The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel | Spoiler-Free Review

    The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel is a literary fiction/thriller novel set over the course of the first two decades of the 21st century. We primarily follow Vincent, a woman with a dark past and even darker future, who is posing as the wife of a rich investment broker, Jonathan Alkaitis. When an international Ponzi scheme - run by Alkaitis, who used his investment business as a front - is exposed and hundreds of people lose their money, Vincent disappears as Alkaitis is sentenced to life in prison. 

    I'm going to be honest, it is really hard to describe this book. We follow a large cast of characters, some of which get chapters and chapters of page-time while others are spared maybe a paragraph. However, they are all connected, in one way or another, to Vincent and/or Alkaitis. That was an aspect of the book I quite enjoyed, because no matter how random a character seemed, they always connected at the end. It made the book feel small and intimate, despite taking place all over the world. 

    I also really liked the writing style. Having previously read Station Eleven by Mandel, I knew that I enjoyed her prose, which is the only reason I ended up picking The Glass Hotel up in the first place (otherwise the synopsis would have put me off, as I tend to steer away from political/financial centered books). Mandel has a way of drawing the reader in, without using overly lyrical prose. She's rather straightforward, but somehow maintains that captivating feel.

"There is an exquisite lightness in waking each morning with the knowledge that the worst has already happened."

    However, that's pretty much the end of my praise. It's not that I disliked the book, it's just I'm rather indifferent about it. I didn't feel any connection to any of the characters, no matter how much page-time they had, and as I said before, I never pick up books with predominant political or financial storylines, so that didn't particularly interest me either. There were bits and pieces of the story that I enjoyed, like Vincent's hobby of five-minute films, or Paul's storyline (I found him rather fascinating), but the rest passed by in a haze for me. I think that you can tell it was difficult for me to get into by the fact that it took me 15 days to actually finish the book. I just lacked the motivation to keep reading. I was rather relieved when I finished it. 

    I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars, with a score of 4.86 on CAWPILE. Overall, not the best book I've ever read, but at least I can say that I read it, and get it off of my TBR shelf. And I will definitely still be picking up Mandel's books in the future. Her newest release, The Sea of Tranquility, comes out later this year, and I will be sure to read it.