Ape House by Sara Gruen

I lied, I read other books in the last couple months.

Ape House by Sara Gruen was pretty good. It was the book that lead me on to Water for Elephants.

This book is set in contemporary time. It's about these apes who can communicate effectively with sign language who are kidnapped by a Reality-TV producer and put on TV. The guy thought the animals would be television gold because the apes are very open about their sexuality and often have bisexual intercourse with each other.

The story goes between the apes, the scientists that want to save the animals, the animal activists, the people exploiting the animals, and a journalist publishing the story. The summary on the book jacket hints at this romance between the scientist and the journalist, but it totally doesn't pan out as hinted. They barely have a romantic relationship... that part was a little disappointing because I kept expecting something crazy complicated but didn't see anything remotely like it.

The story is mostly about how far people will go to exploit something, and what needs to be done to protect the vulnerable.

Like Water for Elephants, this book is interesting and thought provoking but not so deep that you're turned off by the philosophical discussion. Despite that, I can't decide if I like Sara Gruen... she's trying to be thought provoking but she always steps back just before she hits the edge of depth and it annoys me. I suppose I just prefer either one or the other, action or thought. Gruen's books have action but not too much... and there's thinking but not enough to alienate the casual reader... But the endings are almost too neat, and that seems to alienate me more. I'm not sure what I'm saying, when I like happy endings... but it just feels a little off to me. Nothing ends that perfectly.