Name: Lisa Beasley's review of Floored by Lisa Williamson
Item: Floored
Rating: 4
Author: Lisa Beasley

Lisa Williamson

Non Pratt

Melinda Salisbury

Sara Barnard

Holly Bourne

Tanya Byrne

Eleanor Wood

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 . . .

Floored

Yari Chu Luo

Lisa Beasley

Now contemporary is not usually my genre of choice, I am very picky and can probably count on one hand the ones I've actually really enjoyed but since one of my favourite authors contributed to this one (Melinda Salisbury) I figured I would give it a go. And I am glad I did, I really liked it. I loved the way it was written with the different points of view and I ended up liking and caring about all of the characters (even one who starts off as a complete arse). I did feel the ending was a little abrupt as I would have liked more about them and maybe a big time jump just to see how they all fared but overall a solid 4 stars.

Kate

Floored had an interesting premise and an undoubtedly intriguing structure, with its six different authors writing six different characters. I liked most of the characters and the plot was interesting but because there were so many characters, with so little time to get to know them, I don’t feel as though they had as much depth as they could have done. I didn’t necessarily warm to them and due to the consistent large time jumps, ‘things’ kept happening without much back story and therefore I didn’t find myself all that invested in who these characters were becoming. Even so, I didn’t mind that all too much and I probably would have overlooked it had it not been for two major issues I had with this book.

The first being that one of the main characters, the child star, essentially lost his acting career due to becoming ‘ugly’ with a heavy emphasis on that being due to him gaining weight. This doesn’t sit well with me whatsoever and had me somewhat cautious from the first chapter.

The second and main issue I had with this book was another of the characters, Hugo a.k.a ‘the asshole’. I know that he was literally meant to be an asshole but I personally feel as though there’s a way to write someone as being an asshole, without making them sexist, racist, homophobic, ableist and just so incredibly awful. (e.g. jokes about eating disorders, disability and identity. Manipulating girls into sleeping with him and so much more.) Reading Hugo’s perspective made me extremely uncomfortable, so uncomfortable in fact, I almost put this book down the moment I read his first chapter. Just considering the amount of readers that could have potentially been extremely hurt by his words, made me incredibly infuriated. Again, I understand that he was meant to be an awful human being (which he 100% was) and I might just be being over sensitive, but surely there must be a way to create a character readers hate, without potentially harming those same readers and then giving that same character an odd, cliche redemption arc?

I realise this review comes across as wholly negative but I don’t believe this was a wholly ‘bad’ book. I do think it was an interesting idea and premise, I just don’t think it was executed to its full potential. Overall, I’m definitely currently confused as to how I felt about this book. For me, I just don't feel as though the not so great parts outweigh the enjoyable parts. For now, I’m still just tying to get my head around what, if anything, was gained by having ones character who essentially embodied every single jerk in you find in twitter arguments and potentially harming readers (especially young readers) in the process.

Ramona Crumlish

Jess Grossmith

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, 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.

Yari Chu Luo &
Floored by Lisa Williamson

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Yari Chu Luo &Floored by Lisa Williamson

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Yari Chu Luo &
Floored by Lisa Williamson