Review by StarkidStarling -- World, Incorporated

[Sarah Starling]

[Following is a volunteer review of "World, Incorporated" by Tom Gariffo.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Tom Gariffo's novel World, Incorporated is about a dystopian future in which our main character Sliver is working for the company that currently runs the world, World, Inc. He kills people who go against the vision of the corporation with his trusty airship, Franklin. Throughout the novel the reader joins the pair on a multitude of missions and meets many different characters.

The story line itself was the most realistic dystopian future novels I have ever read, and I’ve read a lot of them including Divergent, Hunger Games, and Shades of Grey. Most books in the genre leave the reader with a sense of “but that wouldn’t actually happen in the real world.” Gariffo’s most definitely could and is happening in the real world, while it may not be our exact future, it is a plausible potential. This factor alone makes it one of the best in the genre.

My favorite part of the entire novel was the chapters that contained news articles to show the history of how the world devolved into being run by corporations. It brought the reader up to speed on the current situation while still being an interesting addition to read. I would enjoy an entire book about the history of the world written in this style by Gariffo.

World, Incorporated’s biggest weakness was the characters. There were about a dozen named characters and I didn’t care about a single one of them. Many opportunities for good character development existed, but Gariffo did not take any of them. Sliver had a reason for being robotic in personality, but I still didn’t feel attached to him at all. During his backstory, I thought there would be a sudden realization that made him more human, but it was completely glossed over. Another character had a typical bad boy persona, but he never developed anything further. His characters fell flat in this amazing novel.

Gariffo struggles with comma usage, and it detracted from the readability of the story. He often did not use them properly in quotes, but it wasn’t intentionally so because he did use them properly at times. As someone who has studied grammar and is a comma sprinkler for life, it really distracts me when someone uses them improperly through an entire novel rather than just as an occasional accident.

Overall, I rate World, Incorporated 3 out of 4 stars. The story itself is phenomenal; I read it as quick as I could because I wanted to know what happened in the world. I did not give it more because the characters were lacking in any sense of likability and the comma usage was atrocious. Gariffo has a lot of potential as a writer, his world was incredibly detailed and his writing style was an exciting read.

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World, Incorporated
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[JHuschle519]

[Following is a volunteer review of "World, Incorporated" by Tom Gariffo.]

Gariffo struggles with comma usage, and it detracted from the readability of the story. He often did not use them properly in quotes, but it wasn’t intentionally so because he did use them properly at times. As someone who has studied grammar and is a comma sprinkler for life, it really distracts me when someone uses them improperly through an entire novel rather than just as an occasional accident.

Overall, I rate World, Incorporated 3 out of 4 stars. The story itself is phenomenal; I read it as quick as I could because I wanted to know what happened in the world. I did not give it more because the characters were lacking in any sense of likability and the comma usage was atrocious. Gariffo has a lot of potential as a writer, his world was incredibly detailed and his writing style was an exciting read.

I am so happy to see that I was not the only one distracted by the comma usage. After reading a lot of other reviews, I was beginning to think maybe I was being to hard on Gariffo. I certainly won't claim to be a grammar expert, but the errors did seem excessive.

My favorite part of the entire novel was the chapters that contained news articles to show the history of how the world devolved into being run by corporations. It brought the reader up to speed on the current situation while still being an interesting addition to read. I would enjoy an entire book about the history of the world written in this style by Gariffo.

This was actually my least favorite part of the book. To me it seemed to slow the story down too much. I knew there were readers out there who would love it though, even if I didn't, so I won't hold that against the author.

[Nma26]

The story looks very interesting.I commend your choice of words and narrative flow in the review. Good job.

[C-Extra22]

When you read this story, what comes to your mind about the future? For me -endless possibilities.

[Onyinye Excel]

The chapter that contained new articles to show how the world developed to being run by corporations has my maximum interest.I would love to find out more.

[LaurenHaupt]

The book reminds me of Bourne Identity. Thank you for the review!

[Taylor Danvers]

Too many characters usually serve as a distraction to the flow of stories even good ones like this one