I didn’t get to read Glass Houses before the publish date, but now that I have read it, I gave it 3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it. Dark and smothering, but in a good writing style.

I thoroughly enjoyed Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby. The author has written a great techno-thriller based on the near future capabilities and systems that we all are currently enmeshed in. She's obviously done her research on what direction the world and future is leaning if we keep on this track with the "startup bro" mindset. Great characters and action.

Fast paced techno AI thriller that kept me guessing! I’ve been on an AI horror kick lately, and this is one of the best ones I’ve read in the genre. It would make a great Netflix series!

Thanks for the opportunity to read. I’ve been recommending this book to friends!

I am loving AI horror lately because it is so tangible, and Glass Houses is no exception. This book was a wild ride and it unlocked a whole new slew of fears.

This book had a really intriguing premise, following a group of tech coworkers stranded after a private plane crash. When they came upon the glass house, I was fully invested in finding out the mystery of the house and whether the characters would survive. I have to say I was way LESS interested in all of the flashback chapters, where we found out more about the business these characters were involved in and all of their professional and personal relationships. I kept wanting the book to get back to the survival chapters in present-day, but the flashback chapters really took over the majority of the story. Then when we finally get to the action in present-day.... wow. I was not prepared for the sharp left turn and while I can respect a book trying to do something different... this one was just not it for me. I left with very little that I can say I enjoyed about the book, other than the very beginning. I guess I would recommend it to readers very open to strange, sci-fi type twists and are interested in reading a LOT about this fictional company's futuristic invention and (morally gray/offensive) business practices. I wouldn't be against trying this author again in the future, but I think I'll have to do a little more research into the plot and where the story goes before I dive in!

I think the 3.5 Goodreads rating is fair.

This futuristic suspense story felt like a less interesting mash-up of several Ruth Ware novels (the tech company retreat in One by One crossed with the survival aspects of One Perfect Couple plus the tech stuff in Zero Day).

The villain was obvious. The main character was odd. I don't think the flashbacks worked well, as I found the present segments more interesting. And the ending was weird to me.

I think there are better futuristic thrillers out there!

so so excited for this whodunit and it came through! Such a good satire thriller with a sprinkling of humor for those who like White Lotus

Thanks to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC of this book.
I wasn't sure what to make of this one. I found it enjoyable and intriguing in the beginning, but as I got closer to the conclusion and not much had really happened (aside from a few missing/dead employees), I was left more confused than anything else. While I enjoyed the dual-timeline, I also felt that there was too much crammed into a relatively short novel where most of it didn't have a super strong impact on the story and its outcome. There is a good chance I missed something here and definitely was not able to fully connect the dots, so it could still be worth giving it a try for other readers. 3 stars: I enjoyed it, but was left unfulfilled and with questions. Maybe that is the point?

This book was deeply unsettling in the age of AI.

I absolutely loved this book. Honestly, I can't decide what I loved more: the book itself or Kristen's character. Both were equally amazing.

This book has made me want to read more science-fiction books like this one. It was such a fun journey, and the tech elements were fascinating. I feel smarter after reading it. Haha. But seriously, the concepts in this book are incredible.

The story centers around a plane with no pilot that should fly itself. Instead, the pilotless plane crashes and a group of coworkers from a tech startup crash-land on an island. They see nothing around them until they find a black, all-glass house, only problem is is that it has no doors. They need to get inside because the house contains everything they need to survive. But why did they crash here in the first place?

As things go wrong, the stranded group starts to turn on each other, unsure of who to trust. Was the crash an accident or a deliberate plan?

The narrative unfolds in dual timelines: the present and the past. The chapters set in the past always provide hints relevant to the present.

I can't wait to read more from this author. Great read.

This one was a quick suspenseful sci-fi thriller. While the thriller elements were very much there, I would have loved delving deeper into the tech and sci-fi elements.

I expected tis book to have a Glass Onion feel to it. A group of individuals gets trapped on a tropical island and chaos ensures. The main character, Kristen Mara, wasn't a likeable, evil character. You know the kind you like to hate? I was intrigued in the first half of the book but then the plot began to lack development. I grew bored. I think this novel would've worked better as a novella. It's dystopian in nature and I was expecting a traditional suspense/thriller with an Elon Musk twist.

This was such an interesting read and so well written. It was story that I had not read before and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This book has a very interesting premise and the cover is great. While I didn't hate this book, I just didn't love it either. I felt like the characters were not likeable and I jus couldn't connect with anyone. I also felt like the plot was jumbled a bit and hard to follow.

I think there is an audience for this book but it is not me unfortunately.

I found this to be a fast-paced thriller with great commentary on technology and the current direction of our society. This was a perfect vacation read and I crushed through it over a day or two in Belize. The crash landing on a deserted island lent this one perfectly to beach reading!

While all of the characters in this book were the ~worst~ I did still want to find out what happened to them because the plot was twisty and kept me guessing. Glass Houses feels a bit like a puzzle but carries all the energy of a thriller.

Check this one out if like AI, technology, big companies, and beaches!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the eARC of this title!**

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.

I found this story very bizarre. I wasn’t sure if it was a Jurassic Park story or a Charles Mason story which made it was hard to follow at times. Both Sumter and Kristen are sociopaths and not likable which also made it hard to invest in the story.

A tense dystopian thriller with morally ambiguous characters and a pace that keeps building until you can't put it down. The corporate celebration crash lands on a remote island - there's a mysterious structure no one can get into - people keep dying for reasons no one understands - at first it felt a bit too much like a Lost novelization but that disappears after a few chapters, as the near-future world becomes more clear. I loved the commentary on social media and social capital - ultimately though, my favorite part of novels like this is having flawed characters that you still want to root for. A fun read with enough depth so you don't feel like you wasted your weekend.

There were so many things to like about the setup of this book and that’s why I really wanted to read it. It just wasn’t executed well. 75% through the book something that had been left out was thrown to the reader with a ‘by the way’ emphasis and then that defined the character for the rest of the book.

I had a hard time figuring out what was going on because I was chasing a shadow plot. None of the other characters were like-able because they were portrayed as the stereotypical cutthroat Silicon Valley types always playing survival of the fittest. The ending had some surprises to it, but I was more in a ‘please get it over with’ mindset, wanting it to wrap because it was taking too long, while at the same time feeling that it was rushed once an unidentifiable cat had been let out of a burning house.

I'd give this 3.5 stars if it were an option, but instead 4 stars because I kept reading and it really kept my attention and curiosity.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for an ARC of this book.

Glass Houses is a sci-fi thriller about a tech startup team whose plane crashed on a mysterious island. What is first believed to be a freak accident quickly turns more sinister. This book was a thrilling mix of Black Mirror and Lost. I really enjoyed this for the first 80% but the ending just fell apart for me. I am a huge fans of unreliable, morally gray characters… however I was unsure if the characters in Glass Houses was supposed to be that way or if they were just written poorly. For most of this book I was going to rate it 4 stars but the ending caught me off guard in the worst way possible and I wish it would have gone any other way possible. Like I would have preferred “it was all a dream” over the monstrosity that was the climax of this novel. I am giving this a 2.5/5 stars which is unfortunate because this plot was super exciting and enjoyable until it wasn’t.

I received a copy of Glass Houses in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an ARC.