Updraft - Fran Wilde
Updraft is set in a world in which people live in bone towers, high above the clouds. They are ruled/controlled by the Singers, mysterious grey-robed people who live in the Spire at the centre of the city and only visit the towers for ceremonial purposes, to sentence Lawsbreakers (usually harshly) or spirit children away to train.
Kirit, an inhabitant of one of the towers, inadvertently breaks one of the Laws and reveals a talent that interests the Singers very much: her voice can scare away skymouths, huge invisible monsters which swallow fliers whole. (Did I mention the people can fly between the towers? The people can fly.) She's forced to trade away her future in the tower for the good of her family, and goes to train in the Spire, only to find that the Singers have lots of Dark Secrets.
Personally, I just found Updraft quite generic. There were points which could have been explored more fully to make the book more complex - the Singers do evil things, but for the good of the city - but in typical YA fantasy style they get waved aside in favour of teenage angst. And I got a bit lost in all the layers of secrets and politics - I think I find that kind of thing difficult to follow in an unfamiliar world.
But it wasn't offensive, so I can see how someone else's mileage might vary.
