The Glass Hotel: Not a Book Recommendation

Posted On May 24, 2023

Hi Readers! You continue to amaze me. Recently, I put on a poll on Instagram to ask which book review you would like to read first. And surprisingly, the most polls were for The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. I have no idea why that book was a preference. Maybe because I rated it at one star. Maybe because most readers love this author. Maybe because you are contemplating to read it based on my thoughts. Either way, I am happy to oblige. I have to mention that I read this book 20 days ago. And, I have read five books after this. So, my recollection is a bit hazy. But, here’s the review with as much as I remember on why I did not enjoy it.

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events–a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging 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. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients’ accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container 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.

~~THOUGHTS~~

After reading the Goodreads blurb once again, I must tell you that the blurb itself sounds ten times better than the actual book. From this description, you might be intrigued and would want to read the book. I won’t blame you. I fell for it myself. Because how can a book that has a Ponzi scheme and a disappearance of a woman not be thrilling? Well, it isn’t. The actual story runs entirely on the surface and never once dives into a deeper level. What is described in the blurb is exactly what happens. There is no hidden meaning or connection to other events that transpire. No matter how much you want to read the book based on the blurb, I implore you not to. There was simply no point to the story. The book has a non-linear story telling with not remotely a stable structure. It has glimpses of a mystery, but it really is simply contemporary fiction at its worst.

Aside from the mind numbingly simple story telling, the characters are nothing to write about. I did not care for any of them. Vincent disappeared, but I did not care if she died or was murdered. Paul comes in and out of the story erratically that it made me wonder if the author was indecisive to even have his existence. Jonathan Alkeitis, the man behind the Ponzi scheme, could not have been written more plain. There is no aura of evil or enigma behind him. Olivia and Lucas’ story did not have any impact in the universe of the book. All the minor and even more minor characters were named. Who needs that? I did not care for any of them.

I truly wanted to understand why so many reviewers loved this book. Surreal. Dreamlike. Experimental. Otherworldly. Poignant. Atmospheric. These are the words used to describe The Glass Hotel. And yet, I stand with my opinion. There are too many themes, too many attempts at being something, too many flaws and yet the story is quite plain. Majority of these themes are touched upon in just one chapter each. Just because there is one chapter about ghosts and another paragraph about solitude and another bit about money and greed, does not make the book in itself poignant but fails at being pseudo literary. It’s too many chefs ruining the final dish. I would not recommend this book to anyone. I have rated The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel at 1/5 stars.

Until next time,