Emily St. John Mandel is a wonderful writer who weaves beautiful stories. I tried not to compare this to Station Eleven which is truly one of my favorite books. It is certainly different and stands on its own. I will say I was a tad uninterested in the involved story line of a Ponzi scheme. I would have loved to spend more time with the main characters. Still a wonderful literary fiction read.

I first read Station Eleven, by Mandel with my local book club last year. I thoroughly enjoyed how she builds a story around devastation, destruction, and growth born out of necessity and survival. It is to this point, one of my favorite dystopian novels.

Once I heard she was releasing another novel, this time The Glass Hotel, I was extremely excited to dive into the exquisite world of Emily St. John Mandel’s writing style.

The Glass Hotel spends time building the exposition, allowing you as the reader to dive into the mind’s of each character present- Vincent, her brother Paul, Jonathan Alkaitis, Olivia- but once you’ve received a little sliver of each character (and you’re going to want to be patient, by the way!), the rest of the story: WHOA!

If you are someone that needs action on the first few pages, it is there, but be patient, and give this novel a chance. Her writing is stellar, as expected, and the storyline itself is so intriguing.

As suspected, the novel slowly burns through part one, introducing you to the main characters’ backstories in a seemingly haphazard [y’all know it is NEVER haphazard with authors like Emily St. John Mandel] landscape of puzzle pieces. By reaching page 200, you’ve effectively been transformed into a scandal of Bernie Madoff proportions, worthy of Olympic-style speed page turning sport.

As Vincent takes off her wedding ring, tossing it into the garbage, I was struck with Madel’s silent commentary on the scandal at hand. The flippancy with which the rich toss aside the hard work, the savings, the money of others impacted by a Madof style scandal, as if ti is an inconvenient truth best done away with as quickly as possible.

I appreciate Mandel’s effort towards basing her novels around real-life events that can impact us in the most horrific of ways [ a failure of systemic proportions, the loss of an entire life’s savings]. It makes her novels, while polar opposites, attractively connected to all of us as readers. I see this novel resonating VERY differently with each reader, depending on his/her age range, as well as personal memories of the Bernie Madoff scandal. If you aren’t versed on the topic, read a little of the former headlines; a living history is a must.

Emily St. John Mandel has a way of writing that feels like magic, before writing this review I looked back on my review of Station Eleven and noticed a piece of my review that I could have just as easily written for this book.

"Sometimes with books that have various intertwining storylines and characters I have trouble connecting to and truly caring about some or all of the characters. Either finding specific ones that I look forward to reading and others whose parts I find tedious, or finding all of them interesting in their own way but not really forming emotional attachments to any of them. This book was different, each of the characters that it spent time with felt like a real person to me, they were people I came to care for and people who seemed able to exist beyond the pages of a book."

It's like all of the characters belong to the same constellation, they're interconnected some more deeply than others, but they're also separate, individual, and living their own lives.

The story here is very different from Station Eleven, set before during and after the financial crash of 2007/2008, but more about tracking people's lives around it rather than the thing itself. And while this book is more rooted in reality rather than speculation, it has a similar dreamlike quality with something just beyond our ability to conceive of flickering at its edges.

I also really love the energy of the prose, it feels frenetic at times, but there is a masterful control to it so that just as you wonder if you've gone completely off topic you find yourself circling back to something from earlier that ties everything together beautifully. Storylines that might feel forced from a less skilled storyteller feel fluid and realistic here.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy, I loved this book and can't wait to share it with others.

I stayed up until midnight to finish this new novel of Emily St. John Mandel's and I would have it no other way! I would be surprised if someone possessed the self-control to draw out the reading of this one. It was compelling, amazing, and I loved it just as much as I loved Station Eleven. Perhaps more. But the two are different and I intend to share a longer review closer to the publication date. This is one of those books I'll be thinking about for a long time, and I'm certain I'll re-read it as well. The characters are so well-drawn--the thing about reading a book like this quickly is that it's sad to say goodbye to these characters that Mandel so expertly shared on the page. The focus on the Ponzi Scheme was incredibly fascinating--I don't think I can say enough wonderful things about this story, but I'll stop now and share more when the publication date is nearer! Thank you so much for the advanced copy!

*Thank you Knopf for the free copy!

A compelling read with a cast of fascinating characters and unique plot. The Glass Hotel is difficult to describe, but it mainly focuses on a group of individuals who are connected through a complicated financial scheme. A hotel located far from civilization serves as the impetus for their pivotal introductions to each other.

