This was an enjoyable read with flashbacks and flashforwards from an incident in a Vancouver Hotel.

The characters are interesting and flawed. I found the Ponzi scheme part of the plot is satisfying to read as it allowed me to be one step ahead of the particiants, helplessly shouting "no don't do it" at the book.

What sets this apart from a financial true crime thriller is the experiences of the characters after the Ponzi grift falls apart, where things get a bit magical realismish in the best kind of way.

Worth reading - set aside a weekend with a flask and snacks.

Emily St John Mandel's writing is as hypnotic as ever in The Glass Hotel, a novel set in Canada and the USA between the mid 1990s and late 2010s.

The Glass Hotel has a large cast of characters, who let you into their innermost thoughts, dreams and regrets. It moves back and forth through time and is full of odd coincidences and unusual connections. It has a melancholy, yet strangely uplifting feel.

Sound familiar? Yes, it's just like its predecessor, Station Eleven. Yet instead of a flu pandemic wiping out civilisation, here the focus is much more sedate - the collapse of a Ponzi scheme that has conned billions out of its investors.

It's almost like Emily St John Mandel has taken the same world as Station Eleven, yet created an alternate reality with The Glass Hotel, where the pandemic didn't happen.

In fact, alternate realities are a bit of a theme in this book - they are described as the 'counterlife'. Several characters ponder or fantasise about what their lives would be like if they had made different choices.

Despite this book being far less earth-shattering than Station Eleven, I was still completely addicted and cared deeply about the characters.

The Glass Hotel is a beguiling book that I feel certain will reveal more of its secrets when I read it again.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read an e-version.

Compelling and unputdownable. An unusual story cleverly structured in terms of timelines and character arc. I felt the blurb gave too much of the story away - just dive in with this one, it's absolutely worth it. I'm recommending it to everyone!

Thé poetic prose of Emily that I loved in station 11 is back for a new outing. Full of twists and turns that will really pull you in. The threads of the different stories are well drawn together. Another world I would love to dive back into. Fully recommend

A novel which drew me in quietly, but kept me hooked with vivid characterisation, haunting imagery and a touch of magic.

Thanks to all for the ARC OF The Glass Hotel.
A Ponzi scheme, some difficult to pin down characters in different time zones, and a thread of utter greed running through everything. I felt that the Glass Hotel was a bit like the three little pigs who built their houses on some questionable foundations, and sadly it was eventually brought down, in name, usefulness and reputation, if not literally.. Most of the characters, if not very likeable, were quite fascinating and utterly galvanised by greed although it seemed none of them could see that their need for more and more was their downfall. Was Paul the real villain, or was the greed and avarice of his 'clients' the thing that made them vulnerable to his grand and flawed ideas. Culpable in a way, surely. At least Walter found his happiness. He was the least aquisitive yet found his place. An extraordinarily well written, hard to put down novel.

You may be wondering if The Glass Hotel is anything like Emily St John Mandel’s previous novel Station Eleven? The answer is no. And yes.

Don’t get me wrong, The Glass Hotel is a very different kind of book. Its setting is realistic, not speculative. In place of Station Eleven’s focus on art (Shakespeare, music, comics) there is filthy lucre – specifically a Ponzi scheme bearing a striking resemblance to Bernie Madoff’s massive fraud. The romanticism of Station Eleven – its starlit gauziness and heady atmosphere, beauty seen in a wildflower by the side of a highway clogged with rusted automobile carcasses – is dialled down here. Mandel’s writing is as evocative as ever, but her emphasis has shifted. In this novel full of morally questionable individuals, there aren’t as many pinpricks of light.

And yet, common threads do emerge. Both books have a diffuse cast of characters; both narratives skip forwards and backwards, orbiting a central catastrophic worldwide event that forever bisects life into a before and an after. Station Eleven’s was a flu pandemic, The Glass Hotel’s is the 2008 financial crisis, which triggers the Ponzi scheme’s collapse. In both, the fallout from the singular event claims lives, and those that do survive are set to wandering.

There are more direct links too. Characters from the earlier book reappear here, and the idea of parallel universes – first raised in Station Eleven when characters imagine “a universe in which civilization hadn’t been so brutally interrupted” – also recurs. Mandel ties this to her theme of regret: the characters’ rueful ‘if only’ thinking manifests as reverberations between alternate realities, the ghost versions of lives that might have been, had they made different choices.

It’s as if Station Eleven – which had the feeling of a dream all along – is Oz and The Glass Hotel is Kansas. From parallel worlds arise parallel tales, different tonally but, at heart, similar compositions. Mandel’s sensitive characterisations, meticulous layers, and musings on loss, regret and the frangibility of life are all here. It’s just a little less magical. 4 stars.

I read this novel after loving Station Eleven, and although I found the two books to be very different, I was not disappointed.

The author has a real knack for understanding human emotions and the events that shape us as people. I really warmed to the characters and loved the way that the threads of the novel were woven together towards the end. I found myself racing through the final chapters to see how it would end, and I felt that the ending did the book justice.

