Zoo

December 24, 2012
Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh my! In this thriller from Patterson and Ledwidge, all members of the animal kingdom, from true predators to man’s former best friends, decide that humans are what’s for dinner. The book’s follows narrator, Jackson Oz, an environmental biologist who has lost his reputation, his university position, and nearly all of his money trying to warn the world about just such a cataclysmic disaster. Reader Jay Snyder provides Oz with a touch of breezy optimism—at least early on—that takes the edge off the grim slashing and that occurs in the alternating third-person descriptions of man-beast encounters. Snyder also delivers a fair amount of suspense, as Oz embarks on a desperate search for the cause of and the antidote to the sudden worldwide wilding. And while the book’s conclusion may strain credulity, Snyder’s Oz presents his case so positively and persuasively that it’s not until the final disc plays—when all the dogs and cats and rats have returned to their natural states—that anyone is likely to care. A Little, Brown hardcover.