The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
Having read Station Eleven and Last Night in Montreal I was really looking forward to reading this book and I was not disappointed. There are similarities to her other novel but this is mainly that they are all written with the same superb skill. Her writing jumps around in time but you are always clear about where and when you are.
At the opening of the novel we encounter Vincent as she falls to her death from a ship. We then go back in time 20 years to meet Paul who had been an aspiring classical musician but who finds himself engaged in so many rehab programmes that he enrols at university to take a course in economics as this is what his mother, who has funded his rehab, will want.
Finding it hard to cope with his course and worried about failing again he takes some pills and ends up with a more pressing drug related problem meaning he flees to take refuge with his half-sister, Vincent. Vincent ends up working in a bar and encounters Jonathan Alkaitis, the “owner” of the hotel. The events of the book take place between 1995 and 2029. The setting for the novel moves between luxury estates, prison, skyscrapers and The Glass Hotel. The author writes effectively about the fact that Ponzi schemes depend on everyone’s greed to succeed. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

Mandel is an incredible writer with a deft hand for world building. The Glass Hotel is the perfect showpiece for her skills as an author and I thoroughly enjoyed the story, even more so than Station Eleven though I may be in the minority for that.

Vincent is a barman at an exclusive hotel. Jonathan Alkaitis is the owner who one day gives Vincent his card which is the beginning of their lives together. However, graffiti is found on the wall of the hotel which scares an shipping executive and many years later Vincent disappears from one of his ships.
What is the connection between the three?.

I love Emily St. John Mandel's writing - she's incredible at world-building, even if it's creating an insular, family world in a real-life setting, and her prose is always evocative yet sparse. The Glass Hotel is so different from Station Eleven in its subject matter, while at the same time feeling familiar in its character-driven storyline and treatment of humanity.

There's something compelling about The Glass Hotel and its characters that pulls you along as a reader and I love the way you can feel just a little bit lost in the writing until Mandel ties it all together with some twists you don't always see coming.

The Glass Hotel is an exquisitely written story, in true Mandel style. It's both nothing and everything like Station Eleven. I can't really say that I enjoyed it though? I liked it, yes, and was intrigued; but I felt like I spent a lot of the novel waiting to see where it was going, only to reach the end and realise that that had been exactly it. If you're coming to this for the plot; you're in the wrong place. Well, unless you have a particular interest in failed Ponzi schemes and/or the shipping industry.

The narrative style was very effective, and needed for the story she was telling, but it never really allowed for us to spend enough time with any one protagonist. And for the ones that it did, I didn't like too much. Again, I was intrigued by the characters, probably empathising the most with Vincent -- yet I still couldn't quite connect to her fully.
I was also a little annoyed that the synopsis basically lays out the entire plot. The synopsis made it sound like the disappearance was going to be the hook, but it actually doesn't take place until 80% into the novel. It's treated as a climax and 'twist' in the story, despite the fact I was anticipating it the entire time.

I already mentioned that I loved the writing style, but I really loved the way Mandel seamlessly weaves from perspective to perspective; story to story; year to year. I loved the commentary on how truly small the world is, on how everyone's stories can be so insular and yet intersect in unusual ways. The somewhat circular structure, the constant ghosts, the return of people and places from the past all seek to reflect a narrative of history repeating itself.
Perhaps this is also why Mandel is obsessed with water imagery. From the location of the hotel on the lake, to the shipping industry, to Vincent's Mum's drowning, to Vincent's video art, to Paul's music, and finally to Vincent's own disappearance at sea. Water is something constant, the ebb and flow of the tide much like the repetitive nature of the world.

Glass on the other hand, acts as a symbol of opulence throughout the novel, or perhaps a belief in the fake wealth that existed before the 2008 financial crash (Or more specifically here: the collapse of Alkaitis's Ponzi scheme). The hotel is literally built from it, and it becomes a hollow shell as soon as his crimes are revealed. The night "You should eat broken glass" appears, literally written on the glass hotel, changes many of our characters lives. It is used as a threat, and actually ends up scaring the wrong man. Taking this symbol further, the broken glass symbolises Alkatasis's soon-to-be shattered empire; his hotel shattered to figurative smithereens.

Dare I say, it's almost like The Great Gatsby, but for a much later generation? Yes Fitzgerald predated, and in many ways predicted, the Wall Street Crash; and yet Mandel is similar in her examination and criticisms of excess, of a society ultimately built on a facade of wealth. Except in her case, she knew the 2008 crash was coming.

