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    Ape House: A Novel
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    Ape House: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Ape House: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Ape House: A Novel

    Written by Sara Gruen

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Makena are no ordinary apes. These bonobos, like others of their species, are capable of reason and carrying on deep relationships-but unlike most bonobos, they also know American Sign Language.

    Isabel Duncan, a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab, doesn't understand people, but animals she gets-especially the bonobos. Isabel feels more comfortable in their world than she's ever felt among humans . . . until she meets John Thigpen, a very married reporter who braves the ever-present animal rights protesters outside the lab to see what's really going on inside.

    When an explosion rocks the lab, severely injuring Isabel and "liberating" the apes, John's human interest piece turns into the story of a lifetime, one he'll risk his career and his marriage to follow. Then a reality TV show featuring the missing apes debuts under mysterious circumstances, and it immediately becomes the biggest-and unlikeliest-phenomenon in the history of modern media. Millions of fans are glued to their screens watching the apes order greasy take-out, have generous amounts of sex, and sign for Isabel to come get them. Now, to save her family of apes from this parody of human life, Isabel must connect with her own kind, including John, a green-haired vegan, and a retired porn star with her own agenda.

    Ape House delivers great entertainment, but it also opens the animal world to us in ways few novels have done, securing Sara Gruen's place as a master storyteller who allows us to see ourselves as we never have before.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 7, 2010
    ISBN9780739368558
    Unavailable
    Ape House: A Novel
    Author

    Sara Gruen

    Sara Gruen is the author of the New York Times bestseller Water for Elephants and Riding Lessons. She lives with her husband and three children in a conservation community outside Chicago.

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    Reviews for Ape House

    3.5/5

    734 ratings111 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      An explosion at a center studying language acquisition by bonobo apes sets off an adventure that is both sad and funny, and which manages to blend animal-rights activists, reality TV, tabloid newspapers, Russian strippers, and computer hackers in a highly satisfying read.I did mark the rating down by one star because of a huge plot hole / disconnect that has to do with the real motivation for the bombing, and seems a rather cumbersome and unlikely method to achieve the bomber's aim. (Sorry to be vague, but it's a major spoiler.)
    • 2/5
      I had a hard time with the descriptions of abuse, but overall couldn't stop reading....I had to find out how it ended.
    • 4/5
      I picked up Ape House while browsing in a book store because I read Water for Elephants and loved it. Gruen did it once but could she do it again? The answer is a resounding yes. If you love animals, Ape House is a definite must read. Gruen's love for animals is clear throughout the novel and her characters. The story of the ape's is an incredible journey and I'm so glad I got to go along for the ride.
    • 4/5
      This was a GREAT story. My happy tears are still drying.
    • 4/5
      I picked up Ape House while browsing in a book store because I read Water for Elephants and loved it. Gruen did it once but could she do it again? The answer is a resounding yes. If you love animals, Ape House is a definite must read. Gruen's love for animals is clear throughout the novel and her characters. The story of the ape's is an incredible journey and I'm so glad I got to go along for the ride.
    • 3/5
      While this book kept me interested and was a quick read, I expected more. And the way things ended was a little too "happily ever after".
    • 5/5
      After having read both Water for Elephants and now Ape House I have got to say that Sara Gruen is quickly moving to the top of my favorite author list. I love the way she narrates her stories. I also love her passion for taking real life events and turning them into fictional masterpieces.

      I found myself incredibly emotional while reading this book. The characters are perfectly flawed and the apes are wonderfully humanized to allow the reader to attach to them the same way one would humanize their own pet.

      Something about the way Sara Gruen narrates really grabs me. She is able to tell a story so naturally that I forget I'm reading a novel and I feel instead as though she is in the room telling me the story. I get lost in reading her words and when I come back to the surface I feel incredibly satisfied.

      Overall it was a great concept, great writing and a great story.
    • 5/5
      Great book!
    • 3/5
      sadly, i didn't care enough about the characters or the apes to finish the book. i made it to page 156 and decided i didn't care what happened. :( the book wasn't horrible though, i just have lots of other good ones i could be reading!
    • 5/5
      For those who loved Water for Elephants, this is another book that is about both animals and the people who work with them. The animals definitely are more likable than many of the human characters. thoroughly enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      While I did enjoy this book, Isabel was just too dumb for me to connect with her. No food in her apartment. The car crash. Her insane and basically plan- and authority-less pursuit of the apes. Dumb. John was a fully-functioning adult even though his marriage was a strange one. I’m glad he didn’t get all manly and keep his wife from pursuing her career in her own way. That was nice. There was a bit more screw-ball comedy about his sections than I thought there would be. Constrasted with the icky exploitation of the bonobos made for an uneven story in my opinion, but I can see how some levity was needed so the whole thing didn’t become one big depressing mess. The writer is Canadian, but the characters are American and I caught out a few gaffes in the way she had people talk. Saying crockery instead of dishes and tin of tomatoes rather than can of tomatoes.
    • 4/5
      I think the reviewers who didn't like this are missing something. And that is, that the bonobos behave, for the most part, better than the humans - and we're talking a wide variety of humans here. Of course Gruen tells a story first, and only gradually makes us aware of all the comparisons she's drawing second.

      But it's made obvious we should all be more self-aware, and if we were truly so, we would *not* be eco-terrorists but we would, at the very least, eat less meat and support the efforts of humane refuges. I particularly got a kick out of which episodes of the Ape House reality tv show got the best audience response.

      The book was too 'thrilling' to be one of my favorites, but for all of you who like action & story, and for my husband who likes Cussler/Koontz/Child, it's probably terrific. Recommended.

