Zoo, Week 4

Welcome to our final Online Book Club discussion of Zoo by James Patterson!

Were you able to finish the book this week? Did it meet all of your expectations? Do you enjoy reading doomsday-types of books? It's hard for me to enjoy these types of books because I just keep imagining how I would react in that type of situation. It's really stressful, and I feel like I can't relax and enjoy the reading process. Does anyone else feel that way? 

I didn't think that chapter 63 was a very pleasant place to begin this week. The descriptions of that dog hideaway were just disgusting. I didn't enjoy picturing that scene or smell at all. I thought about including a video clip of an ant death spiral after Patterson compared the dogs to that, but after viewing one, I thought I would spare your eyes. Google one if you're interested, but I would caution you to only look if you aren't creeped out by swarms of bugs crawling around. 

Did you think it was believable that the increase of cell phones and the increase of plastics created chemicals that mimicked pheromones that caused the animals to attack? Was that the answer that you were expecting? Did it make sense that our smell was what was driving the animals to violence? 

Weren't you glad that when Attila attacked Chloe and Eli's apartment, he didn't eat them? I was so scared that something horrible was going to happen to them. I was relieved that Attila was able to remember something about Oz's kindness to him so many years ago. 

What did you think of the ending? Were you disappointed? Did you think that there should have been more? I thought it was a little unbelievable that the animals made an immediate turn-around once all of the power was off. We knew having no electricity or fuel wasn't a long-term solution, but once power was restored, were you expecting everything to get bad again so quickly? Do you think Oz and his family will stay safe in his bunker? 

James Patterson has written a short follow-up to this story, so if you want to read more, check out Zoo 2. 

If you loved this story, you might be interested to check out some other books and movies that have similar themes and plot points. Check out this list I created to help you find some similar items. Let me know if you read or watch anything on the list!

I hope you enjoyed reading with us this month and will join us again next month! We'll be reading Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bassinger. I hope to hear from you in the comments section!