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.

Excellent writing throughout and as compelling as Station Eleven. St. John Mandel's fans will thrill to see her excel once again.

Ever since her smash debut Station Eleven in 2014, the literary world has been waiting for Mandel’s next novel. Everyone will be asking: is this as good as Station Eleven? Yes. It is.

While The Glass Hotel isn’t a tale of the end of the world like Station Eleven was, it is every bit as imaginative and exciting. Told from the perspectives of multiple interconnected characters, we are thrown into the midst of a Ponzi scheme gone wrong. Part of the appeal is the vastness of settings in the novel; we travel from grungy Toronto dance clubs to a magnificent isolated hotel. From the kingdom of money to the monotonous daily life of prison. From hallucinations to ghost stories. Our characters are as vibrant as they were in Station Eleven. Vincent, a bright bartender turned trophy wife turned sailor on the run. Paul a tortured soul and wannabe composer. A Saudi prince. An aging artist. A grieving criminal. The Glass Hotel will sweep you up and leave you wanting more.

An aside: There is a brilliant little nod to Station Eleven when a character is imagining various alternate universes and considers what would have happened to the world if the Georgian Flu hadn't been eradicated. A strong theme throughout the novel is alternate timelines and counter lives - possibilities that were missed but might live on in a parallel universe.

Still not totally clear how I would describe the plot of this book. There's an isolate hotel, a trophy wife, a ponzi scheme, threatening graffiti...it's a lot. But somehow it all ties together. The plot twists and turns but it is somehow secondary to the beauty of the the prose. recommended.

This was fine? The writing was good but ultimately I never connected with any part of the novel on more than a surface level. Maybe the problem is on me? When we first see the message on the glass window on the hotel, I didn't care enough to question the specificity of the message - I actually thought that messages on windows were going to be a motif of the story, not that that particular message mattered. And missed expectations of what and who mattered followed me through the book. Because the story started as Paul's story I kept expecting him to be the most central character and he was but he also wasn't because what even is the center of a connected novel like this? I liked all the parts of the novel and I understood the connections between the plots and characters but I'm not sure that I really thought it amounted to more than the sum of its parts.

Also I love speculative fiction but I don't like being tricked into reading it and the more magical realism parts at the end didn't really work for me.

Intriguing book about a cast of characters who slip in and out of one another's lives, not always aware of the impact they have. Melancholic and haunting -- beautiful language and descriptive passages abound. I found The Glass Hotel somewhat reminiscent of "A Visit from the Goon Squad," which is high praise from me. I would definitely recommend this to those who enjoy literary fiction. Very good -- four stars

A phenomenal story that echoes Station Eleven's fragmented structure but (in my opinion) to much deeper effect. The characters are complex and engaging and the plot is thoughtful but doesn't overwhelm the individual journeys of the characters.

The Glass Hotel is at its center a ghost story. The narrative moves back and forth through time in no chronological order. Not hard to keep up with but a little tedious after a while. There’s a ponzi scheme, moving into the “Kingdom of money” and out again. Finding peace in an unlikely place. People dream of their alternate lives in which everything turns out right. . They are haunted by what they should have done. Overall an affecting book with an almost dreamlike undertone.

What a gorgeous book. Emily St. John Mandel does it again creating characters that stay with you, an inventive plot, and unforgettable settings. I loved the callback to Station 11. More importantly loved how she made real the impact of the great recession, and its lasting effects. I want to read this again.

This was outstanding! It almost doesn't matter what tale Mandel chooses to tell because she has such a distinct way of telling it. In this case, the story of ghosts and echoes was as intriguing as the excellent narrative format.

I loved Station Eleven and could not wait to read this new book by Emily St. John Mandel. The Glass Hotel proves that she is truly a gifted writer and I am definitely a fan. I highly recommend The Glass Hotel.

The Glass Hotel is a beautiful luxury resort located on an isolated island in British Columbia. The hotel is as much a character in this book as the people that are connected to it. The story drifts among the disparate, but loosely connected characters as they deal with the repercussions of the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Jonathan Alkaitis.

I am still absorbing this book. I could go into the different characters and what parts they play in the story. I could discuss metaphors and other ethereal aspects of the story. But I'm not going to. I believe this book just needs to be experienced. It is well worth it.

First of all, I want to say thank you so much to Knopf Doubleday Publishing and Netgalley for my advanced review copy. I didn’t get to read Emily St. John Mandel’s other book, Station Eleven, but I’ve heard great things about it.

There are two main characters in the book, Vincent and Paul, and the book follows their lives from the 1990s-2010s. It revolves around a Ponzi Scheme, which I have always found very interesting. There is a Bernie Madoff like character so you can imagine this is a similar story to what happened with his Ponzi Scheme.

While this is an important part of the book, it isn’t the only part of the book. The rich and interesting characters are really what made the book for me. I love learning about each character and how the scheme affected them. Something most thrillers don’t have that literary fiction does is character development. I got attached to characters and their stories right away.

While I assumed this was a thriller, it was more of a family drama and a nice change of pace for me. There are many lessons to be learned from this book and ways you can apply it to your own life. I enjoyed the imagined “alternate realities” and the possible ghosts in the story. While it was different than I expected, I would say it was different in a great way!

Like everyone else in the world, I wasn't sure how Emily St. John Mandel could ever top Station Eleven. After reading The Glass Hotel, I don't think she's topped Station Eleven. I think she's written an entirely different book with entirely different goals that packed such an emotional and storytelling punch, I'm a bit in shock.

The Glass Hotel is about a lot of stuff: a hotel in British Columbia, a brother and sister relationship, financial collapse and its effect on human beings, Ponzi schemes and enormous greed, the shipping industry, memory, death, love. I could go on. But please, don't be scared away by Ponzi schemes or the shipping industry. This book is so hard to describe without making it sound incredibly boring. But it's truly a page turner! I couldn't put it down.

Like Station Eleven, it jumps around in time, in location, in character. And like Station Eleven, you figure out how it all fits as you make your way through the book. Mandel's ability to tell a story is almost preternatural. All of the characters have individual voices, motivations that are relatable, and experiences that are moving. She also knows exactly how to describe feelings and emotions for a reader to truly understand and feel themselves.

Recommended for people who like literary fiction that is actually exciting and moving!

This novel is marvellous, and an equal of "Station Eleven." It's not a dystopian book in the sense that it looks to a bleak future--"The Glass Hotel" is set in several time periods but primarily around the time of the 2008 economic meltdown. It imagines a Bernie Madoff-like character, Jonathan Alkiades, and how his Ponzi scheme will impact those around him. We see him in prison, we see how a two artistic half-siblings will be influenced by him, how a beautiful hotel on a British Columbian island will become a player in the story and how it will shape lives. There's so much to this novel that you have to read it to appreciate its many dimensions. It's a gorgeous work.