Book Review: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So I've given this book three stars. If two stars = it was okay, and three = I liked it, then two and a half stars is probably a more accurate. The book was better than just Okay, and I didn't dislike it, I'm just not sure that I liked it either.

I liked the concept and idea of this book. Zombies as the new terrorist bio-weapon and a secret task force hastily set up to deal with the problem before it can happen; sounds great right? In my opinion it sounds like a great story-line with a lot going for it. I feel that this book really hit the mark in some places and missed it in others. I feel as though the writing style is some what inconsistent (for lack of a better word). Let me elaborate:

From chapter to chapter the character perspective changes. Now ordinarily, I would be fine with that. However it wasn't just the perspective that changed; all the chapters from Joe's perspective were written in first person where as all the other chapters from the perspectives of the other characters are written in third person. Maybe I'm just being fussy, but I think, by all means change the character perspective, but either use first person or third person; I don't feel like it flows well chopping and changing between the two.

I found that by the end of the book, I didn't feel like I cared about the characters. It was obvious who the good guys and the bad guys were, but I never felt like I was rooting for either team. I also don't feel that I ever really got a good idea of what the characters were like. As in, I don't really know what their personalities are like and I can't really picture them in my head either. Although I thought that it was clear that some of the characters were suppose to have a more light hearted, sarcastic side, I feel as though it seemed a bit forced. In the case of Mr. Church we should have learnt a little bit more about him as we went through the book in my opinion, and I don't feel that I knew him any better by the end of the book than I did at the start (yes I am fully aware that he was suppose to be mysterious secretive, but this would have been a great use of changing the character perspective in different chapters; the reader could know more about that the other characters did) .

On the other hand, the descriptions of the settings and situations is really well done and you can create a clear image in your head of what things look like and what is happening. It's also written in a way that makes it really fast moving, with lots of action. Still, with this being said, I don't feel inclined to pick up book two any time soon. Perhaps it's more of a guy book, with all the detailed talk of guns and military stuff, and is just a little too far outside of my area of interests.

If you like books that have a lot of action, terrorist plots, secret task forces, and plenty of military talk this may be more of your kind of book than it is mine.

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