The Glass Hotel

Beautiful and heartbreaking. Another absolute gem from Emily St. John Mandel.

Solid 4

I really loved this author's previous book, Station Eleven, so I had pretty high expectations of this. And it's good, I just didn't love it.

I really enjoy her writing style though, similar to Station Eleven, we study in and out of several different character POVs without any regard for a chronological order. The prose to me is very soothing and understated for some reason, even when bad things are happening. I just like reading it.

However the story and characters here are just fine. There is a decent sense of time and place, but I was never super attached to anyone or waiting to see any particular plot points develop.

Still I did like this and I'll certainly read more by Emily St. John Mandel in the future.

Clever handling of so many interesting characters.

Mandel has this ability to tell connected stories without seeming to be connecting them deliberately that provides an insight into what we all know about the inter-connectedness of lives and how a life can change in an instant with a decision or an event or an accident. I was enthralled from start to finish and want to read more of her books. Magical.

Not what I hoped for (I loved Station Eleven and wanted more), but still a compelling read, although it drags on a bit towards the end, wanting to wrap up the story of every one of the many characters.

The story felt poignant to me, because I spent some time in the company of people who were running a very similar scheme. “It's possible to both know and not know something”, absolutely. I also spent a lot of time in my youth in BC, and some time in Toronto, so those locations felt very real.

Goddamnit. The ending just destroyed me. ESJM's work is my favorite discovery in a long time.

I feel like the synopsis makes this novel seem way more thrilling than it actually is. I was expecting a mystery story (oh, look, it is in the mystery category, wonder why), something that would make me turn page after page and inhale every single word, but what I got instead was five days (not even exaggerating) of struggling to get over with it already.

It isn't... bad, it's just really uninteresting. I did like the writing, I loved how the characters connected to one another, but I was also slightly confused. There are a lot of characters and I'm not exactly sure what their purpose was in this, apart from being there. In the second part, at some point someone narrates in 1st person and I still don't know who that is. Someone who worked for Alkaitis, I gathered as much, but I have no clue who they are.

At first I thought Paul will be more involved in the plot and I am mildly curious about what ever happened to him. Okay, I know what happened to him in broad lines, but the situation at the start of the book didn't get a resolve, I wanted to know more.

I do appreciate that everyone got some sort of conclusion. Well, not everyone, I have no idea what came of Melissa. Or why she was even there, but yes, most of the characters got some sort of conclusion so we weren't left hanging. I also appreciate that the novel is circular, that was a really nice touch. And this is about all the praise I have for it.

I don't know on what basis I could recommend this to anyone. Maybe if you really like vague books, with a lot of themes put one on top of the other, and slightly dull. I can't say I'm sorry I read this, but it required more effort than it should have.

Really wanted to love this book but it didn't click. Smooth read and reasonably crafted, there was just this cold indifference from any of the characters, making it harder to latch onto any of them.

If I were forced to dig for thematic elements, it's ghosts of the past and our own mistakes haunting us and how the fates of all the characters were interwoven by a ponzi scheme a la Madoff.

Vincent was as close as we got to a relatable protagonist, but even then parts of her story and personality were omitted to build to what was, I'll admit, a very well-written ending.

There's a strong undercurrent of isolation and feeling adrift in here that helps keep everything together.

I think I fall into the category of people who wished they were reading Station Eleven instead.

Some parts of this book I thought were really great, descriptions of the Hotel Caiette, glimpses of ghosts you're never really sure are there, Leon's moments of happiness with his wife in their RV, Vincent's remembrances of her mother. But these moments felt really short, and then we'd be back to the Ponzi scheme that seemed to take over the plot about a third of the way through the novel. I don't know, if you're really interested in rehashing Bernie Madoff and the financial crisis of 2008, give this one a try. There's a moment near the end where another character describes Vincent by saying something like “You know how rare it is to meet someone who really loves their life? She would work 8 months and then spend the rest of the year traveling the world.” And I found myself thinking, wow, I really wish that had been part of the book, instead of mentioned in passing by a character who is only around for two pages.

The Nerdette Podcast had a really great discussion about this novel. It was nice to hear that the guest reviewer shared my “meh” opinion, though the host herself did really enjoy the book.

Emily St. John Mandel has a gift for writing about liminal spaces. The spaces between countries, time period, social classes, families, strangers. She creates such a web of deep, complicated, flawed characters and takes you on a time-bending journey through their lives. I hadn't read this before I listened to Sea of Tranquility which is really a continuation and honing of the skills (and several characters) she already had nearly mastered in this novel. While there are elements of magical realism and ghost stories, it's not one of her truly speculative works like SoT or Station Eleven, but it is absolutely worth the read if you enjoyed her writing in those books.

