Dark and growing more and more grim as it progresses, "The Tower" is a slow-burn, atmospheric mystery/horror for MG readers. It begins with Kolby, the protagonist, waking up in a strange place without any memories. Throughout the book, that lack drives him forward. Anaxagoras skillfully weaves the mystery, pitting Kolby's cautious yet caring personality up against those of the other "inmates" with him. Not every person, and certainly not every kid, is a Katniss Everdeen, an Arya Stark, or Jon Snow. Most kids reading this will be just normal suburban kids--like Kolby. And as the story progresses, and as more and more of the world around Kolby is revealed to be truly horrific, Kolby tries--and usually fails--to rally the other kids against the atrocities that they simply take for granted. Despite that, in the end, Kolby manages to rise to the challenge in his own way, and it makes for a satisfying conclusion.

Great characters and characterization, a deep and disturbing mystery, and good narration make this a winner.

This had a very intriguing premise. A mysterious tower with children with no memory. High tech, fun living but lots of questions. I was surprised when the book took a turn for the worst and became more horror than thriller. This is a dark story. It was a bit too much for me. The narrator did a great job.

Overall this was a good, fast paced middle grade read. The characters at times would seem overly dramatic to me, but given their age I gave some grace to this. The friendships and theme of “standing up to the system” reminded me a lot of Percy Jackson. I think this book would be for PJ fans. I think more of the ending could have been tied up though. I wanted all the answers.

✨Arc Review ✨ Out on March 4th 2025 ✨

Much thanks to @netgalley & @theanaxagoras

12 year old Kolby wakes up naked, cold, and no memory. Soon he discovers he is 1 of 12 kids, also with no memories, living alone in an extravagant penthouse in the tallest tower of the city. There’s no adults anywhere. The kids are busy playing in the Olympic sized swimming pool or playing video games on the huge flat screen tv. They have pretty much anything they could ever want, which just magically shows up in the manifesting room. The only thing they don’t have is a way out. None of the kids seem to mind being stuck there. Kolby doesn’t seem to understand why they’re just okay going along with everything. Kolby just wants to escape. Unfortunately, the only way out is to participate in the towers enigmatic game. It’s kind of like a scavenger hunt that takes place around the city. Gen, the apparent leader, picks players for the teams. She also knows more than she says about the tower. She knows the dark truth about their fate. When the game starts Kolby thinks he’s figured out a way out only to have it not be as simple as it seems.

🧌 This middle grade sci- fi horror/thriller starts slow but the story is so intriguing. I really thought I wasn’t going to like it but it grew on me. I won’t say much for fear of ruining anything but each chapter revealed more and more and trying to figure out wtf was happening had me unable to stop listening. Again, it was slow, so be prepared for that, but for me that was the only downside. If you give it a chance, each chapter will have you more intrigued than the last. Solid writing. Solid story line. Loved the ending! Definitely recommend!

The Tower is a YA/Children’s fiction book about children showing up in the penthouse with no memory of how they got there or their previous life. They spend their days enjoying games and activities until the Tower has them participate in a game outside the building walls. While the other children seem content to live this new life Kolby wants to go home and is determined to figure out how to make that happen. While I enjoyed the book, parts were repetitive and pace was slow at times. David Anaxagoras wrote a very creative story and Christopher Gebauer was a great narrator.

Thank you to NetGalley & RBMedia for letting me read this ARC.

I did not expect this book to be this dark when I started listing or for it to be more supernatural than a thriller. I did really like that the book was pretty dark and gruesome but it is a middle grade book so maybe it is a bit too dark for that age group.

I was really hooked during the entire book and was very interested to learn more about the tower and the games. I do have to say I was a bit disappointed in how the tower worked and what we learned about it. It feels like there could have been a more interesting storyline to it. Even at the end I felt like I still didnt completely understand how the tower works and its backstory. Like I want to know why the tower was created and by who.

Wow, I really enjoyed this Middle Grade light horror/ thriller novel.

I am thankful to have gotten the ALC for free from RB Media through Netgalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

I think that this book may be hit or miss for some reviewers as it’s definitely a middle grade novel but it deals with some darker themes. However, with some support from teachers and parents this book could teach a young reader a lot about teaching life lessons about emotions, social issue and more in an entertaining way that is not necessarily straight forward.

This book is listed as a mystery/thriller but it is more inline with the children’s horror genre however lightly. I also enjoyed and appreciated the male main character who showed love and compassion to the friends he meets during his journey as Kolby is such a great role model for younger readers to learn from.

As far as the narration. It is recorded painfully slow however I think that may be by design as there is some difficult material for a younger reader to grasp and the slower speed can aid in that aspect. Thankfully, you can speed it up. I found putting it at 1.5x speed put it at a natural speaking pace and it improved the narrator, Christopher Gebauer’s, vocals. At that speed it sounded perfect for the reader age and content of the prose as it was calming and took any fear out of the scarier passages.

The book comes out on March 4, 2025 exclusively on audiobook.

