Zoo

by James Patterson

2015

Status

Checked out

Publication

Grand Central Publishing (2015), Edition: Mti, 400 pages

Description

Fiction. Thriller. HTML: 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 impending violence becomes terrifyingly clear. 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..

User reviews

LibraryThing member Kikoa
Great read.....Loved it...When you want an easy book to read. Short chapters big print....you can just zoom through. Good scary story that is within the realm of possibility.
LibraryThing member samarnold1975
I always approach Patterson novels with a hint of trepidation when he has co-written them. These joint ventures are either good or simply awful. I also have concerns about how much of the book Patterson actually writes or whether he really is just used as a name to publise a new author.

To start
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with, the premise of this book is just ridiculous. Animals rampaging around the land set on a mission to eliminate humans. I believe the awful writing however greatly affected the fact that I thought the book was ridiculous. The writing was immature and at no time engaging. The introduction of the ape side kick went further to make this book childish and stupid. I have to say after reading the prologue I was optimistic about the book however, this is the only decent part of the book. After this it moves on to a slow childish plot with no character development. I didn't relate or like any of the characters in the book.

A very poor effort from Patterson not up to his usual standard.
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LibraryThing member rogclark
This is easily the worst book I have read for a long time. I am amazed that I persevered with it to the end. It has no redeeming features. Undoubtedly this will be my first and last James Patterson novel.
LibraryThing member CinderH
This was not a good book. The idea was good, but the writing was not. The main character seems very undisturbed when people he knows get attacked and killed by wild animals. I'm thinking surviving that would indeed be traumatic, but not for Oz, he just brushes himself off and walks away.

Things just
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start escalating in the book and then you turn the page and it's 5 years later. What? That didn't make any sense to me at all. Plus, a chimp that escaped with a red ball cap, was still wearing it in the second part of the book (5 years later) and at a jaunty angle no less. Huh. I didn't mind the end because it showed what a weak mess humanity is, but all the stuff before it was just not good. A story along these lines could be good, this one just isn't. At least it was a quick read.
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LibraryThing member auntmarge64
Pretty awful - almost no plot or characterization, repetitive writing, and way longer than needed. The TV show, though, is entertaining.
LibraryThing member TomWheaton
This book had a really interesting premise and was a page-turner through the first half of the book. But, I thought it dragged a bit in the middle, then picked up again at the end. The ending was kind of inconclusive as it left the reader to decide what happened after the book ended and left me
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thinking that there might be a sequel.
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LibraryThing member pinkcrayon99
There is a subtle change in animal behavior. As time progresses, more and more animal attacks on humans are being reported around the world. This problem is being studied by, Jackson Oz. Oz is a witty nerd whose theory on the sudden change in animal behavior is going unheard by most of his
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colleagues. His devotion to this theory has caused him to drop out of his prestigious PHd program and live in the bare minimum conditions. It also must be noted that Oz lives with a 3yr old chimp named, Attila. Oz stole Attila from the research center where he previously worked. On a trip to Africa to study lions who were attacking humans, Oz's life changed forever. The change was for better and worse. Oz returns home from Africa to a murder scene and Attila acting possessed.

Jackson Oz is one of those characters that you feel like you have known for years. His intellect does not intimidate or overwhelm the story. His passion to try and make the world understand and recognize HAC: Human Animal Conflict is relentless. Eventually Oz's theory is proven true when animal packs all over the world gather and begin killing humans. Instead of Oz saying, "I told you so," he becomes even more disturbed at the magnitude of the crisis.

