2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Wool, the first book in the Silo series by Hugh Howey.

Pages: 509 pages

Length: 1 month (June)

Participants: Eirelyn, Robin

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

Thanks for the thread, SarahKat! And thanks for joining me in the Buddy Read, Robin! :D I'm looking forward to reading this.

My husband was telling me about this book last night. I just added it to TBR. I'll probably read it with you ladies :)

Susan, oh that's awesome he was just telling you about it. Welcome to the buddy read! :D

Glad to get in on this! Thank you!!

Why I joined this buddy read:
Big dystopian fan ... Trying to find shorter series and new authors.

This book was not what I expected at all ... Tho not sure what I expected. I can't put it down ....

Are you guys reading the long version that's 509 pages or the shorter book (1A) also called Wool?

I found two version.... Wool Omnibus AND Wool

Robin wrote: "This book was not what I expected at all ... Tho not sure what I expected. I can't put it down ...."

@Robin - I'm a big dystopian fan too and kept hearing about this series and thought I'd try it out. Reading that you can't put it down makes me more excited to read it. I'm still waiting for my library hold to come through (I'm #1 on the list so it shouldn't be too much longer I hope!)

Susan wrote: "Are you guys reading the long version that's 509 pages or the shorter book (1A) also called Wool?

I found two version.... Wool Omnibus AND Wool"

@Susan - I was planning to read the full 509-page Wool Omnibus. If that's more than you two want to read in June, we could always extend it into July as well if you'd like. :D

Eirelyn wrote: "Susan wrote: "Are you guys reading the long version that's 509 pages or the shorter book (1A) also called Wool?

I found two version.... Wool Omnibus AND Wool"

@Sus..."

I think that'd be great! When I first saw the book, I thought I could handle 59pgs or whatever. I have a lot of books planned this month, not sure I can squeeze another 500 page book in there. If we extend into July, I totally could! Thanks!

Sounds perfect! We'll definitely extend into July then. 😁

Eirelyn wrote: "Sounds perfect! We'll definitely extend into July then. 😁"

Thank you!

You're welcome. :D That will give me a chance to get the book too and not feel as rushed to finish with a busy month going on haha.

I completed the 500+ version...

Robin wrote: "I completed the 500+ version..."

Oh wow, awesome, Robin! You really couldn't put it down! Tell us your thoughts (hiding spoilers of course haha). :D

I love dystopian fiction, and the premise of the world in the silo was really unique. The mix of found family, love, "terror", secrets and reveals really kept me involved. Howley mastered mixing them all with a writing style that was easy to walk beside each of the characters.

I'll wait for more ... Want to hear from you all now!! I'm on to Shift, next in the series! I'm hooked!!

It sounds really good & intriguing! I'm hoping my library hold comes through soon so I can start reading. 🤞

My hold just came through today! :D I'll start this book very soon!

I just finished Part 1 (which is through chapter 7). Like you, Robin, I couldn't put it down. (view spoiler)[The twist in chapter 7 I didn't expect! I fully thought that the blue-skied, green world he walked into was real and was shocked when he finally broke his helmet and saw that the gray/brown world that had been shown inside the silo was actually the real world. If the world outside truly is uninhabitable, (hide spoiler)] then I'm not really sure what to expect moving forward, which is great and makes me excited to keep reading!

Part 2 has been dragging for me a bit so far; I'm through chapter 10. It's mostly just (view spoiler)[Jahns and Marnes walking down down down the spiral staircase for hours & hours while Jahns thinks about how old & tired she is. They have made a couple stops which were interesting enough, (hide spoiler)] but I feel myself going, "Come onnnn," wanting to prod the story along a bit lol. I'm sure it'll pick up again soon! *fingers crossed*

I finished Part 2 (view spoiler)[ and for me, it is still dragging. So in Part 1 we got to know Holston...and then he died at the end. Then in Part 2 we got to know Jahns...and then she died at the end. And honestly, Part 2 was not very interesting to me at all. And I fully expected the water to be poisoned after she angered the guy the first time on the way down, and he said something about filling the water bottles. It didn't happen then, so once he was furious on their trek back up & mentioned filling the bottles again, I knew one or both of them would be poisoned. (hide spoiler)]

Part 3 is a little better so far. I like Juliette's character better than Jahns. She has a more mysterious & intriguing back story so far that I'm interested in finding out more about. I just hope something starts to happen with the plot soon. Juliette just (view spoiler)[met the stargazer guy and saw a star for the first time ever. He seems like a gentle, introspective soul so far, and I feel like their interactions could continue to be interesting in the future. (hide spoiler)]

I finished this book today and, I have to say, I was not impressed. I wanted so badly to like this book because I love the dystopian genre. I even love slow burns. But this book seemed to drag on & on & on in my opinion. I couldn't get into it at all. In fact, if not for the buddy read, I probably would have abandoned it halfway through, I'm sorry to say.

Here's my GR review: (view spoiler)[
I absolutely love the dystopian genre, but this book was not for me. It could have been half the length, as it was incredibly slow and dragged on & on & on. I felt like I was waiting the entire book for something interesting to happen. There were only a couple of parts where I perked up and felt engaged with the story: 1) Part 1 with Holston and his cleaning, and 2) When Juliette was sent to clean and made it to the other silo. After that, I hate to say that I was mostly bored.

Every summary I've read for this book states that those who want out are sent outside, and while that was technically true in this book, that concept is highly misleading, as "outside" typically equals death. So we don't get to see anyone actually outside for very long. There's no exploration of the outside world at all (minus Juliette's quick run to the other silo). That's it. The rest of the novel was spent entirely inside the silos.

The uprising seemed to happen suddenly but then just dragged on. It felt like a lot of the same scenes were repeated over & over. I suggested this for a buddy read because I thought, "Dystopian novel? This will definitely be up my alley!" However, if not for reading this with other people, I'm sorry to say that I would have abandoned it halfway through.

2.75 stars, bumped up to 3.0 because the writing itself was very good. The confined setting and the drawn out, repetitive scenes are just not for me. (hide spoiler)]

Robin, I'm glad that you enjoyed this way more than I did, though! Did you start Shift?

Susan, have you had a chance to start it yet? (It's okay if you haven't haha, just curious).

Since we've extended the buddy read through July, I'll be checking in all next month too. I'm going to check out the series on Apple to see how it differs, so I plan to come make some comments about the book vs. the show. :D

This has been moved to the July Buddy Reads folder

Thanks, SarahKat!

Eirelyn wrote: "I finished this book today and, I have to say, I was not impressed. I wanted so badly to like this book because I love the dystopian genre. I even love slow burns. But this book seemed to drag on &..."

I went on vacation abroad for 10 days and didn't get much reading done. I haven't started this yet. Glad it's being moved to July. I'm sure I'll be able to read it in July.