Sometimes there is nothing more delightful than reading a thriller about horrible people getting what's coming to them. Even if it is at the hand of an unreliable or questionable narrator. Glass Houses gives everything from corrupt tech, Survivor, and men being the worst. Thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In my non-blogging life I work with emotions and so I immediately had all kinds of red flags going up when Kristen's company wanted to use a algorithm to turn emotions into a form of currency. I felt positively repulsed at the idea that it would erase any kind of veil or wall we could put between ourselves and the world. Conversely, I love it when novels like Glass Houses pick up on disturbing trends in tech and rage against it with all their might. While Glass Houses falls more solidly on the thrilling side, rather than purely social commentary, the two come together very nicely for most of Glass Houses. The novel also plays with a delightful kind of twisted pleasure at watching people willing to exploit others get what they deserve. While the ending of the novel, in redirecting its focus, kind of undermines some of it, it remains a guilty pleasure.

Kristen wakes up in the plane, surrounded by the corpses of her colleagues, not sure how or where they crash landed. As she and her fellow survivors, and colleagues, gather, they gain access to a black cube of a house, fully-stocked with food and secrets. When it turns out safety is still not guaranteed, Kristen wants to figure out what is going on. Glass Houses flashes back and forth between Kristen on the island and Kristen's past. While the present time line is full of Survivor-esque tension, which becomes ever more tech dystopia, Kristen's past time line is equally messy and fascinating and hints at a dark, seedy underbelly full of secrets that led to the crash. Truly, a lot goes on in Glass Houses. It feels like an indictment against modern tech and its obsession with quantifying humanity and making it something you can buy, sell, and exploit. It is also dystopian, in that something bad has clearly happened to the world, in part because of all that tech. We also get commentary on social media, discussions of self harm and suicide, potential space exploration, bloody fights, and more. Truly, I never had a boring moment with Glass Houses.

This is my first novel by Madeline Ashby and, like I said above, I had a great time with it. I got to experience the delightful twist of "these people are the worst, but they're dying rather horribly too". Kristen is an intriguing protagonist, quite unreliable and detached, and yet clearly brimming with emotions. There is also a lot happening in this novel, little hints to an utterly changed world, and all kinds of side narratives. One of these, arguably the B-plot, involved a liaison in Kristen's past, which resolved in a way I wasn't entirely pleased with, although it added a nice few twists. There is also a delightful female rage that simmers throughout Glass Houses, a kind of rage about what has been done and is being done to the world, to people, to women. I enjoyed this aspect of the novel immensely and I cannot wait to read more by Madeline Ashby in the future.

Glass Houses is a thrilling ride of plane crashes, mysterious houses and deaths, horrible tech, worse men, and a heroine who remains a mystery for much of the book. You're in for a great and twisted ride with this novel.

**2.5-stars rounded up**

I've been putting off reviewing this for a while. I needed to cool my jets a bit before I tore off on some salty rant review, going up one side of this and down the other. That helps no one. So, let's take a deep breath, and get into it.

The synopsis for Glass Houses had me anticipating a gripping, freaky, intense, near-future Mystery-Thriller involving a palatial house on a deserted island. Instead what I got was a slow-moving character study of messed up people. Sure, a small portion is set on an island, but that certainly didn't feel like the focus.

The very start was giving the first scene from the first season of Lost. I thought to myself, 'this is exciting, this is intriguing'. Then as it began to play out further, I thought, 'wait a minute is...'

I won't fill in that blank, but that happened by page 19, and I was correct. There was another thing later 'revealed' that I knew early on as well. I wasn't trying to figure anything out. I never do that, but these things were just so glaringly obvious, I wonder were they supposed to feel like reveals?

Then in other ways, where I wish it could have been expanded upon, we were kept in the dark. We did get little tidbits of the greater world here and there, but it was never clear enough to understand, or provide a sense of place. I feel like a nice mixed media element scattered throughout, that could've let us know how the world got to this point would've been fun. I mean obviously it's the near future, but why is everything soooo different?

By the middle, it had really slowed down. We weren't seeing as much of everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off, which I guess could've been entertaining if we didn't have these huge sections from the past taking us right out of that present feeling of chaos.

At the end of the day, NGL, I didn't enjoy this. Some of the concepts involving future tech and AI were interesting, but I hated the way the story was told. There was too much focus on the backstory of Kristin and not enough on the present setting of the deserted island. I feel like I was sold something that I didn't end up getting. I wasn't given suspense, nor intrigue, AND was barely given any time on the deserted island that I was promised. I am rounding up to 3-stars to be nice.

With this being said, just because this didn't work for me, does not mean it won't work for you. I wouldn't really go by the synopsis though to judge whether or not you would enjoy it, as personally, I feel it's a bit mismarketed. I think this would work best for Literary Fiction fans, who enjoy dark stories with light SF-elements. Character-driven Readers may also have success with this.

Thank you to the publisher, Tor, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm not sure if I will read from this author again, probably not, but I'm glad I gave this one a shot, even if it wasn't necessarily my cup of tea.