The way that this book is written is quite captivating. You feel as if you are in this with Oz. You want him to figure out what is making these animals turn so suddenly. Oz is the underdog that you get out of breath cheering for. Current events and pop culture are also sprinkled throughout but not heavily. Patterson gives us narrators from India, Russia, and even the likes of "Gorillas in the Mist." We get a take from everyone's point of view even the animals. Patterson keeps Attila close which made me happy and sad. The entire time I was reading I kept thinking what would we do if this actually happens. It was interesting to see how Patterson wrote the government and people's responses to this international crisis. The ending was not happy or too sad but extremely sobering. I didn't find the book far-reaching or over the top. The scientific information and terms did not bog the reader down. This is my first James Patterson novel and I'm happy I stumbled across it.
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LibraryThing member jefware
Petroleum and EM radiation combine to turn mammals into a mega-mob of human killers powered by intelligent pheromones. The science is sub-surface in the sea of plausibility but the story in a real page-turner. I finished this book in three sessions, so it is an easy read.
LibraryThing member Ravenlight
Will this book take up some leisure time on a weekend, yes.
Will this book provide some form of entertainment, sure.
Will this book be thought of as a literary masterpiece in my mind, not a chance.

I can't pinpoint the exact reasons I didn't love Zoo. Maybe it is the overwhelming sense of dislike
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towards government, or the lackluster performance of the characters. I feel as though the readers could have benefited more from a little more human development. I know more about the ape's inner workings than I do about the main character.

It was a quick read, but all in all grey. Although I moved steadily through it, Zoo was not a book that I would stay up late for. In the end it will end up on a shelf in my office, and in a couple weeks forgotten.
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LibraryThing member repb
Stupid and outlandish. Crazy situation where mankind has screwed around with the environment with cell phones and overuse of petroleum causing animal life to attack all human beings. I finished just because, for the life of me, I could not future out how he (they - it took two writers to create
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this story?) were going to finish. Unnecessarily includes lesbianism and foul language to top it off. A waste of reader's time.
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LibraryThing member littleton_pace
I'm new to James Patterson's writing, even though I've seen his name for years and years and years. The blurb of this one grabbed me, as did its $7 price tag. Basically, all the animals in the world have gone mental and are attacking humans.

It's a fast-paced read, and I give it credit for that,
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you're never sitting still for very long and always on the move. However, the lead character, Oz, isn't that enthralling and I didn't much care for him. Women are almost non-existent in this novel. Oz's first girlfriend dumps him via text and then gets mauled to death by Oz's pet monkey, (a crime which, by the way, is never answered for). Then Oz saves a stunning, French woman from being eaten by crocodiles whom he then marries and is thus relegated to being a wife and mother. Patterson seems to have attempted mask all this male focus by having a female President, but even she doesn't do too much.

It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't fabulous. A good book to take if you were on a long flight or stuck somewhere with nothing to do. It's a very clinical novel, very precise in it's structuring, but there's nothing really in-depth about it. However this can be a plus, it definitely doesn't require a tonne of investment from the reader.

Rec'd if you're after a fast-paced read on a rainy day.
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LibraryThing member bohemiangirl35
Jackson Oz has dropped out of Columbia because no one takes his thesis seriously. He's been documenting incidents of animals attacking humans (Human Animal Confrontation or HAC) and believes it's a growing epidemic. Unfortunately, things have to get bad quickly for anyone to listen. Oz travels to
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Africa and back for research and to try to get the word out, find a cause, and find a solution.

Not as bad as Toys, but not really good. It could have been good if Patterson and Ledwidge had gone a little past the surface with the characters, but the book came across as something put out quickly to make a buck.
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LibraryThing member patrick631
this was one of the worst books of his I read. I could barely get through it.
LibraryThing member geek_mum11
This book was definately not one of James Patterson's best. It had a nice hooking plot, but it just fell flat. I was very disappointed.
LibraryThing member Chancelet
An entertaining read, to say the least. I truly enjoyed it, even though there were some points in the plot where you say, "That is so stupid. No one would have done that!" Once you get past that, the story is good, the tone is works well, and the ending was done right.
LibraryThing member Draak
In Zoo, animals everywhere are starting to act strangely. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, tries to sound the warning but everyone labels him as a crackpot. When he goes to Africa to witness first hand what is happening with the lions, he captures it on video and people finally start listening to
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him. But things aren't happening fast enough and before long animals are attacking and killing while the humans hide.

