Reviews

Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby

wormgirl's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Abortion and Car accident

literaryland_livin's review

4.0

ARC by NetGalley and the publisher. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

What does a tech CEO do to celebrate a huge new deal, well jet setting of course! However, this celebration is cut short when a tragic plane crash lands the tech team on a nearly deserted island. The survivors stumble upon a large house with all of the latest technological updates. Seeing it as a sign of hope for not only does this home have all the latest tech it is also fully stocked. As the remaining survivors begin to disappear one by one, it appears the sanctuary might be too good to be true. With its true purpose being something much darker and sinister.

Ashby created such a unique thriller that combines horror and science fiction elements in a technological driven world. Glass Houses wastes absolutely no time at all setting the intense pacing and terrifying survival plot with the reader seeing the aftermath of the deadly plane crash that traps everyone on the eerie island. Think the Glass Onion meets Lost with the cast of characters being Silicon Valley tech industry game changers. The plot focuses on Kristin, chief emotional manager to eccentric CEO Sumter as we see present time on the island and flashbacks. The flashbacks are well placed, shedding light on Kristin‘s younger life experiences as well as the tech companies sinister past. I was completely engrossed into this story from the moment they discover the ominous black box of a tech house on the island. This gave the most perfect setting for all the twists and turns that Glass Houses dished out. Overall this was an exciting fast paced thriller that is the perfect summer read. I will definitely be picking up more of Ashby’s work in the future and recommend this to anyone who likes a little bit of tech talk with their thriller reads. 

Glass Houses comes out August 13th, 2024.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

aimyreads's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Thankyou NetGalley for this advance readers copy by Madeline Ashby. 

What a riot this book was! Firstly this has to be the first book in a LONG while that had me enjoy the whole people-stranded-somewhere-disappearing-one-by-one trope. So Thankyou for doing it right! 

 Secondly, omg this book creeped me out so much because it definitely is the ‘near future’ as the author claims to be. I kept reading and just feeling like ‘yup yup this can happen in just a couple of years max!’ 

For those of you who don’t know, I work in tech, so trust me when I say that EVERYTHING in this book can happen.

 The ending is what let me down. It felt rushed and not as planned out as the rest of the book. 

 If you’re in to sci-fi thrillers make sure to mark your calendars for August! 

vixen13's review

2.0

All this made me want to do was immediately go read something by a tried and true for me author to get this taste out of my mouth. One extra star because somehow it kept me interested and reading, but I really wish it hadn't and I had DNFed. 😂😬🤷🏻‍♀️ The story is weak, the time jumps added absolutely nothing, and the climax was.. boring? And not surprising? Uch. Whole lot of nope for this one. 😬😂