This is a very different book from Emily St. John Mandel’s last book Station Eleven but there is no denying it’s just as good just in a different way. It took me a little time to get into the story but once I did I found myself totally absorbed but how can you not be because this author has a beautiful way of writing that makes all the threads in a story weave together making it a joy to read. I’m not going to rehash the plot as it’s almost impossible without giving things away but it’s a brilliant read.
I loved Station Eleven and I loved this book it’s different and one not to be missed, just read it and see !!
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan, Picador for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

4.5 stars

This book isn't really about The Glass Hotel, but rather the events triggered by and around it, and the lives that pass through it, often inter-connected.

It's about half-siblings Vincent and Paul, both witnesses in their own way to the rise and fall of Jonathan Alkaitis, financier, investor, and mastermind of a huge Ponzi scheme that's about to come crashing down.

It's about the water and fear of it; it's about taking opportunity where you can; it's about the difficulties of finding a direction in life; it's about the ghosts we leave behind, or that some of us create.

At first, I found it a little difficult to get a handle on where the main thrust of the plot was going. Who was the main character I was going to get behind? The book doesn't work like that. We flit in and out of a handful of lives, getting glimpses into Vincent (mostly) and Paul (a little) and how they work, or how they react to the people around them. Other characters (and victims of the Ponzi) make a bit impression too - Leon the businessman from the shipping world and Olivia the ageing artist, who believes she's invested wisely for her future.

But this is a beautifully written book and I really enjoy the author's writing style.

Early in her life, Vincent makes a plea, written in glass by an acid marker: Sweep me up.
If you find yourself making the same plea, Mandel will sweep you up with her words.

I really enjoyed the author's last book, Station Eleven, and I was so excited to read this new one. After done so I can honestly say, this is not a great book. Where is the story? Who's the main character/characters? I don't get the structure at all.
The language is good but it's not enough to get this book going.

I'm sorry that this book didn't work out for me because I thought it would be at least four star read for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for kindly providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This story is similar to a real life occurrence of a massive fraud. It starts in the Glass Hotel on Vancouver Island. Lots of different strands which come together at appropriate times. Great Fun.

I enjoyed Station Eleven and looked forward to reading this book by Emily St John Mandel. It was confusing in parts, I did not connect with the characters but the novel was redeemed by beautiful descriptions of the sea, the remote island where the Hotel Caiette (The Glass Hotel)/stood. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was excited when I saw this available on netgalley.co.uk, I had previously read Station Eleven and was blown away by it. Despite this being very different from her last book I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed reading this book. I enjoyed the characters and how they drive the story forward, I was hooked from the first chapter, the characters were well developed and well written. I look forward to reading more from St. John Mandel in the future.

I struggled with this book. I found it hard to get into and the characters were hard to get to know. Once the timeline changed it was confusing and i struggled to get it finished. Not something I would read again

I struggled with this book from the beginning. I did not connect with the characters and the plot. I found it more confusing when the time lines changed. I persevered for a while after reading the reviews but I am afraid I eventually abandoned my attempts to finish it. Just not for me.

Like everyone else who read and loved Station Eleven, I have been impatiently waiting for a new novel from Emily St.John Mandel, so I was delighted when my NetGalley request was approved. The synopsis of The Glass Hotel wasn't what pulled me in (international shipping and Ponzi schemes aren't exactly what you would call areas of interests for me) - I just wanted to read whatever Emily St John Mandel had written.

In some ways, having a success like the author did with Station Eleven is a hindrance - fans of the story want more of what they loved, and in this respect The Glass Hotel was worlds away. I found both the writing style and subject matter very different, and people wanting Station Twelve will almost certainly be disappointed. That having been said, there were thematic links between the two books - a cataclysmic event efffecting the characters (flu pandemic / financial collapse), a narrative with a sometimes erratic timeline etc.

Whereas Station Eleven was lush and beautiful, The Glass Hotel is more sparse and stripped back, filled with morally questionable characters and shady dealings. While the new novel didn't win me over to quite the extent that Station Eleven did, I still loved this book - it's sweeping, and messy, and downright spare at times, but I loved how the narrative linked everything back together, and how there were overlaps with what some would call ghosts and others would call the counterworld or counterpoint.