Loved the multilayered twisting storylines, the characters of Jonathan and Vincent especially, the slightly super natural feel to the story. 4.5 stars

Phenomenal book, I truly loved it. The story shifts and goes a bunch of different directions with a wide cast of characters, but everything (as I can recall) buttons up before the end and collects into a satisfying whole. Highly recommended work of literature.

I really, really enjoyed Station Eleven. I was a little hesitant to pick this one up because of the disappointed reviews I kept seeing and hearing, but I'll honestly say without a trace of doubt that I'm glad I read it. It's told nonsequentially, much like Station Eleven, which will give you that same feeling of having to piece together a puzzle. It also involves a world-ending event, albeit on a smaller, personal, financial sense than a global, everyone, pandemic sense, which was satisfying to piece together.

Unfortunately the underlying themes of The Glass Hotel were less interesting to me than the themes of Station Eleven. Financial drama just doesn't get the same imagination cells firing for me as “survival is insufficient” from Station Eleven. I also didn't really like any of the characters from The Glass Hotel, because it's hard to feel connected with a Ponzi scheme operator, a trophy wife, or any of the others impacted by the event. I felt things about them, though, which still earns this book points from me.

I also felt like the ending of this book was a little weak. I was disappointed to find out that the ghosts were actual ghosts, and not Jonathan's guilty conscience driving him a bit crazy. You can spin the ending in a semi-satisfying way if you try hard enough, but I felt like it was a bit of a miss in tone from the rest of the book.

I did enjoy my time with this book though, and if you like her writing style from Station Eleven, there's a lot to like from The Glass Hotel. Just don't go into it looking for Station Eleven 2.

If I promised you a book about Ponzi schemes and ghosts and murder mysteries; about the little things that happen to us in a life that haunt us forever, you'd be psyched, right? You'd think: this book could not possibly be boring. And similarly: I see what St. John Mandel is doing here. I respect what she's trying to do. I love the idea of exploring the things that haunt us throughout our lives; the themes we cannot help but return to. I like the idea of personifying that with magical realism ghosts and graffiti that is disturbing out of proportion to the real world. There's a lot of potential here.

But it's SO boring. Unbelievably boring. Is it me? I can't tell. But all of these characters are so flat, I couldn't care about them at all. I found small snippets I liked: the themes, the descriptions of shipping. But these were buried within ~400 pages of mundane details about mundane characters. Dozens of pages about how tedious shopping is that nevertheless bore details of everything that Vincent bought. Interchangeable characters named Melissa, Miranda, Mirella, Monica and Marie that I had to keep referencing back to the dust jacket to see which one went with which substory.

A close friend accused St. John Mandel of being too pretentious to be willing to write speculative fiction. Once seen it couldn't be unseen: this is overwritten, too shy to lean into its interesting themes. It does not arrive at ghosts, nor Ponzi schemes, nor the ocean, for over 200 pages, instead leaning into day-in-the-life written to the teeth. It felt interchangeable with hundreds of other books trying and failing to be The Modern American Novel

TWs: drug abuse/overdose3.5 rounded down; for now! I really enjoyed [b:Sea of Tranquility 58446227 Sea of Tranquility Emily St. John Mandel https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1626710416l/58446227.SX50.jpg 92408226] and [b:Station Eleven 20170404 Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1680459872l/20170404.SX50.jpg 28098716], but the concept for [b:The Glass Hotel 45754981 The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564199892l/45754981.SX50.jpg 57817644] is quite different so it was a little difficult. I liked and continued to read the first half, but I started losing interest (probably not the best time when everything is being pieced together lol) I still enjoy Mandel's writing and prose! But I think this financial situation/plot wasn't as enjoyable. Still, I liked the concept of the counterlife and Mandel's way of rotating through timelines like a puzzle. I think I'll revisit at a later time

I really enjoyed the first half of the book and was drawn into the story and characters. The second half just seemed to drag and by the end, I had lost interest. The author used her writing technique of jumping from one timeline to another and from character to character as she did in Station Eleven. In this case, the story just wasn't as interesting.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital review copy.

