Rating: 5 Stars
If you take the worst of mega companies like, Amazon and China’s Alibaba and give them ultimate power you will get The Warehouse. The author, Rob Hart, explores the idea of a dystopian world where one company rules supreme. This story hits so close to home it will make you shudder in horror and give you nightmares.
In the near future, the world is ravaged by global warming, food shortages, lack of clean water and jobs. Amongst this chaos one company rules supreme, Cloud. They tout themselves as nothing short of God. But they have a seedy underbelly that few ever see.
Zinnia has been hired by a wealthy individual, whose identity she does not know, to infiltrate Cloud so they can be exposed. This will be her most difficult job ever and the most lucrative, if she can complete it. Once she gets hired, she immediate starts looking for ways to break through their security. Cloud tracks all its employees, ALL the time, through a watch. The watch must be worn at all times and can only be taken off to recharge. She must figure out a way to take the watch off and not get caught.
The solution lies with Paxton who is already drawn to her. He is in security and knows things that will help her and he can go places she can’t. How can she dupe him? If he knows what is truly going on at Cloud, will he be willing to help her?
The author is obviously drawing parallels between Cloud and Amazon just as The Circle did with Facebook. As the CEO of Cloud says repeatedly throughout the book, the market decided. We as consumers want the cheapest product delivered right to our door yesterday. The company that can do that will be the winner in the end, not the consumer! The scariest thing about this book is, the world Hart imagines I can already see beginning to take shape.
The world building was not extensive because it did not need to be. Yet, what the author described was spot on. It was easy to imagine how bad things could get when control rests with one person. The pace of the story was excellent and it never dragged for one minute. Each reveal was thoughtfully executed so you wanted to reader faster as the story progressed.
The characters were especially well done. Zinnia and Paxton charters were easy to relate to. Though I must say, I did not like the character of Paxton because he was too much of a push over. Yet, I think this is what the author intended. Paxton represents the attitude I see a lot of in America today, that as long as I am doing OK ignore what is happening elsewhere. Don’t rock the boat and stand up for what is right.
I remember, in school, reading The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and Animal Farm. The Warehouse falls right into the same niche as those. If you liked them, you need to read this one. In addition, I think this book should be a must read for everyone. Highly, highly recommend!
I received a free copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.