The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven, is loosely based on the 2008 Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernie Madoff. Partially set in Canada at a remote five star hotel in the wilderness, this novel couldn’t be more different from Station Eleven, much to my disappointment.

Jonathan Alkaita’s (the Madoff character) actions effect many characters throughout the book, and Mandel follows their different story lines. The setting becomes a powerful character as well, whether it is an underground club, luxury hotels, ships or campgrounds, the characters move through different settings based on their wealth or loss of wealth. Everyone in this book is haunted, but it is a different kind of fear than the post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Station Eleven, which was one of my favorite books of the last decade.

Although I still appreciated Mandel’s writing, I was hugely disappointed by this book, probably simply because my expectations were so high. I would say start with Station Eleven and skip this one, but maybe you don’t want to read about 99% of the Earth’s population being wiped out by a flu pandemic during our own Coronavirus crisis, or maybe you do….either way Mandel remains a writer to watch.