Zodiac

Review originally posted at A Reading Brit.

I started this book out of boredom, to be honest with you. I'd been scrolling through Twitter all day, watched a couple episodes of Bones and wanted something else to do. Reading seemed like the obvious thing. This was one of the books I picked up from the library, and I'm hoping to return them on Tuesday, so I had to get a move on with reading them.

This book was different. In a good way. As I said, I was watching Bones earlier. I've watched NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds, Silent Witness and so many more police procedurals you wouldn't believe.

This almost started as a normal police procedural. You've got someone stumbling across a body and calling the police. Standard, right? From there though, it becomes so much more. There's this whole society built on the zodiac. What zodiac sign you're born in decides the sort of life you'll have.

It's weird, because I was jotting down ideas for a story about 2 weeks ago, and one of the ideas was a Hunger Games style system where instead of being separated by where you're born, you're separated by when, almost like this. It's interesting for me to read this author's perspective on it.

The characters were good, not crazy loveable and amazing, but enough to carry the story and not bore me to death. They've got their own personalities, which are heightened in certain ways based on their sign. They're largely superficial, however. The only character I really felt had more than a basic personality was Daniel.

The world-building is where I think this excels. The societies that have formed because of the signs of the zodiac, the personalities and the friction that are caused by it are great. I've always been a little curious of the zodiac, not because I believe any of it has any truth, but because I love the entertainment value it's got. This book helped me find even more entertainment in it.

The police side of things were a little stereotypical, but then, finding anything new with a police investigation after millions of TV shows, films and books would've been one hell of an achievement.

The bad-guy at the end was a little obvious, but I enjoyed how the information was shared, and the motive and emotion behind it. The reasons for the killing, and how it was done, seems to make a lot of sense. As much sense as murder can make, of course!

I'll admit, as a Sagittarius, I was disappointed they weren't more involved just for my own satisfaction. Haha!

Will I be picking up the next in the series? This is a stand-alone. Look at me, finally reading a stand-alone after reading the first book in so many series and never continuing them!

Would I recommend it? It's different. Part sci-fi, part thriller. I enjoyed it.

Is it going on my Favourites shelf? There was nothing about it that stood out enough for it to be a favourite.