When I first read what this book was about I hoped that it could deliver. And I was not disappointed. From the first page to the last it held my interest and I could not put it down. I highly recommend it.
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LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
I wanted to like the book. I truly believe that authors write to please their audience. Sadly, I am not in the audience for this book.
It feels like a combination of Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young and King Kong, gone wrong. What could have been a really exciting novel descends into a fantasy, not
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quite believable. The author has used the book to advance his political agenda with issues that range from environmental abuse, to governmental arrogance and incompetence, to almost all other social issues, even including a lesbian couple that is attacked in Africa, although their sexuality has nothing whatsoever to do with the story.
After more than a decade of unusual animal behavior, indicating an animal population behaving contrary to their natures, turning on humans, the powers that be, meaning government officials, finally wake up and turn to scientists for the answer which will solve what seems to be the possible arrival of the end of days. They turn to a man who originated the concept of a human/animal clash but was previously very unsuccessful in warning the public or getting the ear of the people in charge. Originally on the fast track at Columbia, working toward his PHD, Jackson Oz is undone by this theory. Unemployed and no longer at school working toward his degree, he can’t shake the thought that there is “a paradigm shift underway in the world of animal life, and that animals are behaving strangely” out of character, in a way that will be catastrophic for the world. Too soon, his theory becomes the nightmare of reality.
He rants about an ineffective, corrupt government, peopled by arrogant, spoiled Congressmen, etc., making decisions based on politics rather than common sense(sounds a bit familiar), and he even casts a female President in an important role, but not a thoughtful President in charge of the crisis, rather one that overreacts and makes poor decisions, making the crisis worse. It is not too far into the future since she is the 45th President. Jackson Oz is the name of the quasi hero of the novel. Many of his decisions are uninformed and immature, as well.
The book further declines, in my opinion, with the inclusion of irrelevant sex scenes and very often inane dialogue. In addition, the effort to add wit to the tale, failed for me. The subject matter was not funny, and if addressed with greater seriousness, the author might well have made this novel a warning about what might come if we continue to abuse our world, rather than engaging in an implausible flight of fancy.
Those that like books that combine fantasy, science fiction and horror, and those who eagerly await the next Patterson novel, will undoubtedly find more to like in this book than I did. It is a fast read, it is exciting, but it left me wanting. Perhaps it would best be read on an airplane or on a beach, somewhere on vacation, preferably where there are no wild animals.
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LibraryThing member csayban
2.5 stars – Fair

Jackson Oz was supposed to have a bright future, finishing his PhD in biology and flaunting a gorgeous girlfriend. Instead he is flat broke in a New York City apartment shaken by constant trains, living with his chimpanzee, Attila, and scorned as a conspiracy nut for his theories
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on the escalating aggression of animals around the world. Even Oz is unsure of himself. That is until a last ditch trip to Africa brings him face-to-face with what is about to become a worldwide fight for survival between man and beast. But will anybody listen to him before it is too late?

“...The world was becoming a zoo, without cages.”

James Patterson has written or co-written more books than can be easily counted and has a worldwide following for his string of bestselling crime thrillers. With Zoo, however, he and co-writer Michael Ledwidge depart from this formula and head into uncharted territory. I have to say that early on, the premise of the book was very interesting. All sorts of different scenarios ran through my mind as I read of what could be causing the animal kingdom to go berserk. Patterson does a good job of fanning that flame of uncertainty through the first half of the book. However, when the picture finally resolves, the story quickly loses steam. It isn’t that the story completely falls apart, it just sort of fades out in a bit of a whimper. The last half of the book felt rushed.

