The Glass Hotel

by Emily St. John Mandel

EPUB, 320 pages

English language

Published March 24, 2020 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-0-525-52114-3

(88 reviews)

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events—the exposure of a massive criminal enterprise and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea. “The perfect novel ... Freshly mysterious.” —The Washington Post Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis's billion-dollar business is really nothing more than a game of smoke and mirrors. When his scheme collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is …

In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.

14 editions

Marty reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

A sprawling exploration of delusional characters

3 stars

Content warning Set against 'Station Eleven', slight spoilers for both ahead

A slow and meandering exploration of an assortment of characters' lives falling between awkward, delusional and detestable. Meandering also, unfortunately, in the worst way. Unlike Station Eleven, which used its early shifting view-points to introduce a broad range character perspectives and juxtaposed social dynamics for a relatively early narrative subversion such a thing never occurs here.

And where Station Eleven continued to ever narrow towards its ultimate strands of storytelling, reigning in its scope to keep up tension, no such attempt is made here. As a book it feels less tight, more mundane - which may indeed be the intention and part of the appeal for some.

That being said, the actual word-smithing of St. John Mandel I find continuously evocative and occasionally bleakly poetic. While I personally feel like the prose here tries to punch above its weight for poignant observations it also, at times, manages to evoke an undercurrent of rage against systematic issues over solely individual choices which is appreciated.

Ultimately, having also read Station Eleven without any prior knowledge on content or context, I would hesitate to recommend this book over it, though I recognize my strong impression of the former may have colored my expectations here.

NB The audiobook read by Dylan Moore is a treat, perhaps my preferred way of experiencing the book.

quaad reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

This book infuriated me but i still finished it.

2 stars

Content warning maybe spoilers or not but just in case

I gave up on this once but decided to finish it because of supposed easter eggs that connected this to Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. It turns out there were common elements, but they seemed more like recycled incidental characters and situations than some kind of connective thread. we get a quick peek at the author of the Station Eleven graphic novel, working on it, maybe.

I think Mandel is a very good writer; her descriptions are compelling and she creates characters that have the potential to become interesting. but they don't. She tries to give minor events dramatic significance that doesn't really play but the central event of the story falls flat. Pages and pages are devoted to bland, amoral mediocrities while the few sympathetic characters get a few short passages. oh, and ghosts ()?

Sharyl reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Beautiful life study...

4 stars

This novel is a creative and well-written blend of real and imagined stories involving the Bernie Madoff scandal and an interesting female protagonist named Vincent Smith. I enjoyed it very much, and admire the nonlinear storytelling style that was laced with mystery. I absolutely recommend it.

Cheryl reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Can't Get No Satisfaction

2 stars

I had to make myself finish this one. Self-made tragedy, financial ruin porn, and schadenfreude. The edifices of self-delusion are very human but feel like wallowing.

Koven Smith reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Strangely compelling

4 stars

I felt like I never really understood what this book was about the whole time I was reading it, and yet I found it strangely compelling. I got sad as I saw the end of the book approaching. I think I'll be returning to this one.

V171 reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

In a lot of ways, this book almost felt like a test run for Station Eleven, which was a book that meticulously constructed to create an engaging story line crafted from carefully woven together narratives. This felt a bit less polished. It certainly wasn't a bad book; quite the opposite. I enjoyed it. I just simply did not care. I didn't care about any of the characters. I didn't care about their connections. The way each character POV was associated with every other character POV felt topical and not well thought out. There were very few moments of "Oh that's an interesting connection that adds additional context to the story." and more moments of "Why do I need this character's perspective on what's happening? What does this add? I don't care about this person."

The only thing that potentially elevates this book is the context of Station Eleven. The knowledge that the story of Station Eleven happens very shortly after the events of this book really drives home the message I think it's trying to convey. It exists as a foil to Station Eleven in the sense that seemingly world altering events, like losing your entire life to a ponzi scheme, absolutely pale in comparison to the fall of civilization. That both things can be devastating in their own way even though one is objectively worse. When considered in the larger world that you get in Station Eleven, this is an excellent companion novel in painting that juxtaposition. However, I believe in reviewing books based on their merit alone and try to not use another book as the baseline when possible, so on its own, this book was simply middling. If the author wanted highlight this juxtaposition of individual's perspectives of world-ending events between the two books, there should have been more cross referencing, or even formally pitching this as a prequel.

