The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel

The Glass Hotel

By Emily St. John Mandel

  • Release Date: 2020-03-24
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 1,495 Ratings

Description

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 eventsthe 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 hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.
 
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.

Look for Emily St. John Mandel’s bestselling new novel, Sea of Tranquility!

Reviews

  • Quick beach read

    3
    By angry lisse
    I liked the way the characters were woven together and the theme of “is any one really innocent/ aren’t we all complicit “ was interesting. I was waiting for a little bit more mystery and intrigue though that never quite came… overall enjoyable and felt compelled to continue to finish but otherwise likely won’t re-read in the future
  • The Glass Hotel

    3
    By Paulimeepa
    The title is a bit on the nose. Beautifully written but depressing. Only the main character had any redeeming qualities but she was like a little paper boat going down a sewer drain…life inevitably dragging her down due to no inherent defenses. And waaay too much sympathy for the devils in the story. Too much ennui in place of moral outrage.
  • Moral Compromises

    4
    By Richard Bakare
    “The Glass Hotel” is another brilliant journey through the human experience by Emily St. John Mandel. Her style and the voice she gives her characters is so distinguishable from others. In this novel we get more of that meta analysis on the human condition, specifically on what it means to find one’s purpose in life. What’s different in this book is the timeline and setting. Grounded and in the present compared to her other future-scape novels. The contemporary backdrop makes this book even more personable and challenges your understanding of self accountability. The cadre of players across the chapters have their unique personal baggage and their moral inconsistencies. St. John Mandel, however, does not make it easy to judge them blindly. We are in their lived experience and in their struggles completely. All thanks to the careful framing and character development she meters out over the pages. What really moves me about this book and other St. John Mandel works is that her novels capture the stories of relationships against the bleakest of settings. The Glass Hotel in particular takes us through a deeply human problem. Specifically, the nuanced sequence of events that precedes us making decisions that leave us in a state of moral compromise. What follows is the guilt and isolation from wrestling with that pain. A great read and highly recommended.
  • Suspended Depression

    2
    By She She 1192
    Lives wasted, potential—drizzled over sawdust. I kept waiting for the author’s grip to convince me that these people were interesting…They never were.
  • Masterful weaving of charcters

    5
    By Mama Schan
    Great mystery-ghost story-literary novel. Couldn’t put it down except to sleep for a couple hours.
  • Loved!

    5
    By MJW6506
    Must read!
  • Not my cuppa

    2
    By Kimbo1216
    This is my second book by this author. I think her disjointed style of going everywhere and nowhere writing just didn’t for me. I feel like her books are almost trying too hard to be profound. Or maybe I’m just not profound enough to get it. Idk. But I haven’t connected with the characters or her story either time. I guess I was interested enough to finish. But ultimately disappointed because just as I suspected, it just kind of ends. No real conclusion. No real aim. I also really hate the cover. Actually, that’s wrong. I love the cover. But the cover implies a mystery. A bit of a thrill. The blurb does too. But alas, the reality is neither. And the glass hotel is barely in the story and I’m not sure why that’s the name of the story. Idk. This just didn’t work for me. I almost gave it 3 stars because I could see it becoming a more interesting movie with a good director. And I could see why other people would like this…unique style of writing. But as I wrote my review; I realized just how much I didn’t care for it. So I settled on two stars since I did finish and do see some merits even if I didn’t enjoy it.
  • Riveting Read

    5
    By Cortikay2
    From one of my favorite writers, a breathtaking book about loneliness, risk, and loss. It takes you inside the lives of the extremely wealthy and corrupt hedge funds, to the quiets of small town Caiette.
  • Fun but scattered

    3
    By GrumpyPolarBear
    While the book did make for a good read, it has quite a few characters and jumps between times and characters with almost no pattern. Very unique ideas with events playing into each other or character relationships coming and going but at times, it just feels like the memories from a scatterbrained narrator.
  • Disappointing

    2
    By Racer stacer
    Started off strong, then just rambled to a dull ending

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