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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby--This is a very fun thriller, with twists and turns throughout. It focuses on a tech startup celebrating the sale of their new emotion-tracking algorithm when tragedy strikes. It's very Black Mirror meets Ruth Ware, with a little bit of Margaret Atwood thrown in to boot. It's a rollicking ride that I can't say much more about for fear of spoiling things. Thumbs up.
thank you NetGalley and the Publishers for the review copy!
Every so often you need a quick thriller to reignite your love of reading, and Glass Houses was exactly that for me.
The story opens with the team for the next revolutionary tech invention, who are on a self flying plane, crashing onto an island. We quickly find out that they're meant to be celebrating, as they're all now massively wealthy as they have been bought out.
The story focuses on their time on the island, where they're struggling to survive, despite the glass house looming over them, presumably with supplies inside. Every few chapters were also treated to a view from the past, before the flight took off.
I have two favorite parts of this story:
1. is that it takes place in an unspecified future, with small dystopian elements sprinkled in. Without much clarification, rules like men and women in parts of the US are not allowed to share a hotel room unless they're married are thrown in, along side of the tech at the center of the novel, a way to create a universal currency based on emotional response. (No more ads in content creation!) The world is eerie enough that you're constantly on edge.
2. I loved that none of the twists gave me reader whiplash. They were fun, interesting, and unexpected, but they fell into the story in a way that was believable, and set up right.
Overall, I definitely recommend this, especially as a summer thriller.
Every so often you need a quick thriller to reignite your love of reading, and Glass Houses was exactly that for me.
The story opens with the team for the next revolutionary tech invention, who are on a self flying plane, crashing onto an island. We quickly find out that they're meant to be celebrating, as they're all now massively wealthy as they have been bought out.
The story focuses on their time on the island, where they're struggling to survive, despite the glass house looming over them, presumably with supplies inside. Every few chapters were also treated to a view from the past, before the flight took off.
I have two favorite parts of this story:
1. is that it takes place in an unspecified future, with small dystopian elements sprinkled in. Without much clarification, rules like men and women in parts of the US are not allowed to share a hotel room unless they're married are thrown in, along side of the tech at the center of the novel, a way to create a universal currency based on emotional response. (No more ads in content creation!) The world is eerie enough that you're constantly on edge.
2. I loved that none of the twists gave me reader whiplash. They were fun, interesting, and unexpected, but they fell into the story in a way that was believable, and set up right.
Overall, I definitely recommend this, especially as a summer thriller.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Violence
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Still trying to fully work out how I felt about this one. The concept was really interesting and unique to me but at times I felt there were plot devices that were introduced but never expanded on. Some elements of the story were also confusing to me as someone who doesn’t work in the tech industry. At times it legitimately felt like I was reading gibberish and I would just kind of brush past that hoping it didn’t affect the overall story. The ending was also a bit abrupt for me and had some loose ends. I think it might make a better movie where I could be shown and not told what was happening?
dark
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for access to an early release copy
How fascinating! Feeling a little tv show Yellowjackets meets Lost, a little Black Mirror episode; and even feeling like I started in the middle of the story, I didn’t feel confused. I felt wanting more.
A look into AI, follow Kristen Howard in dual timelines; in the present time, on a corporate retreat, their plane has crashed on an island. And in flashbacks, the reader is following how we got there. Kristen is clever, interesting, and a fun main character to follow. A plot focused story, leaves you wondering what is this island and is it all just a company retreat. The story really conveys the downside of technology and the abuse of power that comes with, even with little moments.
Overall, the pacing moved faster at times and the story telling could give you whiplash. There were good moments of feminine rage and the story reminded me of a script of a tv show. But if you find yourself asking for something different in a book, this might be for you. I liked this. If the story had flowed a little smoother and the ending hadn’t halfway been an overall cop out from the journey, I probably would have said 5 stars
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Surviving the plane crash was the easy part.
At a point in time some years into the future, an autonomously flown private plane carrying the CEO and employees of his start-up tech firm which just sold for a lot of money crashes onto an abandoned island. Several of the co-workers die in the crash, and the others are slowly banding together and figuring out how they will survive with little food and water and no shelter. Sumter Williams, the boyish billionaire CEO turns as he always does to his Chief Emotional Manager Kristen Howard to get the survivors organized and come up with plans of action. Kristen’s role in the company is part Human Resources, part therapist, and part emotional support creature for Sumter (and quite likely the person on whom Sumter is crushing). They find a building on the island which is huge, seemingly abandoned and inaccessible. Turns out that some people can open the door to enter….just not women. Same holds true of the cabinets holding food and other essentials….they can be accessed as well, but only by the men. That seems odd, but easy to work around. But then people start disappearing. Dying. And the remaining survivors start asking a lot of questions. Was the plane crash an accident, or deliberate? If its wasn’t an accident, was the force behind it from outside or inside the company? Some don’t trust Sumter, others are sure that Kristen has something to do with what has happened. Or what about Mason, the CFO? Finding the answers to those and other questions will determine who, if anyone, will survive long enough to be rescued.
