The Warehouse

See my full thoughts here: https://youtu.be/3VkSYZmFI6c
I found this book very similar to The Circle by Dave Eggers in a good way. Solid 4 stars

I liked this book, but I wasn't satisfied with the ending. There were loose ends. Is there supposed to be a sequel someday?

Pros: interesting characters, fast paced, thought-provoking

Cons:

Gibson Wells, founder of the Cloud tech empire that dominates the US economy, is dying. After Cloud puts Paxton's business under, he applies to work at one of their MotherCloud facilities, where people work and live. He expects this to be a temporary gig, to earn enough money so he can be his own boss again. Zinnia has been hired to infiltrate a Cloud facility and steal proprietary information.

Their paths collide inside the company in a novel that explores how far corporate America will go to ‘make the world a better place'.

The book takes place during the slow economic and environmental collapse of America. The world is not as apocalyptic as Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower, but it's getting there. With fewer and fewer options, more people are opting to work for Cloud, which has both caused many of the problems mentioned in the book even as it tries to (claims to) make things better.

At the start of the book I felt sympathy for Wells, but as I learned more about him, and saw the predatory nature behind his smiles and the abusive personality behind his policies I started to despise him. Though Zinnia is also manipulative I found I still liked her at the end of the book. She's feisty and smart and I wanted her to be happy. I thought she and Paxton made a good couple and hoped they'd stay together, despite some of her choices towards the end. Paxton was a mixed bag. I liked him but he was easily manipulated by everyone around him, which made me feel less sympathetic towards him.

The book was surprisingly fast paced. Adult dystopian fiction generally drags a bit due to excess worldbuilding or political sentiment. The focus here really is on the characters so it was a quick read - and hard to put down towards the end.

That's not to say there weren't some poignant moments where you can see how our own world is heading in this direction. The company is obviously modelled after Amazon and Walmart and their practices of forcing producers to cut costs so they can sell products a the lowest price possible. It does end of a slightly more positive note than other dystopian books as well.

This is definitely worth checking out.

The Warehouse is a chilling and thrilling novel about big business and the plight of humanity trying to survive in the consumer age. With clear allusions to real companies this book paints a picture of what America and the world might have to look forward too if consumption remains unchecked. That is, of course, overlooking the fact that some aspects of this book are already reality for workers around the world today. This is one of the most plausible dystopian books I've read, and also one of the most enjoyable. The book is thrilling, filled with suspense and intrigue, and had me reading late into the night. It also left me questioning my purchasing decisions and wondering how I fit into the patterns of production, consumption, and economic injustice described in the book. It left me in a strange place of wanting to change my habits to ensure this nightmare world does not come to pass, but also not wanting to do anything. I found myself strongly identifying with some of the characters in the book as they struggled with some of these same questions. Perhaps more than anything, Rob Hart has offered a glimpse of the experience of being a consumer in the contemporary world. A view that is not a symbolic, but rather is accurate. The conflicting appeal of greed, convenience, morality, and the reasoning we follow in willingly allowing big business to take over more and more of our lives and economy. This is a story of how people live to work, instead of working to live. I don't know how I feel about the ideas contained in this book, but I know it is the most compelling indictment of wealth inequality and unrestrained capitalism I have ever read. It has certainly given me a lot to think about. Overall, I read this book as a work of fiction that examines how present dangers could lead to a world like the one described in this book. A world not very unlike our own. Highly recommend.

While there were some cheesy moments and predictable plot points, the ship was watertight in delivering the monotony and psychological nature in which a captialist dystopia functions. Wish there wad more on the world outside of the complex as it was vaguely bleak, however the world inside was very gripping to read about. It gives a bit like the silo series by Hugh Howey.