Information
Goodreads: Glass Houses
Series: None
Age Category: Adult (Thriller)
Source: Giveaway
Publication Date: August 13, 2024
Official Summary
A masterful near future whodunit for fans of Glass Onion and Black Mirror; join a stranded start-up team led by a terrifyingly realistic charismatic billionaire, a deserted tropical island, and a mysterious AI-driven mansion--as the remaining members disappear one by one.
A group of employees and their CEO, celebrating the sale of their remarkable emotion-mapping-AI-alogorithm, crash onto a not-quite-deserted tropical island.
Luckily, those who survived have found a beautiful, fully-stocked private palace, with all the latest technological updates (though one without connection to the outside world). The house, however, has more secrets than anyone might have guessed, and much darker reason for having been built and left behind.
Kristin, the hyper-competent "human emotional support technician" (i.e., the eccentric boyish billionaire-CEO Sumpter's idea of an HR department) tries to keep her colleagues stable, throughout this new challange, but staying sane seems to be as much of a challange as staying alive. Being a "woman in technology" has always meant having to be smarter then anyone expects....and Kristin's survival skills are more impressive than anyone knows.
Review
Glass Houses transports readers to an uninhabited island where the survivors of a plane crash must reckon with a mysteriously abandoned smart-technology-enabled home while determining where to place their loyalties AND how to get off the island.
The book is smart, hooking readers in with a story about a start-up company and its stereotypically egotistical workaholic founder, while also setting the story in a not-so-distant future where AI and new tech are everywhere. No one drives anymore. Everyone has a smart door to their home. People can measure their emotions with a watch on their wrist. You get the idea. But inside of all this flashy window dressing is real commentary on themes like the treatment of women in tech, the fact that so much technology is not tested on and doesn't work correctly for women, and what it's like growing up as a child whose life was shared on social media.
The razor sharp commentary on all these questions, so pressing to us today, kept me reading just as much as the thriller parts of the plot. And Ashby shines there, too. She gives enough hints that I was able to figure out much of what was going on, but the puzzle is fun, and the setting really is scary. A freaky-looking black glass house that seems designed not to let you out?? Please, do NOT sign me up.
The tension is broken up with flashbacks to the protagonist's work at the start-up and to her personal life, and of course all these scenes also provide clues as to what's going on on the island she and her coworkers crashed on.
I don't read a lot of thrillers, but I dabble in them occasionally, and this is a fun one sure to hook fans of the genre.
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