Reading this book has made me feel keen to get to know the author's other work.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book. I am a massive fan of Emily St John Mandel and this book did not disappoint! In fact I think it is my favourite of all of her books so far.

It was quirky and atmospheric. I loved the dysfunctional characters and the themes of the book. Having recently watched a documentary on the Lehman Bros banking crisis, I couldn't help drawing parallels with this.

The author's prose is descriptive and engaging and the dialog insightful and succinct, and at times very funny in a dry way. She creates evocative pictures and scenes that draw you into the people and the places. I loved the imagery of the hotel itself and felt it almost became a character in the story. I loved the imagery towards the end when the hotel was empty and only inhabited by Walter.

At times I struggled to remember specific characters, as there were a lot, but I think this is just a great reason to re-read it! Overall I loved it and didn't want it to end.

An elegant and haunting novel about greed, deceit, and yearning. Mandel is a wonderful writer who reels you in with a deceptively simple story that reveals powerful truths about human beings and the ways we love and hurt, climb and fall. Unlike Station Eleven, which I also loved, this is not a post-apocalyptic novel, though some may argue that it is seeing that it's about the 2008 financial crisis. If you enjoy lyrical literary fiction about the truths of human existence, desire and suffering, you'll enjoy this. Highly recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

A very different story to the norm The introduction was made me want to start reading.
The story weaves through past and present lives, incorporating contemporary real life topics with fiction.
An interesting and different read.

Really enjoyed the style of this book, and the characters were so intriguing. This kept me interested all the way through and I did read it quickly but I’m not entirely sure I could accurately describe what it was actually all about or what it was trying to say, more than a series of unfortunate, exciting or coincidental events happening over a couple of decades to a group of well-written characters.

I was interested to see what Mandel's next novel would be like, given Station Eleven's runaway success (full disclosure, I am one of the people who thought that Station Eleven was only okay).

The Glass Hotel has a series of POVs who all know each other due to shared experiences. The novel starts slowly with Paul's story, and it took me a little while to get into the novel because I found Paul to be pretentious, and (as the novel goes on), really odious. However, from Paul we move to Vincent, who we follow from an artsy outsider to a careworn lost soul. Vincent is by far and away the most interesting character, and I wish the whole novel was from her perspective. I particularly enjoyed the way Vincent's principal characteristic is an observer who is always performing to ensure others observe her the way she wants them to. Although I did also really like the Jonathan Alkaitis character. Its testament to Mandel's skill as a writer that she manages to make a man who should be utterly reviled into an almost sympathetic character.

The story meanders through the years giving it an almost dreamlike quality. I never had any idea how the story would end but Mandel manages to draw the novel to a close with an ending that I did not expect but was still very satisfying. Overall I prefer The Glass Hotel to Station Eleven, although they are both very different books. If you liked Karen Thompson Walker's The Dreamers I think you would enjoy The Glass Hotel.

I think I could read anything Mandel writes. Am I generally interested in Ponzi scheme-based literary fiction? No. And yet I was immediately sucked in to this story.

Beautifully crafted, flowing prose. Slow builds and sudden crashes. Fragile and resilient characters.

Their lives eddy & whirl around each other, the nonlinear narrative gradually revealing their relationships with other characters and with the fraudulent scheme.

This is definitely one of those books that will reveal more on reread and whilst there are some loose ends, this gives the you more room to make your own conclusions or wonder about certain aspects (there is a slight connection to Station Eleven).

This is something of an origami book, folding in on itself to create something complex and intriguing. At times the picture it paints is rather beautiful - the strange pleasure of wilderness and solitude. It plays well with the themes of freedom. It also explores the coldness of fraud; direct, calculating fraud with hurting victims. And, above all it a ghost story, albeit more conceptually than a horror story. It is clever and curious, with some impressive connections between the many twisting strands. But unfortunately, the pieces ultimately seem greater than the sum. In the end, it's a book that tries to deliver so much it ends up being a story I could respect rather than truly engage with.

The first part of the book sets up the story. I should admire the effort and detail it goes to. But really I found myself plodding along feeling it was filler and wondering what the point was.

Then came the real setup. Many books would've started here. A lot of the first part comes into focus, but in truth, it's actually now we get the main setup. The connections to the first part largely serve to give me confidence that the author will tie up everything at some point.

And then we get to the main story. One that I feel doesn't get the room it deserves. It does tie together a lot of the threads, it does deliver some brilliant emotional writing. And it almost wraps everything up.

Before we get to the final part, which goes to extreme lengths to ensure every loose end is tidied up. Loose ends that, in truth, were never used to their potential and could, therefore, have been omitted.

And that's the most painful part of this book for me. It's two, maybe even three, really good books. But in trying to turn them into one I just found myself frustrated at the potential. Vincent is a wonderful character who follows such an interesting arc. Olivia is a rich character who repeatedly starts to blossom before becoming lost in all the other storylines. Similar fates for both Leon and Walter. In a more focused book, Claire would be fascinating, but she is limited and unsatisfying as she fights for a place in the story.

