Review: The Warehouse by Rob Hart

Author: Rob Hart
Publisher: Crown
Publication Date: August 2019

Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities.

But compared to what’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices, and vast warehouses…well, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s more than anyone else is offering.

Zinnia never thought she’d be infiltrating Cloud. But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company’s darkest secrets. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears? He just might make the perfect pawn. If she can bear to sacrifice him.

As the truth about Cloud unfolds, Zinnia must gamble everything on a desperate scheme—one that risks both their lives, even as it forces Paxton to question everything about the world he’s so carefully assembled here.

Together, they’ll learn just how far the company will go…to make the world a better place.
Set in the confines of a corporate panopticon that’s at once brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, The Warehouse is a near-future thriller about what happens when Big Brother meets Big Business--and who will pay the ultimate price.

I finished The Warehouse a couple of days ago and had to really mull over my thoughts on how I felt about it.  The story is set in a dystopian future where a big corporation, Cloud (aka Amazon), runs most of the business, travel and education systems in the world.  Everyone can get anything by buying it online.  To get a job in a Cloud Hub is advantageous for anyone who is lucky enough to get it.

Taken as just a story, I liked it OK.  Through the two main characters, we get a glimpse into what a future like this could be like.  All services are streamlined, but at the expense of people's sanity and health.  The monotony of the day to day lives of the people working in the hubs is enough to make anyone bored and stir-crazy.  Zinnia is there as a corporate spy to find out the company's biggest energy secret.  Paxton is at a crossroads in his life having lost his business to Cloud and now hopes to build a life working for them.  The solutions that Zinnia found were kind of underwhelming.  One reveal was a blatant rip off of the "twist" from a famous Sci-fi movie.  That was a let down.  The ending was too open-ended for me.  You all know I am not a fan of open ended endings.  It's like the author just ran out of ideas.

I felt like the narrative was all over the place.  On one hand, Cloud is portrayed as the savior of the world and the environment. On the other, it is an evil corporation which must be stopped.  There are a few other examples like this. There is also a lack of world building.  We only get a very small glimpse of what is going on in the world outside the hubs. I had so many questions. Is it a wasteland?  Are there still places that are thriving?  I have no idea.  I feel like this is one that readers have to judge for themselves.  I think everyone will relate to it in different ways. I did like the writing style and would try this author again in the future.  For me, the story a lot of potential, but it fell short.