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wandering_not_lost 's review for:
Glass Houses
by Madeline Ashby
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Solid horror book with a complex main character and a lot of other characters that you love to hate. Scathing rage at the moral bankruptcy and sexism of the tech industry is kind of common nowadays, but the book uses it well.
I hesitate to say much more, as figuring out who is trustworthy and what they're capable of is part of the fun, but the nonspoilery version is that I actually liked Kristen's character more than I thought I would, given how reviewers gave her mixed reviews. And through the first half to three-quarter mark, I WAS kind of frustrated with how close to the vest the author was writing her - it was obvious from the beginning that she was different and did not react like the usual person, and she knew this and thought about it often, but never in enough words to clue you in on why. Her secrets were all slow reveals, doled out as the author wanted them to come out. In the end, though, I felt like she was a complex and interesting protagonist, and watching her take apart this mystery was satisfying. The ending felt a bit of a let-down, but then usually the ends of these sorts of books do to me - it was very good at ramping up the tension, and there's very few ways to bring out the villain and explain their dastardly plan that doesn't give me a "that's it?" sort of response. But still...highly enjoyable.
Some spoilery talk:
This very much reminded me of Dexter. I liked Kristin because she was so resilient and saw through so many things and took action when she was done taking everyone's shit. She's not a hero, really, since it was unclear exactly why she was choosing certain people to kill and thus it was unclear if she'd ever just killed someone who was completely innocent of anything. I liked that her coworker at least pointed out that Kristin's manipulations were not actually helpful to the people being hurt, but honestly I don't think that was really Kristin's motive. I think she THINKS she's doing it for good reasons, but she's broken enough to not really be a good judge of what is "good". She THINKS she's doing it to help people, but really she's just punishing those she thinks is evil, with no application of her considerable intellect to the consequences on anyone else.
I hesitate to say much more, as figuring out who is trustworthy and what they're capable of is part of the fun, but the nonspoilery version is that I actually liked Kristen's character more than I thought I would, given how reviewers gave her mixed reviews. And through the first half to three-quarter mark, I WAS kind of frustrated with how close to the vest the author was writing her - it was obvious from the beginning that she was different and did not react like the usual person, and she knew this and thought about it often, but never in enough words to clue you in on why. Her secrets were all slow reveals, doled out as the author wanted them to come out. In the end, though, I felt like she was a complex and interesting protagonist, and watching her take apart this mystery was satisfying. The ending felt a bit of a let-down, but then usually the ends of these sorts of books do to me - it was very good at ramping up the tension, and there's very few ways to bring out the villain and explain their dastardly plan that doesn't give me a "that's it?" sort of response. But still...highly enjoyable.
Some spoilery talk:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Medical content
Moderate: Sexism