I was drawn to this book initially by its striking cover (clichéd, but true), and was expecting a pure thriller. Instead I discovered a novel that has as many elements of science fiction as it does whodunnit….not a bad thing, just different from my initial expectations. The main protagonist is Kristen, whose backstory is every bit as unusual as her current company role and which may factor in to what is currently at play. An only child raised by parents in a remote Canadian town, one whose life and the myriad daily choices within it were streamed to the world in order for the family to monetize each decision. Want to vote on what Kristen would have for dinner? What she should wear? Pay and you’d get to vote. When the smart house in which they lived caught fire (too much crypto coin mining in the basement), Kristen ran inside when she returned from school in a futile attempt to save her parents who were inside, barely surviving herself and carrying many scars (most though not all physical) for life. What her true role is within the company, how she feels about its new product (an AI-aided algorithm that can allow people using wearable technology to accurately read the feelings of people around them), and what her relationship is with Sumter, is left open to the reader’s imagination for much of the book. The Elon Musk/Jack Dorsey-esque Sumter is similarly a conundrum….is he brilliant or manic? Who has the power in the relationship between him and Kristen? Who is Anton, the mysterious lover who pops into and out of Kristen’s life (and bed)? In a world where the deteriorating climate has wrought hard changes, where crossing borders between countries and even states is subject to high levels of scrutiny, where surveillance of all aspects of one’s life is standard (and generally monetized) there is much to digest here. Not possessing a lot of cutting edge techno knowledge, some parts of the story were a bit over my head (though not the fact that tech men in the future still tend to sexualize and objectify women, who continue to need to work twice as hard for acceptance). The mystery spools out, a bit Ten Little Indians, a dash of Knives Out, and a hint of Lord of the Flies. If you like your thriller laced with sci-fi, you should give Glass Houses a try, as should readers of authors like Katherine Wood, Sarah Pekkanen and Alex Michaelides. My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for allowing me early access to this interesting hybrid thriller.
At a point in time some years into the future, an autonomously flown private plane carrying the CEO and employees of his start-up tech firm which just sold for a lot of money crashes onto an abandoned island. Several of the co-workers die in the crash, and the others are slowly banding together and figuring out how they will survive with little food and water and no shelter. Sumter Williams, the boyish billionaire CEO turns as he always does to his Chief Emotional Manager Kristen Howard to get the survivors organized and come up with plans of action. Kristen’s role in the company is part Human Resources, part therapist, and part emotional support creature for Sumter (and quite likely the person on whom Sumter is crushing). They find a building on the island which is huge, seemingly abandoned and inaccessible. Turns out that some people can open the door to enter….just not women. Same holds true of the cabinets holding food and other essentials….they can be accessed as well, but only by the men. That seems odd, but easy to work around. But then people start disappearing. Dying. And the remaining survivors start asking a lot of questions. Was the plane crash an accident, or deliberate? If its wasn’t an accident, was the force behind it from outside or inside the company? Some don’t trust Sumter, others are sure that Kristen has something to do with what has happened. Or what about Mason, the CFO? Finding the answers to those and other questions will determine who, if anyone, will survive long enough to be rescued.
I was drawn to this book initially by its striking cover (clichéd, but true), and was expecting a pure thriller. Instead I discovered a novel that has as many elements of science fiction as it does whodunnit….not a bad thing, just different from my initial expectations. The main protagonist is Kristen, whose backstory is every bit as unusual as her current company role and which may factor in to what is currently at play. An only child raised by parents in a remote Canadian town, one whose life and the myriad daily choices within it were streamed to the world in order for the family to monetize each decision. Want to vote on what Kristen would have for dinner? What she should wear? Pay and you’d get to vote. When the smart house in which they lived caught fire (too much crypto coin mining in the basement), Kristen ran inside when she returned from school in a futile attempt to save her parents who were inside, barely surviving herself and carrying many scars (most though not all physical) for life. What her true role is within the company, how she feels about its new product (an AI-aided algorithm that can allow people using wearable technology to accurately read the feelings of people around them), and what her relationship is with Sumter, is left open to the reader’s imagination for much of the book. The Elon Musk/Jack Dorsey-esque Sumter is similarly a conundrum….is he brilliant or manic? Who has the power in the relationship between him and Kristen? Who is Anton, the mysterious lover who pops into and out of Kristen’s life (and bed)? In a world where the deteriorating climate has wrought hard changes, where crossing borders between countries and even states is subject to high levels of scrutiny, where surveillance of all aspects of one’s life is standard (and generally monetized) there is much to digest here. Not possessing a lot of cutting edge techno knowledge, some parts of the story were a bit over my head (though not the fact that tech men in the future still tend to sexualize and objectify women, who continue to need to work twice as hard for acceptance). The mystery spools out, a bit Ten Little Indians, a dash of Knives Out, and a hint of Lord of the Flies. If you like your thriller laced with sci-fi, you should give Glass Houses a try, as should readers of authors like Katherine Wood, Sarah Pekkanen and Alex Michaelides. My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for allowing me early access to this interesting hybrid thriller.