Glass Hotel - The Library of the Uncommons

Brian Plunkett reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Great story, characters, settings & writing. Among other things, I really enjoyed the exploration of liminal spaces, of haunting/being haunted, and of life vs counterlife ... and characters imagining alternate paths unfolding if they had done something different. Also interesting ideas about the different "countries" we inhabit - money, sickness, misfortune, shadow, etc. Now I'm really looking forward to reading Sea of Tranquility.

Rainer reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Sad, Poignant, Beautiful

5 stars

This book is so beautiful, so insightful, and so sad. This story is a deep-dive into the different worlds that we can often fall into. It's an examination of wealth, poverty, addiction, guilt/shame, stealing to get by, making art for art's sake, making art for ambition's sake, greed, dread, and so many more things.

As someone whose family was significantly impacted by the 2008 financial crisis (and let's be honest, whose wasn't), I found that entering back into the world of watching white collar criminals squirm was like a warm blanket. There are a few scenes in the book where various financial criminals are overtaken by waves of dread and it felt like such a balm to my soul to experience their suffering as a reader and then to remove myself back into the cozy world of my own little reading nook.

The Glass Hotel is not a feel-good book, …

This book is so beautiful, so insightful, and so sad. This story is a deep-dive into the different worlds that we can often fall into. It's an examination of wealth, poverty, addiction, guilt/shame, stealing to get by, making art for art's sake, making art for ambition's sake, greed, dread, and so many more things.

As someone whose family was significantly impacted by the 2008 financial crisis (and let's be honest, whose wasn't), I found that entering back into the world of watching white collar criminals squirm was like a warm blanket. There are a few scenes in the book where various financial criminals are overtaken by waves of dread and it felt like such a balm to my soul to experience their suffering as a reader and then to remove myself back into the cozy world of my own little reading nook.

The Glass Hotel is not a feel-good book, but it's a damn good one.

Charlotte reviewed The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'The Glass Hotel' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

In one word, I would describe The Glass Hotel as atmospheric. I enjoyed becoming immersed in the world of The Glass Hotel. Yet, the story and the characters did not really hold much emotional strength to me. Part of my disengagement may have been because I hadn't known what a Ponzi scheme was before reading The Glass Hotel. Regardless, I don't think I'll remember this book for a long time. However, I loved Mandel's Station Eleven.