We've been getting a lot more stories with AI and smart devices and I am loving exploring what it means and how it can change our lives.

but be warned, this one has a very slow start. It took me almost 50%, when we learned about the chicken dance and the cabinets, for it to really suck me in. This one also has interesting current day lingo that I enjoyed.

Once the story got going, I really was intrigued by our main character and how this would all play out. The reveal was shocking, not what I had expected at all, and I loved the shock value of all the smart technology that's in here. But the story did get a bit bogged down in the past and less on the present and I wish we'd had just a little more explanation on some of the technology.

All in all, a fascinating read, one that I really did like, once the story hooked me!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

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.

Set in the near future with advanced technology, like a self-flying plane, and contacts that show the emotions of others we follow Kirsten who works as the Chief Emotional Manager for a tech billionaire. When the plane they are traveling in crashes on a remote island Keirsten and our group of survivors work to figure out how they are going to survive, and how they can make sure they are found.

Kirsten is smart and savvy and knows how to take charge, make people listen, and manipulate them to get what she wants. She really is the perfect person to be stuck on an island with, as she can think logically while dealing with something crazy. We get this story from dual timelines, the present where Kirsten and her coworkers are on the island, and the past starting when she was hired as a WUV, which lets us in on her background info as to how she turned out the way she is.

I was hooked from the first page with Kirsten crawling out of the belly of the plane after the crash. As the story unfolded I tried my best to clock every inconsistency and put the clues together as to what was happening. Some things I figured out, but others were definitely a surprise. From the beginning to the end I was fascinated and couldn't put it down.
This is the first book I've read by Madeline Ashby and I will absolutely be checking out her other books.

Do you know books that have a banger of a premise are absolute catnip to me and this book falls into that category. Love so much about it.

And, in many many ways, this book lived up to the promise of its premise.

This book is totally paged turning. Especially the first 65%. The author, who is a futurist, which I find interesting, does a great job of building up that low level feeling of dread. In the first half of this book I finally found myself thinking a lot of that movie the menu. Where things are pretty straightforward but then the author or the filmmaker will drop in one or two little things that the acute observer will notice and realize mean things are Actually not at all what they seem. This happened in the first half of this book and I loved it.

I loved the near future setting of this book, too. I like how we were dropped into a future with different tech and different history and she didn’t go into detail on any of these things, just threw them in, sprinkled them in, like readers of that time which just take for granted all of those things. There was something very cheeky about that and I enjoyed it. But, the last third of this book was less satisfying for me. There were some plot points that I felt were given way more time and attention than they deserved and there were some plot points that I felt got way less. It was just a little bit balanced and messy and that last 30% of the book and so I’m going to end up probably only giving this book a 3.75 star rating.

3.5 stars

A group of startup coworkers crash on a (seemingly) deserted island after celebrating being acquired. They've already lost a few of their team members from the crash, and after coming upon a weird monolith house on the island, it seems they're getting picked off one by one.

What a weird little book! An absurd sci-fi thriller, but I honestly couldn't put it down. I kind of wish the house that they find was explored a little more as an idea (creepy AI house??), but the horror in this book is really around people. And isn't that just the realest thing. Also, the thought of an emotional currency is terrifying in its own right.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby is a dystopian sci-fi thriller that delves into the eerie consequences of AI and emotion-mapping technology in a future world that feels disturbingly plausible. The premise is intriguing—a group of tech employees crash on what seems to be a deserted island, only to discover a mysterious glass house that holds the key to their survival.

The concept of an AI-driven world that collects and manipulates emotional data is both fascinating and terrifying, and the book does a good job of exploring the darker implications of such technology. The story unfolds through dual timelines, alternating between the present, where the characters are stranded, and the past, which gradually reveals the events leading up to the crash.

The protagonist, Kristen, is a well-developed character, and her role as the Chief Emotional Manager adds an interesting dynamic to the story. The glimpses into her past provide depth and help to explain her complex relationship with the CEO, Sumter.

While the book has its strengths, including a strong dystopian atmosphere and an engaging mystery, it does have some drawbacks. The futuristic technologies and jargon can be difficult to follow at times, which left me feeling disconnected from the story. Additionally, the narrative occasionally loses focus, with some plot points feeling underdeveloped or overly stretched out.

The pacing, while suspenseful in parts, can also be uneven, and the transitions between past and present are sometimes jarring. The novel attempts to tackle big ideas about AI, data privacy, and the potential dangers of technology, but these themes are not always fully realized, leaving me with more questions than answers.

Overall, Glass Houses is a solid read with an intriguing premise and some memorable moments, but it falls short of being a standout in the genre. Fans of dystopian thrillers and speculative fiction may find it worth their time, but it might not leave a lasting impression.

Three stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC.

Did I completely understand all the mumbo jumbo jargon of programmers working in a future version of our world? No. Did that stop me from enjoying this book? Also, no.

I understood enough to know that the technology they were developing and the technological advances of this world were absolutely terrifying. I already think we are living in a world that gathers too much personal data, and while I’m not scared of it, I don’t love it. Especially after reading stories like this that collect everything, including emotional data.

Even if AI never takes over humanity like an evil overlord, the people behind the tech are equally scary.

