The Glass Hotel

I was excited to read The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel.

Goodreads Stats

Why I Read This Book/How I Heard About It

I read the book Station Eleven after I watched the show on Netflix. Before the show, I had never heard of the story or of this author, Emily St. John Mandel.

Currently, and completely coincidentally, I have two books by Mandel waiting in my Libby account! This one and Sea of Tranquility, so stay tuned!

Goodreads Summary

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star hotel on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: "Why don't you swallow broken glass."

Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for Neptune-Avradimis, reads the words and orders a drink to calm down. Alkaitis, the owner of the hotel and a wealthy investment manager, arrives too late to read the threat, never knowing it was intended for him. He leaves Vincent a hundred dollar tip along with his business card, and a year later they are living together as husband and wife.

High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients' accounts. He holds the life savings of an artist named Olivia Collins, the fortunes of a Saudi prince and his extended family, and countless retirement funds, including Leon Prevant's. The collapse of the financial empire is as swift as it is devastating, obliterating fortunes and lives, while Vincent walks away into the night. Until, years later, she steps aboard a Neptune-Avramidis vessel, the Neptune Cumberland, and disappears from the ship between ports of call.

In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison.

Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.

First Impressions

This book hosts a massive colorful cast of characters, which is something Emily St. John Mandel seems to specialize in. The viewpoint hops around a bit, but the lead character is a woman named Vincent.

Offhand, I love the idea of a female lead with the name Vincent. And, in this particular story, as I followed Vincent through all the highs and lows of her life, I was picking up some heavy "Lucia from White Lotus Season 2" vibes. As I tend to "cast" most characters in my mind, this is how I imagined the character of Vincent for most of the book.

Final Thoughts

After reading The Maid and this book back to back, it occurs to me that I might be mistaken on how I found these books in my Hold list. I vaguely recall some reading lists tailored to books that take place in hotels or involve travel. I must have added a bunch of those to my Want To Read list, all at the same time. That explains why so many books I've read recently take place overseas or in hotels. I love travel, so this is perfectly fine with me. Reading, in itself, is a hobby that allows you to escape mentally, but to read specifically about beautiful, exotic, and expensive places across the sea is my idea of a perfect pasttime.

What I really love about this story, though, is the way both sides (poverty and excess) are so meticulously interwoven. The characters intertwine with one another's lives so perfectly and it doesn't feel a bit contrived. Mandel has a talent for working complex storylines together seamlessly and making it all 100% believable.

There were a few spots that felt long, like they could have been cut out or shortened a bit, but the expert way the author crafts her story warrants forgiveness from me for that.

This is a great story if you just want to escape your life for a bit and peer into the issues of others. When you've seen it all, you will absolutely feel gratitude for the life you've created for yourself. Trust me on this.

Rating on Goodreads

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars.

My rating method:

• I rarely rate books 5 stars. I save this for the absolute best books I've read. You know the ones...the ones that you can't get out of your head, even after you've finished them. The ones you think about for weeks afterwards.

• If a book is really, really good, I'll give it 4 stars. If you see a 4-star rating from me, I'd definitely recommend it to you to read.

• If it's just OK, it gets 3 stars. Basically, it means I could take it or leave it. I'd probably read it again because it wasn't terrible. But not like a favorite or anything.

• If I rate it 1 or 2 stars, I would not recommend anyone read it. It either didn't hold my interest or I couldn't relate to the characters/plot.