Wool Book Review by Mitch Gerich

My friend Mitch, who is the writer for his own blog Gerich Gardens, shared this book on his Facebook page and between the description of this book, and Mitch's  phenomenal  recommendation of the book itself I knew I wanted to read it. And since I have not had the opportunity to have this in my stack of Library books waiting to be read, I asked him if he would not mind writing a review of this book for all of you. So without any further words from me, here is Mitch's words on Wool by Hugh Howey

“Wool Review (And I know there are a lot of Wool books and pieces out there but I read the one in the link with the reddish cover)

Sometimes it is hard to write a review for a book when potentially anything you discuss could be a spoiler or plot reveal. That is exactly the kind of book Hugh Howey has written when he created the world of Wool, a sort of dystopian (though you may not know it right away) society set in a silo buried underground. The people inside the silo are all alone in their world. You see, the air above ground is poison and no one is permitted to leave on their own. To do so is seen as a crime punishable by death. The form of death comes as being sent on a suicide mission out of the silo in what are known as "cleanings." The people of the silo are put in suits and essentially shipped out to die. The air is so poisonous that it eats through the suit while others inside the silo watch on a screen.

The silo itself is separated into levels and classes with the farmers and mechanicals in the lower third, the information-technology folks in the heart of the structure and the professional class in the upper level. The workers even have color coated uniforms so you know exactly who they are, where they work and where they live and belong. Interesting why we as humans would do this when we have a chance to start with a clean slate inside of an isolated silo. But, inside the silo, they have their reasons. Well, at least some people do.

Speaking of the actual people and characters in Wool, we meet a good many of them throughout this book. I won't be getting into specifics with each character because I think that is part of the fun of this book is meeting each person for the first time and being able to dig into their past and current situations. I will say that the main personalities are well rounded and complete in the first 2/3rds of the book. By the last 1/3rd, some of the people introduced feel rushed and incomplete and therefore I end up not caring as much about what happens to them. BUT I don't think this takes away from the overall arc of the book.

This is a sci-fi type of novel but one that you could give to someone who isn't generally a fan of that genre. There are more Wool books out there, supposedly one set before the silo came to be and one set after this particular book. I'm excited to get my hands on them and I highly recommend you get your hands on this book.”