For generations, they have lived underground, with only a small view of the outside. They know the outside is a toxic, barren wasteland. Even though they know the dangers of the outside, there are people who dream and hope. These dangerous people infect the others with their optimism. So they must be punished. The punishment is simple, the dreamers are given exactly what they hope for: a chance to go outside. Juliette is unexpectedly promoted to Sheriff, when the previous Sheriff leaves the silo is in terrifying ritual. She has very little regard for the customs that she needs to be following and quite a bit of newfound power. As she begins investigating, she discovers the subtle hints of a disturbing conspiracy. Following the clues may lead to the truth or to the death of every human...
I would not have picked this book up if I saw it on a shelf at the library. Based on the cover (which I am not supposed to be judging books by) and the summary of the story, it didn’t really seem like a book that would interest me. I ended up selecting this book during a blind date with a book event that was hosted by my library. Considering that I discovered The Stories of Ibis, a book that I love and is one of my favorites, I had to pick up another one. This book was wrapped up and the only clue that I got about the story was “subterranean civilization.” I haven’t actually read many books about subterranean civilizations, in fact I can only name one off the top of my head: Red Rising. Red Rising doesn’t even feature a subterranean civilization for a large portion so I would say that this is the first book that I have read which truly deals with a subterranean civilization.
This book started off right in the middle of the action. There was no prologue, no easing into the story. I was thrown straight into the deep end of the pool. Even though the story started right in the thick of the action, the beginning felt very slow. This was because I didn’t know anything and I was thrown into the action so I spent a lot of time just trying to understand what was happening. I find that starting off in the middle of action works better in a series, especially when there has already been a previous book. The previous book provides all of the background and context for what is happening when the book dives right into the action. Unfortunately, Wool doesn’t have a prequel that I could have read prior to familiarize myself with the world, so I just spent quite a bit of time being confused.
Another thing that confused me was the point of view. Wool is narrated in third person limited. Third person limited means that the narrator is telling the reader about what is happening but the information that the narrator has is limited to a single character. This befuddled me because even though the point of view is limited, it is not limited to one character. Due to this, at certain moments it was difficult to figure out what was being talked about. This wasn’t a huge problem that I had with the book just a minor bother, but is worth pointing out because it could have been easily avoided if the point of view was changed to first person with perspective changes like Unwind. Unwind really nails the changing points view and this elevated the story to another level because tension can be built through the perspective of multiple characters rather than just one. However, Wool did not manage to do that because any switches between characters left me a little puzzled thus I could not appreciate the rising tension.
Regardless of the point of view, Wool still managed to build tension and get me interested in the book. The story moved by quite quickly and it was very engaging. The plot thickeners, or moments of intensifying action came at the perfect times. Even though the story was engaging from the beginning it got really good around the third part. Prior to the third part I didn’t have any trouble putting the book down. But as soon as that third part began, I was sucked in. I did not want to stop reading. If I had to guess why the book became so juicy for me at that point, the first two parts of the book gave me enough time to understand this society and how they functioned. The first two parts also introduced the conflict and some of the characters that were present in the third part. Basically a really strong foundation for the story had been built. Another reason that the third part really drew me in is that the focus of the story shifted to one of my favorite characters and so I was very interested in seeing what that character would have to go through.
As I was reading the book, the balance of action with information was really good. Even though I wasn’t that fond of the book starting in the middle of some action, it helped that there was quite a bit of information sprinkled in within that action. Another thing that I liked about Wool were the descriptions. Hugh Howey has a way of describing things that is very intense. The emotions of characters were shown to me, even more than that I was actually able to feel them myself. The descriptions really helped me paint a mental picture of the world that Howey had created. It’s not a place that I would ever want to live in but at least I know what it looks and feels like in exquisite detail.
I didn’t like the ending to Wool. It didn’t hit any of the things that endings should be. It was not satisfying because it was way too open ended. I would have liked for the ending to be more concrete because after all of those struggles, I needed an ending that gave me closure. This ending was more of a “we’ll see what happens next,” which is really frustrating because this book is already five short stories/novellas in one big omnibus and we are still denied a solid ending. I am not into it. I think the reason that the open-endedness of this ending bothered me is because I didn’t find the arc of the overall story to be one that led to this ending. With that being said, I will add in that the ending is positive and I am glad that it is positive because I would have hated this book if it ended on a depressing note but the ending is still not perfect. I finished reading the book with a feeling of disappointment. I know that Hugh Howey has written a couple of sequels and those books will most likely bring me closure in terms of how this book ended but I am just not interested in reading them. I would rather be haunted by this open-ended disappointing ending that read two more books to potentially get some closure.
I am going to give this book 3 stars. I had high expectations for this book given my past experiences with the blind dates that I’ve gone on (with books) but Wool just failed to deliver. The story was engaging and fast moving but the fast beginning that felt slow and the ending really brought down this book for me. Endings are the most important part of a book because that is the last thing that readers read/experience and thus more than anything else it is the ending that readers remember when thinking of a book. So when a book’s ending is not good, the book is also not good. I wouldn’t really recommend this book to anyone. Don’t get me wrong I liked the book and I can see why it may be considered a classic science fiction book or why it is so popular but I didn’t like it enough to tell someone to read it, especially someone who may not be interested in science fiction. However, if someone was interested in sci-fi, I would definitely suggest it to them.
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