It's a testimony to the writing that these characters can show that potential, so often they would simply be suffocated in clumsy writing, but Mandel somehow keeps them shining. The pieces of the puzzle would slip into place and I couldn't help but admire the prowess of the author, but it's too much a demonstration of what can be achieved for it to hit my soul. I can heap praise on the ability to make me smile as I saw a random line suddenly gain new meaning four chapters later. It ticks so many boxes for me I should have fallen head over heels in love with this book, but for all the wonderful pieces, I just didn't warm to it, and that in itself is what bothers me.

Just brilliant! An entertaining saga following 4 main characters across a 13 year timeline.
Each of the interweaving storylines captivate and pull you along.

The core of the book is Vincent, but all the main characters lives are vividly sketched as their lives are impacted by a Ponzi scheme gone wrong (when do they not?).

Emily St John Mandel has a talent for putting you right into the heads of her protagonists so the scope of the book doesn't overwhelm their individual story arcs.

Highly recommended!

The Glass Hotel is a novel about connections, guilt, and how the past bleeds into the present. One day at Hotel Caiette, a hotel on Vancouver Island designed so rich people can see the views without stepping outside, the bartender Vincent meets financier Jonathan Alkaitis who owns the hotel. Things suddenly change for her as she becomes part of his life, but his dealings are not all they seem. Also in the hotel bar at that time, her brother Paul is accused of writing a threatening message on the hotel window, and a shipping executive is disturbed by it. Their lives unfurl, together and alone, and their coming together at the hotel at that time becomes a lens for how theirs and others' lives connect.

The narrative spans the 1990s to the future, moving between characters and foreshadowing or teasing events as the ghosts of the past haunt people. The atmosphere can be strangely eerie, whether on a remote ship, a strangely desolate hotel, or in the midst of finance in New York City, and it is this atmosphere and the mysteries with answers lurking not far from the surface which make the book an enjoyable read. At times the different narrative voices get confusing, but the book in general comes together well to form what is not quite a complete story told from different perspectives.

This is an intriguing book which leaves you still asking questions after it ends and wondering what it all means, a business scheme wrapped up in isolation and asking what is real. From the description, and indeed from the start of the novel, it can be hard to know what to expect, but it is worth giving The Glass Hotel a try as it keeps evolving as the narratives progress.

I would normally begin a review with some sort of plot synoposis but The Glass Hotel presents me with a problem. The narrative is so slippery and vague, it really is impossible to pin it down. What is this book about? It's firstly about troubled people and family dynamics and then for a while its about this beautiful wilderness hotel which seems to be a metaphor for something but for what i wasn't sure. For a long time its then about the fallout from the financial fraud of Jonathan Alkaitis but then- by the end- it's not about that either. There is some notion of the supernatural especially at the end but I couldn't really grasp how it threaded into the story. The focus settles on one character and then without any resolution for them, moves away, looks at someone else. It makes for an unsatisfying whole in which the main characters are impenetrable and the sympathetic ones are superficial. For all its complexity, the novel reads well and moves along at a pace with lots of interesting content. But for me it ultimately collapses under the weight of a confused and overambitious narrative.

Intriguing literary novel about a young woman's journey through life.

Vincent's life begins in British Columbia and involves a varied set of circumstances, both upbeat and surprising. There are many interesting characters, friends, family and acquaintances, that pop up repeatedly in her life.
It's also a novel about criminal enterprise and its long-reaching consequences affecting all the characters in different ways.
Many flashbacks impede a natural flow to the story but generally the novel is quite engaging and it's a worthwhile read. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully woven narrative about a diverse group of people who have been affected by a Ponzi scheme run by Jonathan Alkaitis. Richly imagined, atmospheric and melancholy, the story moves back and forth in time, lives before and after Jonathan’s scam was discovered, shifting between reality, alternate reality and memory.

Jonathan, sentenced to several lifetimes in prison, imagines a counterlife, a parallel life where he avoided imprisonment and finds “a creeping sense of unreality, a sense of collapsing borders, reality seeping into the counterlife and the counterlife seeping into memory”. Vincent, a bartender in the hotel of the title, owned by Jonathan, becomes his pretend wife for a time and is whisked off to a life of such luxury that seems unreal, “she was struck sometimes by a truly unsettling sense that there were other versions of her, other Vincents engaged in different events”.

“Money is a country” is a phrase Mandel uses more than once to highlight the greed, the avarice of Jonathan and his associates. When it disappears in a puff of smoke, ordinary people who’ve invested their retirement funds or lifetime savings in Jonathan’s scheme find themselves living in shadowlands, surviving on the margins of society, adrift. One of the bigger investors commits suicide, another suffers a heart attack and dies. Their ghosts shuffle about the prison yard while Jonathan slowly loses his mind. For decades, his investors were impressed with high returns on their investment, it almost seemed too good to be true and it was.

The Glass Hotel is a poignant book and a compelling read. Highly recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan and Picador for the opportunity to read The Glass Hotel.