I got an Apple watch this year, after I read this book, and I was stunned to find that things I thought were made-up are actually possible.
Add a mystery, and a family busines that will be passed on- this is an adult Charlie and the Chocolate Facotory that could actually be real.

“The worst part is, we should have seen it coming. For years we lived with stories about this. Brave New World and 1984 and Fight Club. We celebrated these stories while ignoring the message.

It’s because they don’t want us to read these stories anymore. They don’t want us to get ideas. Ideas are dangerous.”

I thought when I picked this up I’d be indulging in a story about the corporate mega store and a little corporate espionage for another big box competitor. While that is this story on the surface, The Warehouse is so much more than that. It isn’t until the near end of the story that the bleak dystopian undertones of a world reminiscent of Bradbury or Haxley start to emerge. If I had known this story was about so much more than it’s advertised to be I would have picked it up sooner.

Read this story for the ideas. It may be a more unsettlingly realistic future for the direction the modern world is heading. If you’ve indulged in the joke that one day Amazon will control the world, this may be the book for you.

But more than that, read it for one particular character, Paxton. There are very few fictional characters that I’ve ever had cause to think about this much. Most of the reflection centers on how probably a great majority of modern people would behave in exactly the same manner if this was our reality. When faced with hard decisions on morality, dignity, or justice it’s uncomfortable to think on how a lot of people would trade that in for basic security and stability. While we love to read about fictional heroes who take a hard stand against these evil corporations on principle alone and damn the consequences it’s more refreshingly original to see a character who struggles against his place in the machine when he’s been hardwired to care about day-to-day living concerns and the approval of his peers over everything else.

While not the most original or insightful of stories, there’s enough quality and deeper content to make this an unforgettable read.

I didn't rate this as high originally because I felt it could could've had more to it.
However, the ideas have stuck with me and permeated so deeply that I'm raising the rating a bit.

An eerie modern take on Orwell's 1984. What struck me the most was the plausibility. It's crossed my mind, as I'm sure it has yours, that a monopoly online retailer has the power to change the world. Is changing the world.

In the USA especially, where convenience and instant gratification rule, it is easy to 'go with the flow' without looking at the possible consequences. Portrayed so well in this story.

The world has become a harsh environment. We have polluted and consumed to the edge of extinction. There is only one escape - The Cloud -

The Cloud is a behemoth online retailer that provides for all your needs including housing and medical care if you're one of the lucky ones to work for them. The conditions seem atrocious to us readers, but to the characters who have only the harsher outside world to go to it's better than nothing. It's truly scary to see how the characters are easily brainwashed into 'the system'. It's even scarier to think that it could/would happen to me.

Hang on for this thrilling ride into a near future reality. The end will have you gasping and asking for more.


Review ARC graciously provided by the publisher via NetGalley