Remarkably Bright Creatures

Audiobook : 11 hours 16 minutes

ISBN:
978-0-06-320418-8
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After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover …

7 editions

Remarkably bright creatures indeed

It took me nearly 2 months to listen to the audiobook for this novel because of life happening, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to meet this book and its characters as they came to life in my ears.

The novel is told through several different perspectives, primarily of a 70-year-old woman, a 30-year-old man, and an octopus. There are some others, but these three are at the forefront.

The octopus, Marcellus, provides commentary on the human condition and acts kind of as the behind the scene eyes for the reader. On the other hand, the humans are constantly dealing with human style drama and coming up with or failing to come up with human style solutions.

There's a lot of good humor, but tragedy too. Reading along, I was reminded that people are complicated and we never stop growing into who we are, …

Nicely written easy read, unfulfilling plot

If you want a sense of the depth of this book, it's basically a re-imagined for adults version of Adam Sandler's "Leo" kids movie. Not sure which actually came first, but either way, neither is particularly deep and both involve lots of Deus ex Machina moments.

I got some chuckles out if it along the way, but the characters don't face any complex challenges or grow in any interesting ways other than to magically shed their flaws.

The solid writing makes it a nice casual read when there's nothing else to do?

Not what I was hoping for

  1. I wish I liked this book more. 😕
  2. I wish the story had been more about the clever octopus, and less about the boring, predictable humans and their silly "mystery." 🙄
  3. I wish the author had bothered to get her geography right. How could they drive a car from the mainland to the San Juan Islands without taking a ferry? There is no bridge to the islands. 😡
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Subjects

  • nyt:hardcover-fiction=2022-05-22
  • New York Times bestseller

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