Review: Wool by Hugh Howey

I just finished reading Hugh Howey’s Wool, the dystopian page-turner that everyone’s been talking about, and I have to say I absolutely LOVED it! This is the first book in the Silo Saga. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the survivors are living in a gargantuan silo buried deep in the ground. In this first book, we don’t know exactly why they have to live in the silo, except that the outside world, as viewed from the big screens in the uppermost level, appears bleak and abandoned. We imagine some sort of biological weapon or nuclear holocaust has been unleashed on planet Earth. The world Howey has created here is fabulous. Except for the weird up-top politics and secret executions carried out in the dead of night, I want to live in a silo! Everyone has a job to do, and from a young age kids decide how they will contribute. Teenagers ‘shadow’ adults in fields they’d like to specialize in: mechanical, IT, farming, portering (which consists of hauling stuff up and down the vast staircase that spans all 130 levels), security, etc. When they’re experienced enough, they start earning ‘chits’.

The opening scene is a cryptic one, in which Holston, the sheriff, is contemplating the death of his wife and weighing his own mortality. He is sent out to ‘clean’—the ultimate punishment for crimes against the silo. Mayor Jahns, a tough old lady who has run the silo for years, appoints a new sheriff and that’s when the real trouble begins. Juliette, the beautiful, resilient girl from mechanical, has no experience in law enforcement but nonetheless makes the daunting trip up-top to begin her new assignment. This riles Bernard, head of IT, who has his own agenda for the silo. Mayor Jahns winds up dead, and Juliette begins to suspect she was murdered.

Juliette’s secret investigation into the darkest secrets of the silo leads her to numerous revelations. First, Bernard and his colleagues in IT seem to know more than the rest of them about what’s really going on. Second, the world outside the silo may not be exactly the way it’s being portrayed on the big screens. Third, someone very, very badly wants to keep everyone inside.

Things come to a head when Juliette’s probing questions come to the attention of those who are really in charge of the silo. Everything she cares about is suddenly threatened: her friends in mechanical, the young man she’s falling in love with, her entire way of life. What happens next and how Juliette survives and fights back make for a fascinating read.

This book is a must for anyone who loves dystopian fiction. Howey’s writing is crisp and illuminating. I devoured this book, and you will, too.