults
- Adultery
- Gambling
- Illegal trade
- Illegitimate children
- Credit card usage

There are a lot of tv shows which cover these topics. It's always a great source of entertainment, blackmail and secrets. But should it really be so?

Laughing at the expense of others

Children are taught early on not to laugh at others. Blackmailing is a form of that, isn't it? The blackmailer is mocking a secret, making it a trivial matter when in the other's mind, it is their world.

Of course, bad people always do as they please. Secrets make a story more interesting so I don't fault authors and screenwriters for utilising this.

Why will people do anything to ensure their secrets remain unknown?

When you feel threatened, it seems more intelligent to stop changes from happening rather than controlling them. Wouldn't it be more sensible to remove the power someone holds over you? If you reveal the secret on your own terms, they no longer hold power over you.

What do you think about secrets? What's the best way to deal with blackmail?

The Dazzling Heights by Katharine McGee
Publisher: HarperCollins
Goodreads Summary: New York City, 2118. A glittering vision of the future, where anything is possible – if you want it enough.

Manhattan is home to a thousand-story supertower, a beacon of futuristic glamour and high-tech luxury… and to millions of people living scandalous, secretive lives.

Leda is haunted by nightmares of what happened on the worst night of her life. She’s afraid the truth will get out – which is why she hires Watt, her very own hacker, to keep an eye on all of the witnesses for her. But what happens when their business relationship turns personal?

When Rylin receives a scholarship to an elite upper-floor school, her life transforms overnight. But being here also means seeing the boy she loves: the one whose heart she broke, and who broke hers in return.

Avery is grappling with the reality of her forbidden romance – is there anywhere in the world that’s safe for them to be together?

And then there’s Calliope, the mysterious, bohemian beauty who’s arrived in New York with a devious goal in mind – and too many secrets to count.

Here in the Tower, no one is safe – because someone is watching their every move, someone with revenge in mind. After all, in a world of such dazzling heights, you’re always only one step away from a devastating fall….
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Review: Leda, Avery and Rylin are still reeling over the aftermath of that night. Haunted by nightmares and regrets, they all tread a dangerous line, for eventually the truth will come out. A new arrival in the tower may not seem like much of a deal for the girls, but Calliope Brown is dressed to kill. Ready to wreak a havoc, her devious plans may just undermine them all and crown her the new queen of New York...

There's so much character growth in this book, I love it. Leda has many harsh challenges to face, and the realisations she makes will help her become a better, much improved version of herself; Avery may have everything, but it isn't going to last with the ghosts haunting her; and Rylin is thrust into a new world which will make or break her. There is certainly no shortage of drama in this sequel told from the perspectives of Leda, Avery, Rylin, Watt, and Calliope.

The issues covered in The Dazzling Heights are mostly the same as in The Thousandth Floor, which means it does get a bit boring with the lack of new conflict. Certain characters and events were downplayed. Making them a larger part of the novel could've induced more excitement. On a positive note, I enjoyed getting to know Rylin, who did have a bigger part to play.

If you love teen fiction, you don't want to miss this series. The Dazzling heights builds on the layers created in The Thousandth floor and adds more juicy secrets to the tantalising list of lies. New characters, new stories, new dilemmas. Who will end up on top of this deadly tower?       
Purchase Location: ~I received a copy from HarperCollins NZ and willingly reviewed it~
Edition: Paperback
Buy the book: Book Depository
Recommended for: Fans of teen fiction.

The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor #1) by Katharine McGee
Publisher: HarperCollins
Goodreads Summary: New York City as you’ve never seen it before. A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future, where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

Welcome to Manhattan, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. But people never change: everyone here wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

Leda Cole’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

Eris Dodd-Radson’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

Rylin Myers’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will her new life cost Rylin her old one?

Watt Bakradi is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy by an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is Avery Fuller, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.