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A review by jayseejewel
Wool by Hugh Howey
4.0
A fascinating world set in an underground silo. While it could be a slow read and definitely took its time, there was very little filler and the story itself was a thrill to read. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of dystopian or post-apocalypse stories (I personally was reminded of the Fallout series when reading this).
What I liked:
- The concept is fascinating. The outside air being toxic leads to humanity hiding underground in silos, all while under strict control of overseers, was awesome and handled really well
- While the pacing is slow, it never felt like there was a ton of filler or unnecessary parts
- The characters were solid and well written. I enjoyed getting to see everything through Jules's eyes
- While the writing style wasn't my absolute favorite, Hugh Howey is great at writing stories with a good, clean flow that is easy to read
What I didn't like:
- I became very tired of the changing POVs. There were too many characters to keep track of and I think they should have stuck to 4-5 POVs instead of the 10+ they had
- While the characters were good and none of them annoyed me, I didn't fall in love with any of them
- I found myself questioning the villain's motives a lot. [spoilers] It felt a little unnecessary to hide the fact that other silos existed, since I don't think it would have changed the citizen's perspective in any way. However, this wasn't a major plot hole or anything. I just thought it was a little odd.
- The pacing was very slow. While it wasn't bad and there wasn't filler, I do wish the book would just get to the point at times
Overall: A really good book that I'll be thinking about in the future. However, due to the slow pace, I won't be reading it again. I might buy the second at some point, though. I am glad this one got a happy ending.
What I liked:
- The concept is fascinating. The outside air being toxic leads to humanity hiding underground in silos, all while under strict control of overseers, was awesome and handled really well
- While the pacing is slow, it never felt like there was a ton of filler or unnecessary parts
- The characters were solid and well written. I enjoyed getting to see everything through Jules's eyes
- While the writing style wasn't my absolute favorite, Hugh Howey is great at writing stories with a good, clean flow that is easy to read
What I didn't like:
- I became very tired of the changing POVs. There were too many characters to keep track of and I think they should have stuck to 4-5 POVs instead of the 10+ they had
- While the characters were good and none of them annoyed me, I didn't fall in love with any of them
- I found myself questioning the villain's motives a lot. [spoilers] It felt a little unnecessary to hide the fact that other silos existed, since I don't think it would have changed the citizen's perspective in any way. However, this wasn't a major plot hole or anything. I just thought it was a little odd.
- The pacing was very slow. While it wasn't bad and there wasn't filler, I do wish the book would just get to the point at times
Overall: A really good book that I'll be thinking about in the future. However, due to the slow pace, I won't be reading it again. I might buy the second at some point, though. I am glad this one got a happy ending.