If you're going into this expecting more of Station Eleven, you'll be disappointed in this novel. If you go in with open eyes, you'll find something just as beautiful, but very different.

Thank you to NetGalley, who provided me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was very keen to read another book by this author after Station Eleven. This was nothing like that book, in plot or genre, but it was equally gripping, fascinating and intriguing. I enjoyed the way the different strands of time and character were interlinked. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

The author provides us with a mystical and other worldly setting, moving from the Glass Hotel to New York, to ship board on a container vessel, with many settings in between, exploring the peaceful life of the waterside hotel, the life of financiers and those who work for them, the privileged life of the wealthy and the hard times of those who find themselves suddenly deprived of the savings upon which they had planned to depend. It shows how the less scrupulous within society effectively predate upon others, using the example of a Ponzi scheme as the most obvious example but suggested in the relationship between Vincent and Alkaitis, a loveless, financial transaction if ever one was depicted.

This is not a follow up or development of 'Station Eleven', it is an admirable piece of modern fiction in it's own right. There are some beautiful passages of writing, some interestingly drawn characters and the haunting of Alkaitis by his victims is subtle yet compelling. This is a novel which deserved careful and attentive reading.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel is a somewhat strange read. I’m finding the book quite difficult to review. The story skips across characters and goes backwards and forwards in time, so does require a bit of concentration and analysis to keep up. Unusually you get to know the characters fairly quickly without huge sections of the book being devoted to developing them. Mandel explores their reflections and regrets and introduces alternative realities and even ghosts very credibly. I found myself hooked enough on the story to pick it up every time I had a few spare minutes. (It didn’t keep me awake but did keep me interested.) Overall I think it is extremely cleverly written and makes this characters real, explores the temptations and moral dilemmas faced by them and gives an insight into the devastating impact of Alkaitis’s scheme on their lives. A lot is conveyed with very little written explanation....by that I mean that there are no rambling descriptive passages but Mandel gets all of this across effectively and efficiently and keeps us engaged, without losing any richness of plot.
To be fair, I’m still processing how I feel about this book overall. I can’t say that I loved it or that it’s my favourite type of reading but I absolutely admire the skill of the author and I was certainly gripped by the story and the characters so that’s a win. I had to go back and read the beginning once I’d finished the book to make proper sense of it. Overall I think 4 stars .....

I read this book while on holiday so I could read it in one day, which proved a good move as there are a lot of random characters and the swapping of timelines could have been confusing if I had been reading the book over a few days. Having said that, I enjoyed the story and thought the book was well written. I didn’t particularly like most of the characters but that’s not really important to the plot. The main character, Vincent was a little too ephemeral for me and I would have enjoyed her better if she was more clearly described. I’ve given this book 3.5/5 rounded up to 4 stars

This is an odd sort of story but I liked it. I read Station Eleven by the same author and loved both the story and writing style. The Glass Hotel meets expectations on the writing style but the story takes a while to get going. I found myself thinking that something needs to start happening, even though I was enjoying reading the life stories of the characters. I would recommend getting through it if you start it and get over the dip in the middle where nothing seems to progress very much.

Having not read any of St John Mandel's work previously, I was intrigued to read something from a new-to-me author, and The Glass Hotel had an intriguing synopsis and an enticing cover. The story is split between the 1990s and 2010s, and is about a Ponzi scheme and its impact on all of those involved. Initially, I thought I didn't know what a Ponzi scheme was, as it turns out, I did but just didn't know it by this name: it's an investment scam. The book weaves together several threads, with heavy focus on the schemer Jonathan's new partner, Vincent: female and many years his junior, as she is pulled into his life, or perhaps joins willingly.

At the start of the story, we meet Vincent's half-brother, Paul, who for me was not a particularly likeable character so I struggled to connect with the book to begin with. One real success of this book is how real the characters seem: I really felt like I knew them - even if I don't like them - and pretty swiftly too. My logical mindset leads me to struggle with the introduction of many characters, some of whom are fleeting, which does happen in this book, but I enjoyed the route it took all the same.

The Glass Hotel slowly but steadily pulls you in without you being aware of just how invested you've become, something I began to realise as I approached the end of the book whilst still wanting to know so much more about the enigmatic Jonathan, and his life both before and after the Ponzi scheme. Much of this is thanks to St John Mandel's writing, which makes me want to investigate her other works, most notably Station Eleven of which I've heard great things.