The funeral scene just about made me weep: With clear, straightforward language he captures subtlety of emotion and action.

Howey has a gift for understated prose, and the writing was one of pleasures of the book. 132).īut as organized and mechanistic as Juliette is in her world, by no means is she limited in her range of emotion: “ She had made the same choices as an adult, to love without sanction, and so her hypocrisy was more keenly felt” (p.137) She had come to believe that there was no fastener she culdn’t unstick, had learned to attack them with grease and with fire, with penetrating oil and with brute strength” (p. Something about that intolerable stiffness, that reluctance to move, set Juliette’s teeth on edge. It was like encountering a rusted bolt that refused to budge. “ But as Bernard’s footsteps receded… she felt a new resolve steel her nerves. Even though I’m completely tool-impaired, her thinking translated well, a clear schematic of sense. Juliette comes from a mechanical background, and I love how all her metaphors are mechanical ones, problems and solutions both.

Populated by multi-dimensional characters that feel real, I absolutely love the character of Juliette–determined, essentially elemental, a person that rocks my character world. This isn’t knitting a scarf so much as forging a steel chain. A world that feels solid, heavy, hard-edged soldered with characters that are heated and molded into something new. Direct, slow build of heat, singeing as it suddenly roars into flame.

Wool by Hugh Howey