The Warehouse – Rob Hart
Crown Publishing | Hardcover | August 20, 2019
Though many have described Rob Hart’s latest corporate thriller as satire, it is anything but. The Warehouse depicts a future that's not only plausible, but one that has already taken root—whether or not we’d like to admit it. Workers who are overworked and underpaid. Less-than-suitable healthcare benefits (if any at all). A non-existent work-life balance. Sexual harassment. Assault. A warped desire to please. A monopolized market. A marriage between government and big business. The list goes on.
On a macro level the novel hypothesizes what's to become of our market economy if we continue to give too much power to corporate giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, and so on—not just with our votes, but with our wallets.
However, the heart of The Warehouse is what’s at stake for workers. Both of Hart's main characters, Paxton and Zinnia, are new hires at Cloud, the corporate Godzilla that’s taken over the world. But while Paxton is looking for a fresh start after his startup went bankrupt due to Cloud’s monopoly on the market, Zinnia is a corporate spy tasked to unearth the company’s secrets and bring the beast down. Although Paxton and Zinnia grow together over the course of the novel, tensions don’t really mount until about two-thirds of the way through. But while the plot feels a tad stalled it’s a necessary move for it pushes readers to fall into a rhythm with Paxton and Zinnia’s less-than-spectacular 9 to 5 (not including volun-told overtime) grind. In doing so, Hart builds feelings of frustration within the reader, making them want to grab Paxton and Zinnia by the shoulders and tell them they deserve so much more.
It’s in these moments that Hart’s artfulness truly shines. The readers are right, Paxton and Zinnia do deserve more. We the people, the workers, deserve more. And while there are those who believe the market is the only thing that dictates how we do business, Hart clearly disagrees. It’s the consumers and the workers who have the power to control where we go from here and how we do it. The Warehouse is a testament to this and so when we need a reminder of what's truly at stake this will be a book to turn to time and again.
