Book Review: Dublin Zoo

First things first. This book has nothing to do with Dublin or a zoo haha. I just finished reading Dublin Zoo by John Michell yesterday and I was completely enthralled with the nearly 400 page book for the past 1-2 weeks.

The type of novel this is is hard to describe. Whenever I was reading it I couldn’t help but think of those tweets that people write where they pretend it’s one of those movies with a narrator. For example, “Sarah says, ‘This is going to be the best night ever!’ Narrator: ‘It was not the best night ever.'” The novel reminded me of that. It kind of also reminded me of Guy Ritchie movies where the topic might be really serious (crime, war, killing, etc.) but there’s humor and lightness injected in it.

The novel follows Harold Bradshaw and begins when he is on a military plane getting ready to parachute into France during WWII. He thinks back to his father’s story beginning in WWI and how he met Harold’s mother. He continues on to think about how his father built up his business and the tragedies that occur as time goes on.

After a string of misfortunes, Harold finds himself on a secret mission in France during the war, which brings the reader and the story back to present time (in the book) with Harold parachuting into a field in the middle of the night.

I found the story so interesting and it really had me hooked. Whenever I had time to read I couldn’t put the book down. I thought it was a great read!

P.S. You do find out what “Dublin Zoo” means during the novel.