After reading the first few pages, I assumed this would be another book about individuals who make terrible choices, and I have to admit I wasn't excited to continue. As the other characters and more of the story unfolded though, I was hooked. Over time, a variety of people are introduced to Jonathan Alkaitis, who is running an exorbitant Ponzi scheme. A few become investors, one becomes his trophy wife, another eventually turns him in to the FBI.

Since the book jumps all over the place in time, as a reader you know the basics of what happens in the plot pretty quickly. Honestly, I didn't love this style and was a bit confused at times at where we were in the story. I think the writing and plot by themselves were fascinating enough that we didn't need to jump around. But that's the only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5.

My favorite character was Vincent, first introduced as a troubled teen, who later seizes the unique opportunities offered to her. She felt so real and did an admirable job dealing with the situations thrown at her.

As more details about the Ponzi scheme, its investors, and their lives after its collapse were revealed, I fell even more in love with the book. It's not a fast paced thriller or delightful romantic comedy, but an intriguing take on a very real con and the human reactions to it.

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.

I loved Station Eleven. When I saw another book by Emily St. John Mandel on NetGalley, I just HAD to read it. Luckily I was approved. I read it in two days.
This book was completely different from Station Eleven but still had the same beautiful writing style. Great character development and sympathetic characters. I didn't think I was going to care about them as much as I did. Ms. St. John Mandel's descriptions of the hotel really brought it to life.
I have to see if there are more books by this wonderful author.

I thoroughly enjoyed ESJM's Station Eleven, but did not enjoy the structure of this book. Her writing is still ethereal and beautiful, but the construction of this novel was disorienting and did not flow for me. I won't be recommending it.

What can I say? This is a ghost story full of haunted memories and moments. But there is nothing paranormal here, only the mundane horrors of reality. The ghosts are not from the afterlife but from the counterlife. What could have been if only different choices had been made, unspoken words said, a different fate to follow for the various actors. This is a story rife with coincidence, distorted reflections, and mirrored experiences.

Jonathan Alkaitis is the wealthy financier whose actions lead to the downfall of everyone around him. Yet, most people around him have chosen to take the easy road and follow his lead unquestioningly. When his Ponzi scheme ultimately collapses, few escape it's reach unscathed. His (not quite) wife Vincent plays her role the best. Young, beautiful and always dutiful, she is the Betty Draper to Alkaitis' Mad Man persona. Unfulfilled and played to be more naive than she truly is, we see her progress from a grieving rebellious teen into the wide-eyed trophy wife and finally the self-possessed adventurer that she eventually becomes. In the end, her story may be the most tragic, yet somehow also the most fulfilling. Like her mother, she disappears mysteriously into the water at such a young age. However, Mandel writes this fate as somewhat of a happy ending, tying everything up full circle. In the end, Vincent has escaped her prison and in death is finally able to find peace.

Emily St. John Mandel's follow-up to the indomitable Station Eleven is also about the end of the world - rather than the macro world collapsing, The Glass Hotel looks at the lives of a small group of people as their personal worlds are destroyed. It is an intricately and delicately plotted story about the end of a Ponzi scheme, which touches the lives of every character in the book, and what happens to them after the con is over. I found The Glass Hotel to be a mesmerizing experience that I could not put down. It winds its way through the lives of several characters who intersect at the titular Hotel Caiette, creating a field of characters that are remarkable for how familiar they will feel. I knew almost nothing about this book before I read it, other than it was by Mandel, and I found it tremendous. The kind of book that sticks with you for long after.

Book Review

I HAD to get an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley because Station Eleven by Emily (I like to pretend we are on a first name basis) was my favorite book of the year when I discovered it in 2018, which is the year I read 95 books. The following is my honest opinion.

I do not want to give spoilers, so I’ll just say that the book maintains the same style of storytelling as Station Eleven. Almost lyrical and dreamy, but with realistic characters making major life decisions that keeps the story flowing. There are multilayered situations and characters, and you need to pay attention to everything because every detail seems to have weight. However, the story has nothing to do with the events of Station Eleven and is it’s own reality. (There is a mention of container ships again).

Station Eleven still edges out Glass Hotel as an instant classic, but Glass Hotel is still wonderful and engaging. A must read.

