Jocelyn's Reviews > Zoo
Zoo (Zoo, #1)
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Oh dear sweet baby Jesus. The next time I think it's a good idea to read anything written by an author that writes an average of five novels a year, will someone please remind me of this literary travesty and that I have better things to spend my time reading?
This is one of the worst novels I've read in a long, Long, LONG time. And the only, I repeat, the only reason I bothered finishing it is because the idea behind it could have come out as a truly amazing work of fiction in the hands of almost any other author. Almost, being the key word there. I shouldn't have to point out the obvious exceptions *cough*ELJamesStephenieMeyer*cough*
As it stands, unfortunately, it wasn't written by any other author.
I spent the entire time feeling like I was being hit over the head with, well... everything. There is no subtlety, no nuance, nothing left to the imagination - virtually everything is spelled out in black and white, and the things that aren't are glossed over or completely ignored. I can tell that only a minimal amount of cursory research went into this novel, which is highlighted by the fact that some (albeit, sketchy) scientific concepts are touched upon, but never in great detail and the use of technical jargon is almost non-existent. The writing style doesn't change at all between characters - despite the fact that some of the POV comes from several animals, and, maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm fairly certain they shouldn't sound like a military-veteran-University-drop-out-who's-internal-monologue-reads-like-a-bad-action-flick. And don't even get me started on the font size in the hardcover edition; there are more words per page in most teen novels than there are in this book. Talk about padding your bottom line.
I can't with this shit anymore.
/end transmission
This is one of the worst novels I've read in a long, Long, LONG time. And the only, I repeat, the only reason I bothered finishing it is because the idea behind it could have come out as a truly amazing work of fiction in the hands of almost any other author. Almost, being the key word there. I shouldn't have to point out the obvious exceptions *cough*ELJamesStephenieMeyer*cough*
As it stands, unfortunately, it wasn't written by any other author.
I spent the entire time feeling like I was being hit over the head with, well... everything. There is no subtlety, no nuance, nothing left to the imagination - virtually everything is spelled out in black and white, and the things that aren't are glossed over or completely ignored. I can tell that only a minimal amount of cursory research went into this novel, which is highlighted by the fact that some (albeit, sketchy) scientific concepts are touched upon, but never in great detail and the use of technical jargon is almost non-existent. The writing style doesn't change at all between characters - despite the fact that some of the POV comes from several animals, and, maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm fairly certain they shouldn't sound like a military-veteran-University-drop-out-who's-internal-monologue-reads-like-a-bad-action-flick. And don't even get me started on the font size in the hardcover edition; there are more words per page in most teen novels than there are in this book. Talk about padding your bottom line.
I can't with this shit anymore.
/end transmission
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Reading Progress
October 11, 2012
–
Started Reading
October 11, 2012
– Shelved as:
2012-new
October 11, 2012
– Shelved
October 12, 2012
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-14 of 14 (14 new)
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Tasha-Lynn
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rated it 3 stars
Oct 11, 2012 06:31PM
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Not even a little bit lol. First and last novel of his I'll ever pick up.
That's the fun thing about reviewing a book online - I'm entitled to my opinion and you are entitled to yours. If I could have given it zero stars, I would have. You feel differently, and that's fine. I'm not in the habit of reading any kind of fiction that is generally labelled as "brain fluff" for the exact reasons I didn't like this novel - I don't enjoy reading things that are rife with plot holes and massive swathes of gray area and terrible characterization; they take me out of the moment. I also don't like movies or television shows that have the same problems, so it's not like I'm picking on poor ol' James Patterson or Michael Ledwidge for their inability to write a decent book. Obviously others feel the same way because I'm not the only one-star reviewer. And you are also not the only person to rate it above that.