The character of Jackson Oz is well developed. I enjoyed following him as he tries to navigate his uncertainties and feelings about the crisis. But the rest of the characters are underdone and the narration ends up feeling very thin. In fact the entire story feels unfinished, especially the last 100 pages. In spite of its nearly 400 pages, Zoo reads very quickly – too quickly to reap the benefit of what was sown in the early chapters.

Zoo has a really seductive premise for a doomsday scenario that hasn’t been tapped into very much to my knowledge. That is why I’m disappointed with it. In hands as capable as Patterson, I expected something better developed. It’s not that there is anything overtly wrong with Zoo, it just didn’t capitalize on an interesting beginning. I honestly wish Patterson could keep the first 200 pages and rewrite the rest. Unfortunately, Zoo will go down as a tale of what could have been…but wasn’t.
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LibraryThing member leseratte30
fast paced, quick read - as usual with a Patterson
LibraryThing member gma2lana
I normally like Patterson books, they are to me a quick page turning read. HOWEVER, this book, did not do it for me. I usually can get through a book of his rather quickly, this book took me way to long.

In the beginning of the story, it captured my attention, but towards the middle and end, it
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really stalled out for me.

I am glad that I don't have to drag this to work with me, its the hard cover and I am sad that I spent $10 bucks for this book as well.

Guess that's the chance we take. I wish I could do half stars, becuase 2.5 would be tops for me.
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LibraryThing member turtlesleap
This is the first book by James Patterson that I've read and I was pretty disappointed. His writing is immensely popular and, quite honestly, if this book is typical of his work, I really don't understand that. The story is that of a world gone mad; in which animals have suddenly turned violently
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against man. That whole premise has been done over and over and over in speculative fiction and, while Patterson added a new twist of technological "explanation," it just wasn't enough. The character development is superficial. He can pretty much kill off his characters at will because the reader doesn't care enough about them for it to matter. The plot was so utterly predictable that I kept being surprised that he didn't think of something else, just to add interest. In the reviews that I read, the phrase "page turner" was used over and over, and I agree. I kept turning pages just to get finished with this one.
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LibraryThing member dannalora
This was more like a Dean Koontz book than a James Patterson book. I am amazed with authors anyhow, but truly amazed when they can switch their genre up like that and the book still be a good one.
LibraryThing member bibliophileofalls
A pretty good story, a little out of the ordinary for Patterson. Sometimes too difficult to believe, but also gives one something to think about.
LibraryThing member LibraryCin
Worldwide, any and all animals are acting strangely and attacking and killing humans. Oz didn't quite finish his degree, but as a scientist, he has been studying this behaviour for a few years and calls it HAC (Human-Animal Conflict). As things escalate, he joins forces with Chloe as they try to
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convince the world of what is going on and try to stop it...

This was really good. There is now a tv show based on the book, but it is very different. The premise is the same and the two characters, Oz and Chloe, are the same, but that's just about where the similarities end. I like that Patterson writes in the short chapters he uses, as it spurs me on (of course, in addition to the plot!) to want to keep reading. I was really trying to figure out how the novel was going to end, and I think it was... fitting, probably realistic (if such a situation was to be “realistic”, the way they ended it certainly was).
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LibraryThing member coachtim30
Equal parts good and lame, "Zoo" is a lukewarm entry from James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge covering a devastating, worldwide animal attack on mankind. Efforts to alert the world to the problem by a lightly regarded biologist named Jackson Oz goes unheeded until it's too late. Oz and French
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ecologist Chloe Tousignant then lead the charge to not only explain the murderous phenomenon, but try and find a way to get the animals back in order.
Patterson and Ledwidge do a fair job of keeping the plot moving, but there are too many little sidebars that deflect the reader's attention off the main problem. Dog lovers, in particular, may find this book difficult to digest.
Like downing a bowlful of potato chips, most readers will find "Zoo" filling, but hardly satisfying.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2012-09-03

Physical description

400 p.; 4.25 inches

ISBN

1455591238 / 9781455591237

Barcode

1601578
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