Glass Hotel

This novel is a creative and well-written blend of real and imagined stories involving the Bernie Madoff scandal and an interesting female protagonist named Vincent Smith. I enjoyed it very much, and admire the nonlinear storytelling style that was laced with mystery. I absolutely recommend it.

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.

The prose of this bite-size novel is delicious. Its characters are all a bit off-kilter which makes them interesting, their actions alternately alarming and comical. The Glass Hotel is a story about being pushed to the edge and tested. Sometimes you slip into cold shards of glass. Emily St. John Mandel is becoming a favorite.