It has been a few years since I read the first book of this series, Wool, but I was very excited to return to Howey’s dystopian world, of people living in a silo, with many unanswered quesitons about how humanity got to this point, and what exactly is wrong with the world outside. I was ready to pick back up where book one ended, but was in for a bit of a surprise. In fact, I was quite disappointed, because I DESPERATELY wanted to see what happened next with Juliette, and this book initially has nothing to do with that. Instead it takes us back, waaaaay back, to before the silos began.
Once I settled into the story, it was very interesting to learn what had happened, and who had orchestrated it, for the silos to come into being and humanity to have become so hobbled. However, I was excited that after a while, we did in fact have a second narrative, and the past was pulled into the present as we finally returned to the characters from book one, and what they were doing in the present world. And then things got VERY exciting!! At one point, something dawned on me and I RAN for the back of my house to the first book, flipping excitedly, as I started to make connections between the action and characters of the first book with the second. (When I say “excitedly” I mean my husband asked me if everything was okay, because I was so frantic about it, but then he saw the joy on my face and the book in my hand, and figured it out for himself).
Overall, though this system doesn’t let me do it, I would have given this book a 4 for the first but then a 4.5 once i saw where we were going, and how it all connected.
