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A review by book_concierge
Ape House by Sara Gruen
2.0
Audio book read by Paul Boehmer
Isabel Duncan and her fiancé Peter Benton head a university research facility studying language in great apes. The specific apes they are studying are bonobos, and Isabel, in particular, has developed a very close personal relationship with the family of apes. The day after journalist John Thigpen comes for an interview, the center is bombed by an animal rights activist group, and Isabel is seriously injured. To avoid any additional public outcry, the university sells the apes to a private concern. Barely recovering from her injuries, Isabel is horrified to discover that the apes are now starring in a reality TV show called The Ape House.
If all this sounds somewhat farfetched … well, it does come off like a soap opera. I wondered at times if she was trying to emulate Carl Hiaasen for colorful characters and unusual situations; if she was, she failed miserably. The final confrontation is a little too neatly tied up for my taste, and several subplots seem to go nowhere.
I was invested in the bonobo family from the beginning and wanted to know what would happen to them. It was the humans in the book that I never really got to know. The most interesting characters are the minor ones (even as stereotypical as they are). As written, Isabel is a flat character whose emotional range is stunted; no wonder she prefers the apes to humans. John Thigpen is confused about his career and possibly about his marriage, though I’m not even sure about that; again his story isn’t fleshed out. Basically the humans in this book irritated me more frequently than not.
Paul Boehmer does a good job of performing the work. He’s especially effective voicing John Thigpen. The audio book held my attention, and for that I give 2 stars.
Isabel Duncan and her fiancé Peter Benton head a university research facility studying language in great apes. The specific apes they are studying are bonobos, and Isabel, in particular, has developed a very close personal relationship with the family of apes. The day after journalist John Thigpen comes for an interview, the center is bombed by an animal rights activist group, and Isabel is seriously injured. To avoid any additional public outcry, the university sells the apes to a private concern. Barely recovering from her injuries, Isabel is horrified to discover that the apes are now starring in a reality TV show called The Ape House.
If all this sounds somewhat farfetched … well, it does come off like a soap opera. I wondered at times if she was trying to emulate Carl Hiaasen for colorful characters and unusual situations; if she was, she failed miserably. The final confrontation is a little too neatly tied up for my taste, and several subplots seem to go nowhere.
I was invested in the bonobo family from the beginning and wanted to know what would happen to them. It was the humans in the book that I never really got to know. The most interesting characters are the minor ones (even as stereotypical as they are). As written, Isabel is a flat character whose emotional range is stunted; no wonder she prefers the apes to humans. John Thigpen is confused about his career and possibly about his marriage, though I’m not even sure about that; again his story isn’t fleshed out. Basically the humans in this book irritated me more frequently than not.
Paul Boehmer does a good job of performing the work. He’s especially effective voicing John Thigpen. The audio book held my attention, and for that I give 2 stars.