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Official Review: The World Is Old by Michelle Wareham

Posted: 19 Feb 2020, 17:36
by LinaMueller
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The World Is Old" by Michelle Wareham.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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The World is Old by Michelle Wareham is a short romance novel set in a fictitious town (Little Array) inhabited by those exiled by society. There are a mining compound and a brothel nearby. Greedy men exploit the workers in both places.

From the first page, this book reminded me of the novel Germinal written by Émile Zola and the movie Elysium. The World Is Old is a mix of both. The protagonist Mo is a lot like Étienne Lantier: both are two characters who have suffered a lot in life, have no prospect of the future, and work in a mine that is harmful to the health of workers. In this book, as I said before, the city populace banished those that live in Little Array. When Edward Patterson says, "I don't want to stay another second in this shithole," he looks like a perfect copy of the wealthy citizens of Elysium who want to avoid contact at all costs with the poor inhabitants of the Earth.

Quinn is another captivating character. She was born in the brothel house named "Oneavenue" and managed to maintain her dignity even though she lived in a place where customers and pimps abused women. In addition to living in an abusive location, she still had to take care of her elderly mother, who had no legs.

It is the meeting of these two protagonists (Quinn and Mo) that makes the story interesting. They meet and quickly develop amazing chemistry together. After a short time, they are already planning to leave that dismal place. At the end of the book, the couple discovers that the mine where Mo works is a "Slaughter Mine." There were no safety checks nor any environment/labor standards. The mine was basically on the verge of falling in itself.

Unfortunately, The World is Old has many grammatical issues. Missing determiners, different styles of apostrophes or quotation marks in the same page, wrong verb tense usage, you name it. The grammatical errors are plentiful and diverse. Taking into account that the book has only 61 pages, it's clear that it needs another round of editing. That’s what I disliked the most about it.

All in all, I rate The World is Old three out of four stars because it is a real page-turner. The only reason that made me take one star away was the fact that the book is poorly edited. Besides, there are some examples of mean words like "f*ck" and "sh*t." For this reason, I recommend this book to any reader over 12 who wants quick fun.

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The World Is Old
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Re: Official Review: The World Is Old by Michelle Wareham

Posted: 26 Feb 2020, 16:45
by Stephanie Elizabeth
I like the sound of this book, but it is too bad about the errors! Thanks for the engaging review!

Re: Official Review: The World Is Old by Michelle Wareham

Posted: 02 Mar 2020, 09:32
by Mai Tran
Thanks for the insightful review. The premise seems interesting, two people falling in love in the most dreary town and pursuing a new life together. It's a pity about the lack of editing and foul language. I hope the author takes your suggestion into consideration.

Re: Official Review: The World Is Old by Michelle Wareham

Posted: 06 Mar 2020, 12:01
by Nisha Ward
Editing issues aside, the book sounds interesting. From the name alone, I gather that the mine is like that on purpose? I'm hopeful that Mo and Quinn escape that life and go on to live somewhere better.

Re: Official Review: The World Is Old by Michelle Wareham

Posted: 26 Mar 2020, 02:52
by Salma_asa
I am not a fan of romantic novels but from your review I can deduce that the book is quite a read! Plus the book is not that long. I may read it.

Re: Official Review: The World Is Old by Michelle Wareham

Posted: 27 Mar 2020, 01:59
by Princepetr10
The world is old. This name looks interesting , I like romantic novels .