REVIEW: Zoo by James Patterson

***please note, this review may not be completely spoiler free, and all views are my own***

Hello world! How are we all? Hope everyone is well! Today, I am bringing you a review of my most recently read novel, Zoo, by James Patterson. Released initially in 2012 (I believe), it has seemed to slip under many people's radars, particularly those unfamiliar to Patterson or the genres he writes within. That is, until Sky released the information that they were to create a series of the same name, based upon the books. Naturally, after seeing the first trailer (or advert for us Brits), curiosity got the better of me, and I ended up purchasing the book online via Amazon, and upon its arrival a few days later, I picked it up.

Zoo follows our main character, Jackson Oz, who has a pet chimp, Atilla. Now, for those of you who have seen the series Zoo, you may be wondering who Atilla is, as apparently the poor thing has been left out of it. When a string of strange animal attacks on humans begin occurring more and more frequently, this leads Oz, and a number of other individuals, to take note of such behaviour and monitor it, looking for anything out of the ordinary or obscure to such an animals typical pattern. For example, lions, when in a pack and hunting, tend to only have one male lion as the 'lead' so to speak, and the rest of the pack tend to be females. However, in the book, one of the noticeable changes or strange goings-on is that a lion pack is actually hunting in an all-male formation, highly out of character for such a predator. When Oz gets asked if he would like to see strange animal behaviour patterns in Africa, he leaves his girlfriend behind in the US, and asks her to look after Atilla. And this is where it really starts to go downhill for our main character.

Whilst on the way to Africa, he recieves an email from his girlfriend Natalie, who is trying to tell him she wishes for them to break up, as she feels almost like a third wheel in her own relationship with Oz and his dedication to his work. He reluctantly agrees (what else can he do from the other side of the world) and throws himself into what Africa has to offer in terms of animal behavioural patterns. Several events follow this (which i do not wish to disclose in fer of spoilers for you all), but in these events there are attacks, deaths, new friendships and potential love interests, and Oz has only been there 24 hours!

From Africa, Oz returns to the US with his new love interest in tow, as he believes he has nothing to lose now that Natalie has seemingly cut all ties. However, he notices when he arrives at his apartment that things are not all they are cracked up to be, and this discovery aids him greatly in his research.

This book kept me gripped. At times, I really didn't want to pick it up in fear of what might happen next, but then again, it did such a good job of drawing me in again and again I couldn't resist! Some of the characters were incredibly well developed, although I feel that some deserved more time to shine in their roles (such as Oz's guide in Africa for example).

Overall, I rated this book a 4/5 stars on Goodreads, as I felt the story was lacking in reality in parts, although it did enough to keep me hooked. A must read for those who are wanting to be introduced to Patterson's writing style!