I hate to say I really didn't like this book. It was a little rambling and incoherent and while I thought it was going to fall more into the thriller spectrum, it was more about ghosts? I think? But also about Thai politics? I don't know, it really didn't work for me.

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got me to read on even though it was among 296 other books I’m charged to read.

…here life was in limbo. Things never evolved or progressed. It was a paradise of enforced mental idleness…It was a refuge, a prison, a fantasy, and a luxury living machine all at once.”

A near-perfect allegorical tale of the worlds we make to inhabit all by ourselves, and realize all too late that we're all alone in our Glass Kingdoms.

The story begins with Sarah, and her secrets, like everyone else's, are revealed slowly. She has a complicated relationship with her past, which she is trying her best to escape and forget. She believes she can achieve both at the Kingdom, a steel-and-glass structure, with nameless occupants, where privacy is preferred over friendliness, and everyone is hiding something. Sarah meets some of the other residents, and befriends some of them over the course of the story.

The writing is prescient and insightful in its depiction of residents who all want to build walls around themselves. There are deep and serious tensions brewing in the city, just outside the high walls of the Kingdom, and while everyone clearly is aware that something's happening or going to happen soon, no one really wants to know anymore, and wants no part of it. They couldn't be bothered to, high up in the floors of the Kingdom, where not many sounds reach from the ground and streets below, and the residents get to look down upon the world below, literally and figuratively.

The pressure is building up, and as you proceed into the story, you realize there's something in the background, in the shadows, that's growing by the minute. The author does a great job of building up obvious tension, while nearly all the characters are busy downplaying it. The evocative descriptions of the rain are truly surreal, and the colorful descriptions of the backstreets and alleys with shady businesses and crowded street-food vendors sounds very convincing and realistic.

There were some parts where one might feel the story is sort of meandering and dragging, but the confident writing is alluring enough for you to turn the page and carry on. The characterizations are interesting enough without evoking your disgust, but not really stoking your empathy either. They are flawed and three-dimensional, with complex traits and desires.

Overall, a splendid study of expats in the orient, well paced and a with well-maintained simmering tension all through.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. Though I found the plot hard to follow at times I enjoyed this book.

I love dreary atmosphere in books, but this one's not particularly character driven or plot driven, which is a struggle for me. To no fault of the author, I'm just not one for books that sort of embody places to drive the story, I'm always left wanting answers. The writing is stunning however, and the first half was compelling and transportive--I just wanted more from it in the end.

The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne is a slow burn novel with a distinct sense of place, history, and culture--however detached from Bangkok. The novel largely takes place in the Kingdom, which is a huge, aging high-end apartment complex with a glass façade. Expats and the formerly affluent largely make up its population. It was a once grand complex that has faced limited updates/renovations following massive economic downturn some years before. The novel loosely revolves around Sarah Mullins, a woman who has recently left New York seeking anonymity. She begins to interact with those that live and work in the Kingdom and this propels the story forward. There is not a lot of action in the first half, but I found it interesting learning what had brought each character to the apartment complex. I didn’t really connect with the characters, but the novel itself was very atmospheric and beautifully written.

Thank you Random House / Hogarth and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

As other reviews have noted this is really a book about the atmosphere of Bangkok. The characters are very secondary. The writing is excellent and you feel transported to the city. It is a slow burn and ultimately the choices of Sarah, the main character are baffling. There is not much of a timeline, so you can't tell if the events happen in a matter of weeks or months. Interesting book, just maybe not for plot driven types.

Part thriller, part dystopia, Lawrence Osborne gives Graham Greene a run for his money in this dark tale of intrigue, obsession, and secrecy. This book will sweep you into its dark current from the first page and won't release you until it's last.

Really enjoyed this edge of your seat thriller.Set in Bangkok the city becomes a character vin this haunting chilling book,A true page turner the author never fails to engage me keep me turning the pages,#netgalley #randomhouse

Great writing but ultimately I felt that the story fell flat and meandered quite a bit. Characters were never fully flushed out. Will definitely give this author another try, prose was beautiful.