      Btw, I have not, nor do I plan to, read Water for Elephants.
    • 5/5
      This story contained a little bit of everything I like to find in a book. Animals, humor, suspense, a little drama... It sucked me in right from the start and didn't let go.
    • 4/5
      Isabel is running a study of bonobos learning sign language and communicating with humans. Her entire world changes (as does the bonobos' world) when there is an explosion in the lab, Isabel is hurt, and the bonobos are taken away. Isabel is on a mission to find them, as she considers them her family.I really liked this, but then, I love animals! The sign language studies are fascinating. I have to say that I'm glad I was reading this at home at the point where Isabel went through a place that does testing/experimentation on animals. That was super-tough to read (yet sadly, those places are out there). I did make the mistake of reading a few reviews the day I started reading it, so I did read something that I would have preferred not to know, but that was my mistake. My copy had an Author's Note and a Reader's Guide at the end where Gruen talked about her research for the book, which I always find interseting. You can tell, even without reading that, though, that how much she loves animals, herself.
    • 4/5
      Actually better than I thought it would be based on other reviews. I really enjoyed this book and I was sad when it ended.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed reading this book.
    • 4/5
      This fictional account of bonobos, the scientists who care for them, and those who exploit them drew me in completely.The pace and tone of the writing were excellent, and I felt as if the author researched her subject well, although it was fiction.
    • 3/5
      This was an decently entertaining novel, but the prose was unimpressive and the characters not very engaging. The story involves bonobos who are taken from their research facility after a bombing and then exploited for reality television. I wished it had focused more on the bonobos and less on the people.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully told. A woman who has devoted her life and love to a family of Bonobos, is blown up in a fringe group's attempt to "liberate" the Bonobos. Overnight, her world is torn to pieces, her research career disappears with the great apes, until they turn up on a reality show. Wonderful characters, but I did feel that there were some unnecessary plot points that never were resolved. Overall, beautifully told, I enjoyed it. I think Ivanka was my favorite character.
    • 3/5
      Not as compelling as "Water for Elephants" but a fascinating insight into Bonobo Apes.
    • 5/5
      Due to the overwhelming popularity of Water for Elephants, it seems many want to compare Ape House with her previous book. But the two books are quite different. If I had to compare them, I would say this- I enjoyed this one more (everyone can now gasp and claim blasphemy).

      I was a little iffy to start this book after reading and enjoying Water for Elephants. Was she going to be able to pull off another wonderful book? Ape House kept my attention from beginning to end. The many story lines that weaved into one another. The attention to detail. Gruen did plenty of research on this subject and she brings the trouble of animal experimenting and cruelty up front. The fact that such things actually happen is heart wrenching. I was glad to see such a subject being tackled, even if it was in a fictional setting. I enjoyed the characters and felt a connection to them. This is a well written book and I enjoyed it immensely.
    • 4/5
      Interesting and well-written, with a bit of "whodunnit."
    • 3/5
      Another novel from the same author as Water for Elephants. I liked the story but would have prefered it from the point of view of one of the characters.
    • 3/5
      People train a group of great apes known as bonobos to communicate with sign language. Activists bomb the facility seriously injuring a woman and releasing the animals. They are eventually captured and used for a TV reality program which takes advantage of their sexual behaviors to attract viewers. The glaringly obvious question is who are the real animals in this story?
    • 4/5
      An impressive portrayal of the relationship between mankind and the animal kingdom. Sara Gruen is descriptive to the point where every moment feels like you are there experiencing first hand the events that the characters are going through. A definite must read for any animal lover! A great follow-up novel to her bestselling novel, "Water for Elephants".

    • 5/5
      For those who loved Water for Elephants, this is another book that is about both animals and the people who work with them. The animals definitely are more likable than many of the human characters. thoroughly enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      This book completely surprised me. I picked it up because I was completing a reading challenge about apes and after a year of doing this challenge, I have found few mystery books dealing with that subject that weren't using monkeys as a sort of humorous point. I was really expecting that when I found out that the bonobos in this book were getting their own reality TV show as part of the plot... I was skeptical. This book was actually a rather serious look at how we treat animals and how we as humans behave, all wrapped up in the mystery of who caused the explosion that send the bonobos to their new “home.” I absolutely loved the progression of the plot and the thought that must have gone in to balance it perfectly so that it was not a pounding for animal rights, but not a comic relief piece either. I'm glad I found it.
    • 2/5
      Isabell Duncan is a research scientist studying language through teaching bonobo apes sign language. Her lab is blown up shortly after a visit from reporter John Thigpen, and the apes are unharmed but no longer in Isabell’s control. The resulting storyline of the book is the search for the missing Bonobo apes.

      I loved WATER FOR ELEPHANTS and unfortunately can not say the same thing for this book. Although is was an entertaining read and obviously well researched, it did not have the character and flow of her previous book. In my personal opinion Ms. Gruen tries to tackle too many topics in this book … animal research, animal rights, reality television, prostitution, pornography, meth labs, the “Hollywood experience” and one too many relationship issues. It made for a bit of a disjointed story. Even the characters are a bit cliche ... the meddling mother-in-law, the almost perfect wife, the hooker with a heart of gold and the hero reporter. This one just didn't pull the heartstrings for me in the way I had anticipated.
    • 2/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      While this didn't match up to Gruen's WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, it was still a good read. Portions of the plot seemed rather contrived, but tgere was enough substance to hold it together. And in the author's notes at the back of the book, she documented that she had done her homework to prepare for this novel that explores actual communication between humans and apes.