Would I recommend this? Yeah sure, it was good enough. If you haven't read Station Eleven, this will be a sort of interesting look at how lives can be ruined via financial corruption. But you'd really get the most out of it if you have read Station Eleven first.

ManyRoads reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Meandering, purposeless, boring, and, oh well you get the point. I did not make it more than 70 pages before I felt the need to pull my remaining hair. I like Station Eleven but this.... nope.

benwerd reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Her writing style takes a lot of getting used to: not so much plot as collage. I spent the first third to a half wondering where we were going. Still, there's an interesting story here, and well-drawn characters. The themes take some teasing out but are rewarding.

CuriousLibrarian reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Like Mandel's other books she develops strong and interesting characters so quickly its hard for me to give them up when she moves on to others. I got a little lost in the middle, but loved the way she brought it all back around towards the end. So clever.

Rainer reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Sad, Poignant, Beautiful

5 stars

This book is so beautiful, so insightful, and so sad. This story is a deep-dive into the different worlds that we can often fall into. It's an examination of wealth, poverty, addiction, guilt/shame, stealing to get by, making art for art's sake, making art for ambition's sake, greed, dread, and so many more things.

As someone whose family was significantly impacted by the 2008 financial crisis (and let's be honest, whose wasn't), I found that entering back into the world of watching white collar criminals squirm was like a warm blanket. There are a few scenes in the book where various financial criminals are overtaken by waves of dread and it felt like such a balm to my soul to experience their suffering as a reader and then to remove myself back into the cozy world of my own little reading nook.

The Glass Hotel is not a feel-good book, …

The Glass Hotel is not a feel-good book, but it's a damn good one.

janson reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Waned later on, with tidy touch ups to make all right.

GG reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I read this novel because I recently re-read “Station Eleven” (after watching the series) and was reminded of how much I liked it. However, while this book follows the same formula as Station Eleven — seemingly disconnected characters who are unwittingly linked together — the background setting of Station Eleven (a post-pandemic world where almost everyone is dead) is fascinating enough to keep you reading through the storylines and character arcs that end up going nowhere. In this novel, however, the background setting is mundane: A hotel, Toronto, rich people in New York, etc. As a result, I ended up being much more focused on the fact that almost every plot line and character’s story seems to just peter out. As in SE, some things come together at the end, but getting there, in this novel, is a much less satisfying read.

gabe. reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I really liked this book, but I have a hard time articulating why. I'm not sure exactly what it was about, but I did enjoy reading it. It was like a stroll through the lives of several unrelated (mostly) people, connected by chance. Something about the world being a small place, and diversifying your investments.

Adrián Astur Álvarez reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Really liked this one. In fact, I think I like this novel more than Mandel's Station Eleven. I even like the way the two books stay in thematic dialogue. Highly recommended as a bonus read for fans of either the book or the HBO series.

Sean Gursky reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Vincent swam every night to strengthen her will because she was desperately afraid of drowning.

As I neared the end of the book I tried to imagine how I could summarize it. What is the quick recap that can explain what this is about? Is this a story about a hotel and the lives that are interconnected through a period of time?

Or is the story about the web of people Vincent and Paul interacted with and how they continued to bounce around in that sphere of familiar circles? Or is the Ponzi scheme and financial fallout the focus of the book?

For a book without an immediate identity I enjoyed reading it. Emily St. John Mandel crafts an eerie and almost haunting story. I felt as isolated as the guests in the hotel reading this book. There is a sense of isolation and dread but also beauty in the words. Even as I was trying to understand and determine what the book was about I enjoyed the meandering trip it took me on.

All the videos are either beautiful or interesting, but not beautiful or interesting enough, without music added to them.

The story is the equivalent of Vincent's videos and Paul adding a musical score to it. The five minute clips are the characters we get in The Glass Hotel. We receive a glimpse in to their life, and move on. Without the soundtrack the videos aren't as interesting, so without an ensemble of characters and their experiences, a clip on its own wouldn't make sense.

Even as it is, the actions of the characters seem to follow one poor decision after another but those decisions and resulting shared experiences are what bind them to each other.

In their late thirties they'd decided not to have children, which at the time seemed like a sensible way to avoid unnecessary complications and heartbreak, and this decision had lent their lives a certain ease that he'd always appreciated, a sense of blissful unencumbrance. But an encumbrance might also be thought of as an anchor, and what he'd found himself thinking lately was that he wouldn't mind being more anchored to this earth.

The book is a strong 3 stars but not quite 4, but the haunting veil the story has cast on me may linger for a while and have me reconsider the rating at a later time.