Wool

Author: Hugh Howey
Series: Silos #1
Genre: Sci-Fi
Original publication date: January 2012
Book description: This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Thoughts:

This contains the 5 short novellas, not sure what to call them. The first one we begin in the Silo, people have lived there for as long as they know, it is the only way of life, going outside is impossible. It is so far off that religion preaches that God created the Silo and placed people there. The divisions are made simply on where you live, the Silos are divided into thirds and people with specific job titles live in the different sections.
e begin with the current Sherf of the Silo volunteering, he wants to go outside. This is a crime punishable with death, speaking of the outside is forbidden and if you do, you are sentenced to be cast out to die in the harsh unlivable environment. People like the Sherif and wonder what happened to make him behave like that, he puts on the special suit to go outside. 
It is in human nature to wish freedom, for as long as they have knowledge there is a team dedicated to investigate and develop a way for people to survive on the outside. They design suits and when a person is sent outside, they test the suit, so far no one makes it far, everyone dies a few meters from the window, their only connection with the outside.

The mystery begins here, why do people who are sent outside to die still help those who are inside? It is one of the mysteries. Jules is a girl from down below, she lives in the last third, a mechanic. She is picked as the new Sheriff. The head of IT has a bone to pick with her, she is a troublemaker in her books but there is no evidence or real complaint against her. He had picked the successor but the Mayor challenges him and picks her own choice. As after all, it is the job of the Mayor to select the person for it. 

The first two parts are just an intro to the lifestyle, to the characters and the first stages of the mystery comes up, but I can't help but be a bit bored. I had issues to get through that, maybe the 3 part was the one that picked up Jules is making progress and discovering the lies people have been told. 
We see people reveling against the established government structure, we see people fighting and trying to survive, but for some reason, that part did not catch me completely. 
But then again somewhere in the 4th part it slacks a bit.
It is a very polarizing read for me. I had forgotten everything that happens here except for the cleaning and the big reveal that happens. 
We see what IT has been doing all this time, we have the question of what happened in the last revolt, why all the information previous to their existence was deleted, why people can't be outside? I mean there are a lot of questions and most of them are answered, this really can be seen as a standalone, if you end here you feel ok. I am not sure what to expect in the next ones actually as we get answers to pretty much all our mysteries. 

In the end, I gave this 

This was picked as part of my Tome Topple Rond 10 as it is a book with over 500 pages, as part of my 2020 rereads mainly so I can continue with the Silo series and this is one of the books I wanted to read as part of my post-apocalyptic books.
So yeah I used this book for several challenges of mine, that makes me feel very accomplished I can cross out many things done with a single book ;)