The Glass Hotel is an atmospheric, people-centered glimpse into a Ponzi scheme and how it affects everyone involved. A series of character threads, from the woman who marries the man in charge of the scheme to the naive investor who loses everything, all eventually connect back in some way to a small luxury hotel in the Canadian wilderness. Spanning decades, this work of literary fiction is primarily a tale of the things people do to survive and how they rationalize their actions to themselves and others. While this novel didn't really grab me, and at times was a bit confusing in terms of timelines, it was still a fairly engaging story that will likely interest fans of character-driven fiction.

3.75 ⭐️

I have a habit of avoiding synopses so that I don't spoil the plot, but about 60% through I realized I had no idea what the plot even was, which feels pretty indicative of how meandering this book is. As any other Emily St. John Mandel book, we follow different characters along their intersecting paths through time, so “meandering” is expected to some degree. There were so many paths, though, that it was difficult to parse the actual through line. Eventually, the thread of each character's moral ambiguity becomes more clear: they make choices and use each other out of desperation and survival, rarely with the intention of causing harm. Though there's so much truth to it, the themes felt a bit thin, but also I think it all just made me feel sad. Did I enjoy it? Sure, Emily St. John Mandel is always enjoyable, but I'm not sure if I liked any of the characters, and I probably wouldn't recommend it.

This book was way too confusing to be worth it. Lots of characters and storylines that didn't do much to contribute to the story. The revelation about the Ponzi scheme or its consequences were underwhelming to say the least. The plot summary on the back cover pretty much gives out all the details and the book itself doesn't offer much in addition to it. I gave this a 3-star rating first because the writing style was good and reminiscent of Station Eleven but the story itself was so bad that I think giving 2-stars is also too much. How did this even get on the Goodreads Awards list! Such a waste of time.

Made me feel the way I did when I read Mrs Dalloway or The World According to Garp for the first time. This is the real thing.

“Money is a game he knew how to play. No, money is a country and he had the keys to the kingdom.”[a:Emily St. John Mandel 2786093 Emily St. John Mandel https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1576606299p2/2786093.jpg] is an amazing writer. She knows how to perfectly execute a plot and create an immersive environment. You can tell she puts a lot of thought and research into her books. The characters were detailed and well thought about, which isn't something I see in many books.Meaning, a lot of book characters are just named and have a certain role in the story but don't really have enough of a personality or backstory to fully like or resonate with them. This was the kind of book that is short and fast, but also incredibly slow. I don't know if it's just because of me, but it took so long to read. I think there was just a lot of information thrown at me about topics I either don't care about or know nothing about. But when the Ponzi scheme was discovered, I was entertained. Characters are the best part of books in my opinion. So when they are detailed and actually have personality, the story is 100x better. Getting the different views of each character was a bit confusing, but I found that most of it played out in the end. The timeline was also something that confused me but I think it was just the switching between views. I loved the use of the phrase “kingdom of money”, because it describes the world perfectly. Emily gave us characters that have been in the kingdom of money for a long time while also giving us characters like Vincent and Mirella who were added later on, who didn't fully understand that side of the world. “What kept her in the kingdom was the previously unimaginable condition of not having to think about money, because that's what money gives you: the freedom to stop thinking about money. If you've never been without, then you won't understand the profundity of this, how absolutely this changes your life.”“...that's when I realized that money was its own country.”One of my favorite parts of this novel wasThe Counterlife.It shows Jonathan struggling with incarceration, so much to the point where his reality seems to deflate around him, and he starts seeing his dead friends or clients. But not only was it Jonathan in this situation but Paul and Vincent as well. “But he sees them gazing into the distance and wonders where they are.”“It isn't his fault that his days are so similar that he keeps sliding into memories, or into the counterlife, although it is troubling that his memories and the counterlife have started blurring together.”There was also the portrayal of the Afterlife when Jonathan and Vincent visited each other in their “hallucinations.” Perhaps that's all it was for Jonathan, but for Vincent...The words “why not” were mentioned many times in this novel. Those two simple words show so much of society. How everyone is willing to do anything because “why not?” as long as it benefits them.I love how the whole plot played out in the end.

This kind of snuck up on me; didn't think I cared about the characters but I was crying by the end. Left me absolutely devastated.

I'd been enjoying this read in its initial half, the writing was beautiful and the story quite intriguing. But as much as the first half raised my expectations, the latter half didn't live up to it for me personally as I found myself losing focus and interest. Maybe it's just me and maybe, I wasn't in the right mood to fully enjoy this book.

As slick as the writing was, I was desperately trying to maintain interest. Unfortunately, it's just a matter of differing likes.