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alliekcav's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cmadsen's review against another edition
5.0
Aunt Amanda,
My brain is too broken this summer to write witty reviews so, on this platform only, I will review books via emoji. Please consider this your birthday and Christmas present this year.
With regard to this book.
My brain is too broken this summer to write witty reviews so, on this platform only, I will review books via emoji. Please consider this your birthday and Christmas present this year.
With regard to this book.
dbestrnbsw's review against another edition
5.0
Unusual novel
Through shifting time and shifting dimensions, we learn the story and fate of one of the great Ponzi schemes of the early 2000s. Very realistic and emotionally complex.
Through shifting time and shifting dimensions, we learn the story and fate of one of the great Ponzi schemes of the early 2000s. Very realistic and emotionally complex.
caitiline's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
trve_zach's review against another edition
I started reading The Glass Hotel a couple of months ago when I was still struggling to focus on much of anything, but it pulled me in right away. Emily St. John Mandel’s great strength (or one of) is the ability to create characters that almost instantly hook you. Vincent and her brother’s various struggles are (to start) kind of mundane, every day, relatable (to simplify: a bartender and drug-addict artist search for existential purpose).
It’s not long before Vincent is caught up with Jonathan Alkaitis (a well-to-do bro) and thrust into high society, living as his placeholder wife. Alkaitis is running a Ponzi scheme with money he’s collected from a vast swath of interesting people. When his Ponzi scheme inevitably collapses (and he loses everything), we see the impact that it has on his investor’s lives.
I love this part of the story because it explores the impact of white-collar crime and really shows the ruinous effect it has rather than, you know, glorifying it and then doing nothing about it/sweeping it under the rug. It also implies a lot of interesting questions. What guilt does Vincent (who has become an almost mythical, cautionary figure) have in this/what price do the people who are tangentially tied to these kinds of crimes pay? What price should they pay?
The setting and some of the characters from The Glass Hotel also play a part in Sea of Tranquility (a book about time travel thus, also, anomalies, and moon colonies, and, thankfully, people still trying to make sense of their lives), but it’s hard to talk about that without spoiling (that said, the way the pandemic and future pandemics play a part in the story is great). I read the whole thing during the down time of a double brew shift, and it made the work much more enjoyable (and small blessings like that sure are hard to come by these days).
It’s not long before Vincent is caught up with Jonathan Alkaitis (a well-to-do bro) and thrust into high society, living as his placeholder wife. Alkaitis is running a Ponzi scheme with money he’s collected from a vast swath of interesting people. When his Ponzi scheme inevitably collapses (and he loses everything), we see the impact that it has on his investor’s lives.
I love this part of the story because it explores the impact of white-collar crime and really shows the ruinous effect it has rather than, you know, glorifying it and then doing nothing about it/sweeping it under the rug. It also implies a lot of interesting questions. What guilt does Vincent (who has become an almost mythical, cautionary figure) have in this/what price do the people who are tangentially tied to these kinds of crimes pay? What price should they pay?
The setting and some of the characters from The Glass Hotel also play a part in Sea of Tranquility (a book about time travel thus, also, anomalies, and moon colonies, and, thankfully, people still trying to make sense of their lives), but it’s hard to talk about that without spoiling (that said, the way the pandemic and future pandemics play a part in the story is great). I read the whole thing during the down time of a double brew shift, and it made the work much more enjoyable (and small blessings like that sure are hard to come by these days).
woolfy_vita's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
honeycomber's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
In a book with a lot of shifting perspectives and POVs it can be really hard not to get lost and lose the effect, and have it end up being pretty confusing, but this author does such a good job of connecting the dots she lays out. They aren’t always the ones you expect but it comes together beautifully.
horsley123's review against another edition
4.0
This is very different from Station Eleven - a book which I adored. This tale is set in the past, present and future - and in particular deals with the unsavoury world of financial scams.
There is a large cast of characters which took me a while to get to grips with. At some point another group of people joined in the story and I was a little confused as to what they were doing there - but hang on in there, as it all becomes apparent. Once we had dispensed with the nitty gritty of the Ponzi scheme I really enjoyed the character development and the hint of other worldliness that danced through their experiences.
There is a large cast of characters which took me a while to get to grips with. At some point another group of people joined in the story and I was a little confused as to what they were doing there - but hang on in there, as it all becomes apparent. Once we had dispensed with the nitty gritty of the Ponzi scheme I really enjoyed the character development and the hint of other worldliness that danced through their experiences.