Audio Book Review: Ape House, by Sara Gruen

I really enjoyed Ape House.  It's a good thing Gruen is an interesting writer because there were some extra details that I thought were excessive.

John is a reporter who visits the Great Ape Language Lab to interview Isabel Duncan, one of the chief scientists.  He is fascinated by what he sees -- how the apes are treated as equals. How they were able to communicate with humans -- and wanted to.

A few days after his visit, protestors bomb the lab, Isabel is seriously injured, and the apes are loose. Isabel considers the apes to be her family, and when they are sold out from under her, she is devastated and will do anything to be reunited with them.

John has lost the ape story to another reporter and ends up quitting his job.  We get a lot of detail about John and his relationship with his wife, Amanda, who is trying to be a writer but is depressed about being rejected. I really got frustrated with this point of view at times.  I really just wanted to hear about what was happening to the apes. I realized that the emphasis on John must mean that eventually he and Isabel would team up, but it took way to long to get to that point.

That is really my only complaint about Ape House. There were many interesting characters, and the road to saving the apes was fraught with detours. My heart really felt for those apes!  I felt their humanness just like Isabel. And the twists! I was surprised at who the bad guys really were, and I enjoyed how it all resolved.

The audio version was excellently narrated by Paul Boehmer. His voice didn't detract from Ape House at all (which is the way I like it.)

This adult title is appropriate for teens who are interested in animals.  And, if you haven't read Gruen's Water for Elephants, you shouldn't miss that one either.

Published by Spiegel & Grau, 2010, audio by Random House
Audiobook obtained from the library
320 pages

Rating: 4/5

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