The Pink Hotel: A Novel

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"Heady and dark and dangerous, The Pink Hotel is an intoxicating binge of a book. Liska Jacobs's stunning indictment of a society teetering toward apocalypse is one you won't easily forget." -Janelle Brown, author of I'll Be You Newlyweds Keith and Kit Collins can hardly believe their luck when the general manager of the iconic, opulent Pink Hotel invites them to come for a luxurious stay in a bid to hire Keith. Kit loves their small-town life, but Keith has always wanted more, and the glittering, lily-scented lobby makes him feel right at home. Soon after their arrival, wildfires sweep through the surrounding mountains and Los Angeles becomes a pressure cooker, with riots breaking out across the city amid rolling blackouts. The Pink Hotel closes its doors to "outsiders," and Keith and Kit find themselves confined with an anxious, disgruntled staff and a growing roster of eccentric, ultra-wealthy, dangerously idle guests who flock to the hotel for sanctuary, company, and entertainment. The Pink Hotel exposes the tenuous class system within its walls, full of insurmountable expectations and unspoken resentments, which fester as the city burns. In her barbed, provocative new novel, Liska Jacobs explores the corrosive nature of greed and interrogates the notion of true love while hurtling readers toward certain disaster.

Reviews

An Esquire Best Book of 2022

"The perfect book to recommend to all your friends in hospitality! And also just the perfect book. I tore through this one like a California wildfire--an appropriate comparison, given the novel's setting in a high-end hotel beset by fires all around."
--Molly Odintz, CrimeReads

"Heady and dark and dangerous, The Pink Hotel is an intoxicating binge of a book. Liska Jacobs's stunning indictment of a society teetering toward apocalypse is one you won't easily forget."
--Janelle Brown, author of Pretty Things

"The Pink Hotel is a terrifying, tremulous hallway of mirrors, a personal and public apocalypse story of vast proportions and singular fears, a portrait of lush disorder by Liska Jacobs."
--Susan Straight, author of Mecca

"Liska Jacobs has written a lush, harrowing study of the human animal, the hyper-rich and the strivers who serve them, made grotesque and degraded by the effects of extreme, unconscionable wealth. Intense and violent and chokingly atmospheric, an unforgettable addition to the literature of Los Angeles."
--Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay

"Irresistible and audacious, The Pink Hotel sucked me into its microcosm of glittering menace and wouldn't let go until the whole thing burned to the ground."
--Antoine Wilson, author of Mouth to Mouth

"A sexy, terrifying, and tremendously fun novel. Liska Jacobs has an extraordinary mind--her writing leaps from darkly claustrophobic to wildly expansive. The Pink Hotel is impossible to put down; you will carry it everywhere you go."
--Sana Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair

"Part social satire and part disaster novel, The Pink Hotel is riotous in every sense of the word. What begins as a juicy look behind the scenes at L.A.'s swankiest hotel quickly turns into a profound study of how class and privilege shape our reactions to catastrophe. This scathing and surreal novel is Liska Jacob's best yet, and it kept me hooked all the way to the brutal, unforgettable end."
--Sara Sligar, author of Take Me Apart

"Like a deranged American version of Parasite, Liska Jacobs's The Pink Hotel takes aim at American class disparity and strikes dead center. Jacobs's unerringly precise eye, her deadpan wit, and above all her ferocity--the unflagging energy and vitality of her writing itself--make this book a marvel from start to finish."
--Matthew Specktor, author of American Dream Machine

Author Bio

Liska Jacobs is the author of Catalina and The Worst Kind of Want. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Literary Hub, The Millions, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Rumpus, among other publications. She divides her time between Berlin and Los Angeles.