The tagline on the cover of this book says "Some secrets should remain buried", and I have to totally agree with that. This book is 99% a prequel to Wool, and IMHO completely unnecessary. It explains how the world came to be what it is, how the silos were created, and why things happened the way they happened. But why would I want to know this? Not knowing every detail of these things is what made this world so interesting for me in the first place.

It also doesn't help that the main character is called Donald of all names... and does some incredibly stupid things, especially at the end of the book. It's absolutely unfathomable to me why he did what he did to Anna. Why?? WTF? Also, reading about Jimmy's solitude became really boring really fast.

Not to mention the frustration of just wanting to know how Juliette's story continues and not getting that satisfaction.

Altogether, a very mediocre sequel to an okay first book. I hope the final book is better.