Unfortunately this book didn't work for me, but that doesn't mean there aren't many people that would enjoy this. I just couldn't connect with the character or understand her decisions, but the writing was beautiful.

I think it is just personal opinion and preference, but this book was just lacking something for me. I liked the way it was written and I liked the overall writing, but it just didn't get a full 5-stars for me. I did enjoy the cover art; it really pulled me in and made me want to read this book. Surely, other people did love it and I am very thankful to have read it. Trust me, I really wanted to love this one because the premise sounds great and the cover is gorgeous!

When I saw that Lawrence Osborne was coming out with another novel, following Beautiful Animals, I immediately clicked the 'request' button. In addition, admittedly, I was lured in by the hypnotic cover. However, I didn't find this book in the same vein as Beautiful Animals. It didn't strike the same chords for me. That's not to say that it was bad by any means.. it just wasn't as special as Beautiful Animals. I hate comparing two books. In a nutshell, I would definitely try this one. It was unique and had excellent writing, it just took me a little bit to get into the flow of the novel.

American Sarah Mullins has come to Bangkok, Thailand looking to hide away. She rents an apartment in the high-end complex called The Kingdom. She soon meets three other mysterious women there: the married Nat, who is a British hotelier; Ximena, the Chilean chef; and Mali, the most mysterious of them all. But political unrest causes upheavals and violence in the streets surrounding The Kingdom that begin to work their way inside the complex, causing feelings of unsafety for the residents and revealing its inhabitants’ secrets. I love Bangkok and this setting and book definitely did it for me!

Ooof this was not a good book. I picked it up because I love reading books set in Bangkok, the city I grew up in, but perhaps I should have been a bit more hesitant to read a book in a genre that wasn’t meant for me - however, I’m not sure what genre this book is supposed to be! I was looking forward to a thriller or a crime novel, but it ends up being a rambling, incoherent novel that’s maybe about ghosts? But also about Thai politics? There is no plot and the characters are under-developed and I have no idea what their motivations were, or what happened to most of them in the end. I have to give it 2 stars because of all the place-droppings from my youth that made me so happy to see one writing (especially the mall I would frequent every weekend in high school), but it’s a mess of a book that sadly does a disservice to the fine city of Bangkok.

Fleeing to Bangkok after a con job netting her hundreds of thousands of dollars, Sarah finds herself among ex-pats living on the edges, their lives falling apart as the Thai government also falls apart. Good picture of Bangkok and thought-provoking.

I like some of Osborne's work, some at five star ratings but this didn't really work for me. Maybe a little too slow. The main character, American, was the con artist before but soon becomes the con victim while she hides out in a strange Bangkok apartment. Money exchanging, power plays and murder ensue while the City goes on lock down. I definitely will read this author again although this novel fell short.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

This book should probably be a 2 star for me; however, usually 2 stars are that way because they produce an actively negative feel about them. I didn't have that with this book. I felt flat. I felt like I felt the main character, Sarah, seemed to feel. I didn't understand how she thought embezzling $200,000 from her employer was worth it. I didn't understand why she was hanging out in Bangkok. Was the point that she was aimless? And really, the story slowly meandered along until about the halfway point. Finally something happens! But even then, it just feels a bit surreal. And since Sarah doesn't leave the apartment building much, the reader never really makes a connection with the political unrest that is impacting what is happening in the apartment building. It felt like this book was written for people who are already be familiar with Bangkok. I am not. And this book didn't help me feel like I knew anymore than when I started. It could have been a great character driven book, but like the detachment from the city around it, we never really got to know the residents other than on a superficial level.

The Bangkok setting of The Glass Kingdom was vivid and wonderful, to the point of being its own character. That's the best thing I can say about this book. The characters and the plot meandered aimlessly and it's not a book I will remember for long.

My review of [book:The Glass Kingdom|53734187] by [author:Lawrence Osborne|56931]

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3184908131