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A twisty speculative future thriller where a group of employees and their CEO crash on a not so deserted island?? Yes please. I loved the cover, I loved the premise and the AI content/aspects of the story. Recommended for fans of White Lotus and books like Storm warning by David Bell. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Glass Houses is a dystopian sci-fi thriller that explores the effects of an emotion-mapping-AI algorithm. The concept of this book was intriguing and I was invested enough in the idea to read to the end. It left me feeling a little unsettled but mostly thinking “what the heck just happened,” much like I feel at the end of a Black Mirror episode but with less lasting effect.
This book follows the POV of Kristen, the Chief Emotional Manager of the emotion-maping-AI start-up, Wuv, on a journey of a plane crash leading to a mysterious Glass House. The house reminded me of the Disney movie, Smart House, but make it AI.
The story is told in a dual timeline of present day and before the plane crash to help us understand what Kristen was unable to remember after her alleged concussion. Some events and answers were forshadowed, which kept me interested enough to continue reading. The story explored the surface of this AI concept, including some current social issues that did not seem to provide value. I picked this up hoping it would leave me contemplating the dangers of AI and fear the impact it might have on our world. Instead, I was left more terrified of the murders and motive behind the murders than the impact of the AI technology. I am not sure the ultimate message of the story is clear. Is AI going to kill us or will we be our own killers?
Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Co. for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating and intelligent thriller with commentary on modern technology and Silicon Valley. AI gives me the creeps so this book really worked for me, especially with the smart, satirical writing style.

3.5 stars. 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.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for this e=arc/*

So many twists ad turns. i was captivated the the plot and depiction of the scenery however i could not understand the scifi part.

great premise though

thanks netgalley and publisher. all thoughts and opinions are my own

Glass Houses throws you right into the story--a plane crash strands the employees of a tech company on an island with a mysterious house. The story unfolds over multiple timelines, simultaneously revealing the island's secrets and Kristen's past. Unfortunately, it feels as though parts of the story are missing, and there are way too many places where we, the readers, are expected to fill in gaps with minimal information. It's a 2.5 (rounded up to 3): 2 for the story, 0.5 for Kristen.

“It feels good to wash the blood off her hands. ”
Here are reasons to read the Sci Fi book:

Corporate Trip - On a corporate trip for the tech company Kristin works for
Plane Crash - their plane crashes
Island - Kristin and her team must survive the island as people are dying one by one

So I went into this book thinking it was going to be an island survivor story. And honestly from the reasons I gave, you may think that too. But unfortunately, the majority of this book was back story and exposition about the people and the companies. And also, I’m smart but this book might have been either too smart for me or written in a style I just do not understand. Many times there were references made that weren’t explained and I didn’t really like the characters either. However, if you like Sci Fi, you may really like this as many others have said they do.

Glass Houses tells the story of employees and CEO from a tech company (Wuv) that are flying to celebrate their company being sold and their plane crash on what seems to be a deserted island. They soon find out there is an odd house in the middle of this island and the employees start to die mysteriously. The main character is Kristen, who is an orphan, her parents died in a fire, and she is the Chief Emotional Manager of Wuv who has a very strange relationship with the CEO, Sumter,

I loved the dystopian feel of this book and the Lost vibes it gave. I was very invested in the story from early on and the jumping from past to present did help, in my opinion, move the story along.

I loved Kristen, I think she was a complicated and very well written character, I liked that we got glimpses from her past to see how they shaped the person she became.

The whole house functionality and the twists were very well done.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book I thought it was a very fast read and the story kept making me want to keep reading to figure out what happened.

I give this book 4.5 stars, rounded to 5 stars as there are no half stars here.

This was my first book by Madeline Ashby but certainly will not be my last.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this ARC the above review is of my own thoughts.

A futuristic novel that really has no redeeming qualities.

The story is slow, disjointed and repetitive. Phrases and trash talk thrown in to either jar the reader and try to turn it into pornography.

I just kept waiting for it to get better - it just never made it.

A recently acquired technology start-up is on their way to celebrate when their plane crashes. The l island they are on is abandoned except for a black glass house, which is hard to get in but even harder to get out.

I liked the suspense in this one and it kept the pages turning. It had a true claustrophobic feel to the story and keeps the reader anxious from start to end. Kristin is a pretty bad ass character and we get to know a lot more about it as time goes on. I do feel like a lot of the story went over my head. All of the futuristic technologies discussed were not easily understood. I feel like a lot was mentioned but not properly explained. The suspense and mystery was still there so it was an entertaining book regardless.

“I wish we’d all died on that plane. Then I’d know for sure we were in Hell.”

Glass Houses comes out 8/13.

I enjoyed the premise of a group of employees celebrating together when things go horribly wrong. Their plane crashes and they come upon a slightly bizarre abandoned palace setting up a unique locked room mystery setup. I loved the tech elements as I find new technologies frightening and it added a nice sinister quality to the storyline when people start disappearing. Kristin was the most interesting character by far. I don't why to say why for fear of giving anything away. If you like creepy, tech horror/thrillers, then you'd likely enjoy this book.