My rating system for Middle Grade and children’s books

⭐️ Significant problems and would never recommend to the audience.
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea but may have some appeal.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ an ok book which I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend but it has some value for young readers
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! I would recommend for the age or reading level appropriate for the book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Would recommend highly, especially to school programs as a wide spread reading opportunity.

A nice engaging novel I found love the haunted genre of it .love it totally its so engaging make me awaken the whole night

This story had a lot of promise, but it ultimately fell short of its potential. While it builds intrigue, it never truly delivers on the excitement it seems to promise. The pacing is slow, and instead of progressing toward something impactful, it feels like the same elements are repeated for hours. With a stronger focus and more dynamic storytelling, this could have been a thrilling experience. As it stands, it’s a bit of a letdown.

This was a good read. I enjoyed the games that was played and the way they had to play. This was written very well and descriptive. I felt like I was part of the book because it was so descriptive. This was a first for me for this Author but overall I would def read another one!

The Tower
by David Anaxagoras
Narrated by Christopher Gebauer

The Tower by David Anaxagoras sounded really promising. The idea of it is wonderful. Unfortunately, I feel that this book fell a bit flat. The Tower has a big Lovecraftian feel to it, but I won't go into specifics because I don't want to give away any spoilers. The lack of character development and the speed at which this story moves made it difficult for me to want to finish. Kolby wakes up in a white room, not knowing how he got there. What he finds is that he's trapped in a tower with other kids like him, who have no real memory of how they got there or anything else, aside from their name. There are all of the fun things that a kid could want, and participating in "games" reaps wonderful rewards. Kolby realizes that there is something off though, and as he works to unravel the tower's secrets, things start to come to light...scary things.

As I said, this story needs to be re-written to really shine. Character development needs some work and the pacing of this story was rough. The narration was performed well, but even good narration couldn't keep me invested.

Thanks to RBMedia, NetGalley, and the author for the chance to listen to and review this audiobook.

Kolby wakes up not knowing where he is, no memory, no clothes and no idea how he got to the tower.
He gradually makes friends with the other children who are in the same situation.
There are monsters outside the tower that they call the gaunts. Kolby and the children can't be seen on the streets if they are careful.
He tries on multiple times to escape but it isn't as easy as running away, because he always ends up back at the tower.
The narrator did a great job, but he was quite a slow reader and I got a bit bored

I hope to both read more MG books and listen to more audiobooks this year, so I couldn't resist the two-for-one deal with The Tower. I was intrigued by the premise with the mysterious tower and the children having no memories nor a way out... What I didn't expect was for this story to be quite this dark and gruesome, or for it to end up being more supernatural horror than thriller. I'm definitely wondering if it wouldn't be a bit too gruesome for the age group... Either way, once the ball started rolling, I can't deny that I was hooked.

I'm keeping this review short to avoid spoilers, because the twists will have a much bigger impact if you don't know what's coming. What I can say is that this story is without doubt quite dark, and it didn't go in the direction I thought it would go. I particularly enjoyed the games and learning more about the tower itself, and it was interesting to see how the kids navigated the whole situation. Like I said before, The Tower is definitely more supernatural horror than thriller, and especially the second half is considerably graphic for a MG book. A bit too much, if you ask me... The ending was a bit underwhelming as well after everything that happened, and it didn't quite answer all the questions.

As for the audiobook itself... I ended up having mixed thoughts. My main issue probably has to do with the fact that the narration was just so incredibly slow; I had to rack up the speed to 1.5x to be able to keep my attention to the story, which is a speed I normally never use. Even then, most of the dialogue felt rather slow, which really surprised me to be honest. There was also something about the tone of the narrator that made it harder to stay focused; I'm not sure if it's the right voice for a MG book and a target group that usually has a shorter attention span in the first place.

That said, the story itself was without doubt engaging. The first couple chapters were annoyingly short (some of the final chapters had the same issue), but once you learn more about the tower and get to know the characters in play it becomes easier to keep listening. Especially the second half is a lot more intense, and I liked the growing connections between the characters. In short: great premise, although a bit too gruesome for the target group and I don't think I would recommend the audio as it failed to do the story justice.

Audiobook Narration : 2/5
Story : 4/5
3 ⭐ Total

I am definitely not the target audience for this one but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The writing was great. Everything was very descriptive (a bit gruesome at times) and because of that it was very easy to picture everything that happened in my head. Of course there was a dash of mystery and it was all very entertaining to watch unfold. HOWEVER, as the story went on I kinda started to lose interest in the mystery of the tower. I think if I had read this in middle school(the target age of this book) it would have become my obsession.
My biggest critique was the audiobook narrator. At first I thought I disliked the narrator because the voice was too slow and a bit Siri sounding. So I switched the speed to 1.25x. However after doing that, it was hard to distinguish which character was talking at times because there didn’t seem to be a distinct change in narration voices. The flow of the speaker also made the book drag a little to the point where I wanted to skip ahead a bit.
If it weren’t for the narrator and I had read this book in print it easily would have been 4 or even five stars. I would definitely give this author another shot in the future!

An interesting premise, but began so slowly that I had trouble staying interested in knowing what the big secret of the tower was. Kids who enjoy gruesome horror stories would enjoy this, but it wasn't for me.