I loved this. The settings were varied and lush. The characters were interesting, yet distant from the readers-- you don't feel like you completely know any of them. The way this novel ends leads you to reread the first chapter again setting you up to continue a never-ending cycle of rereading. Also, somehow, Emily St. John Mendel managed to make me deeply interested in a book about economics (among many other things).

A captivating slow burn and a worthy follow up to Station Eleven. Emily St. John Mandel knows how to weave an intricate tale of epic proportions. The Glass Hotel shows how we are all just storytellers in the end; some of us just tell wilder tales than others.

I enjoyed this book because of how well Emily St. John Mendel writes, but when I finished it I felt like I had read a series of interconnected short stories instead of a novel. The pieces weren't connected quite enough for me to really love it.

Glad to have something new to read by Emily St John Mandel again and this is another one that will be in every book club's rotation. It was compelling and interesting and I always love her well rounded characters. This is one not to miss.

Another wonderful tale from St. John Mandel. I was fascinated throughout and rarely had my expectations met as to what would happen next-I was constantly surprised by where the story went.

It jumps around in time a lot but it’s fairly easily to track where you are and who the characters are at the moment though sometimes it does take a bit of work and some flipping back a chapter.

I found the characters well developed and her imagery is wonderfully descriptive. I didn’t find myself super attached to any one character but I was invested in all of them to varying degrees.

Love, adventure, family drama, drugs, music, prison-it’s got it all.

A quality entry in the "stories spanning decades and continents about tenuously connected people stemming from a minor incident" genre. I like this kind of book when they're done well (including Emily St. John Mandel's previous book Station Eleven).

The nexus of the story is a woman named Vincent. We learn about how she went from being a bartender at a fancy hotel on a remote island in British Columbia to becoming the wife of a Bernie Madoff-esque swindler. We learn about his life, his history, and the people he scammed. We learn about Vincent's family and what she does when her life comes crashing down around her.

I actually thought the most interesting part of the book was a rather lengthy section that started about halfway through describing what the financier and his quintet of guilty associates were doing in the 24 hours between when the found out the feds were closing in and they were apprehended. Even though they're bad people who had done bad things, I was interested in reading about how the chose to handle their fates. We see the stages of grief play out and see how some people choose to collaborate with authorities, or resign to their fates, or flee. I thought it was the best part of a strong book.

I find it impossible to say who the main character of this novel is. There is a large cast of people who enter the story to varying degrees, and there are several locations as well as several themes. It is to the author's credit that we come to care about most of them, even as the chapters move around in time and place. What all the characters have in common is the importance of their relationship to money, both in poverty and super-abundance. The ephemeral nature of financial security is central to the character of Vincent, who in the course of the novel is a dishwasher, bartender, cook on a freighter, and pampered trophy wife. Several characters are both the beneficiaries and victims of Vincent's husband Alkaitis's Ponzi scheme empire, living first in extravagant wealth, and then "in the shadows" of poverty if they even survive at all. With varying degrees of introspection and responsibility, the characters respond to the criminal activities of many of them, giving us a glimpse into the actual dealings and disaster of Bernie Madoff. The Glass Hotel refers to a luxury hotel on a remote island off the western coast of Canada, owned by Alkaitis, near where Vincent and her brother Paul grew up and later worked. It is both a haven and a trap for some of the characters, just as wealth is, and many paths cross there in the unlikely wilderness.

I loved Station Eleven, it is a book I still find myself thinking of years later. After reading The Glass Hotel, I don't think it topped Station Eleven. But I do think it's a brilliantly written book with entirely different goals that packed an emotional and gut-wrenching punch.

The Glass Hotel is about a lot of stuff: a hotel in British Columbia, a brother (Paul) and sister (Vincent) relationship, financial collapse and its effect on human beings, Ponzi schemes and enormous greed, the shipping industry, memory, death, love. It has so much packed into and it's truly a page turner! I couldn't put it down. I did find a few spots kind of slow, but overall I was hooked and really drawn in by the characters and how their lives were weaved together.

Like Station Eleven, it jumps around between times, locations, and characters and as you divulge deeper into the story you figure out how it all fits together. The characters have depth and make it easy to find something about someone that is relatable.
A mesmerizing story.

As with her novel "Station Eleven," Mandel weaves a story of intrigue and multiple characters into a stirring novel. No threads of plot are lost and the ending is revealed not with an air of surprise, but in a sense the reader knew it all along. Her prose continues to be spellbinding, and each character's voice is unique and distinguishable.