Author: Shelby Van Pelt
# of Pages: 362 (ebook)
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: 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 a future that once felt impossible.
Review: I never thought I would say this, but the octopus is my favorite character.
Remarkably Bright Creatures is told from the octopus Marcellus's first-person perspective, but each chapter alternates between 3 other third-person perspectives:
- Tova, who cleans the aquarium where Marcellus lives. She's a tidy, self-reliant 70 year old woman who's still grieving over the sudden disappearance of her son Erik even after decades have passed.
- Cameron, who's an entitled loser from Modesto who's got mommy and daddy issues that will infuriate the reader.
- Ethan, who is similar age as Tova and works at the store Tova shops at. It's unclear why his perspective is included at all since it overlaps with Tova's and Cameron's.
On the other hand, Marcellus is a surprisingly insightful octopus that makes you wish the whole story was told from his perspective instead. If it was, this could have been a 4 start read at least, or even if it was just from Marcellus and Tova's perspective.
Cameron experiences basically no character growth (I don't buy the sudden "growth" at the end of the book; it felt like the author just threw that in to try to make him more likable). He's erratic, irresponsible, and like to blame his problems on those around him. Sounds like your run of the mill teenage boy who has time to grow out of these problems right? Except he's freaking 30 years old! Gives me the ick. By the end of the book, he still sounds ungrateful for those who have helped him along the way and sounds judgmental of his aunt for being a hoarder in a trailer park.
Otherwise, the book overall is a slow paced slice-of-life style story about these characters who are tied together by a shared mystery. The mystery reveal is predictable (Van Pelt makes it very easy to piece together what ties all these characters together very early on with the knowledge from all these different characters). The real mystery ends up being how the characters themselves find out the big reveal.
Overall, a three star read! Although the story dragged a little bit, and Cameron was insufferable, the story was cozy and a refreshing read after binging a bunch of trashy romance books. It's a wholesome read and is an applaudable effort for being Van Pelt's debut novel!
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