Zoo by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

 

Summary:

 

Once in a lifetime, a writer puts it all together. This is James Patterson's best book ever. Total
For 36 years, James Patterson has written unputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book that surpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born to write.

World

All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.

Destruction

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide. With wildly inventive imagination and white-knuckle suspense that rivals Stephen King at his very best, James Patterson's ZOO is an epic, non-stop thrill ride from "One of the best of the best." (TIME)

Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com

Length: 416 pages (Hardcover)

Source: Toronto Public Library

Available Formats: Print & E-book

Publication Date: September 3rd 2012 by Little, Brown and Company

 

This was my first time reading one of James Patterson's adult novels. I've read a couple of his young adult novels before and enjoyed them so when I saw the premise for this one I really wanted to read it and expected it to wow me.

 

Unfortunately that wasn't the case with this book. The reason why I wanted to give it a try was because it sounded like it was an intense read and one that I had actually heard some pretty good things about so when I finished the book and didn't end up liking it I was pretty upside.

 

To me the novel was too jumping and all over the place. It started off on a high note with some attacks within the first few pages but after about page 80 or slow the fast pace really slowed down and from then on it was a huge struggle to continue reading it until the end.

 

One of the main issues I had with the book was that it lacked depth. I mean I didn't go into the book expecting it to be a work that rivaled the literary greats but I expected it to have a certain amount of detail in when it came to the characters and the over all story line. I noticed that the tone of the book seemed to be a little young even though the main characters were in there late twenties to early thirties and it just didn't seem right.

 

The characters were very one dimensional. I didn't really get to know them at all. They lacked in personality and when I finished the book it was like I didn't know much about them at all and I think having well rounded is essential to having a well rounded book. There was absolutely nothing likable about any of the characters because there was so little known about them and the little we did know had them coming off as arrogant and annoying.

 

The story really did have a lot of potential. The whole premise of the book really did have promise. To me it was a bit of a mixture of the new Planet of the Apes movie the one with James Franco. The whole animals rebelling thing while it has been done before it's one of my favourite themes in a book. However I don't think that this book reached it's full potential.

 

As I said before both the characters and the story lacked detail. Another issue I had with the writing was that the story was always jumping from one thought to the next and it lacked continuity. There were many points in the book that the plot jumped so quickly I would have to go back and re-read a few pages here and there to make sure I didn't miss anything.

 

Overall this Zoo didn't appeal to me. This would have been a lot better if it had been better thought out and more attention was paid to certain things. It's a shame really because I wanted to like it. I really did and that is why I read the book right on through to the end in hopes it would get better. However, the beginning, middle and the end all disappointed me.

 

While I didn't like this novel I do see how it would appeal to other readers so I would recommend this to fans of James Patterson. Though I would personally suggest borrowing it from the library first in case you are a little wary. Even though I was disappointed by Zoo I do plan on reading another of the author's books geared towards adults in the near future.

 

Not for me!
★

 

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