fiction, octopus, Washington State ( )

Seventy year old Tova Sullivan needs to keep busy since her husband died. She's needed to keep busy for years in fact, since her son Eric was apparently drowned - his body was never found. So she works as a cleaner in the town's aquarium. And it's here she establishes a bond with an elderly octopus, who also gets to tell his story in short occasional chapters. Suspend your disbelief. This works. The other main character is Cameron, a man with a chip on his shoulder searching for the father he never knew. This book tells the story, the journey of each of them, with a light touch: with humour and with wit. A light, yet involving and engaging read. ( )

This was an uplifting, and inspiring book. The characters, although flawed, are well-developed and likeable. To a is a fastidious, resilient 70 year old who spends her days cleaning the aquarium or socializing with her friends, "The Knife Wits". She buys her groceries at The Show Way, whose owner Ethan, adores her from afar. Under her calm demeanor is deep grief for her lost son Erik, and her dear husband Will. When Cameron co.we to town searching g for his father, her grief resurfaces. Observing all this is the wise Marcellus- the escape artist octopus.
It also had a strong Sense Of place. Set in the fictional town of Sowell Bay, Puget Sound and Snohomish County came alive for me. It sort of reminds me of Nicely Alaska, the fictional setting of "Northern Exposure" , one of my favorite TV series.

Overall, it was an easy read. The only drawback was that some of the story beats were predictable. ( )

A good book tends to have more than one meaning: the surface one that everybody gets, and an underlying one that may or may not be discovered by the reader, but when it is, it elevates the book, often into the great category. Remarkably Bright Creatures falls into the latter.

On the surface, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a cute stroll with thirty-year old Cameron who doesn’t know his father’s identity, was abandoned by his mother at age 9 and raised by her sister in California. Of Tova, a 70-year old widow who lost her only son, Eric, when he was 18-years-old to an unsolved death (suicide according to authorities, Tova knows better), and works in Sowell Bay, Washington as the evening cleaning lady to the town’s aquarium. And of Marcellus a clever, Houdini-esc 60-pound giant Pacific octopus who understands humans. When a lead on Cameron’s biological father takes him to Sowell Bay, it is Marcellus who cracks the case that may solve the human’s mysteries.

As fun as the story is, it’s the underlying theme that will grab your heartstrings. We follow all three through the steps of their unresolved grief, their feeling of abandonment, and bondage that keep them stuck where they are, figuratively and literally. In a creative twist, author Shelby Val Pelt walks the reader through the different types of feelings and reactions to loss, be it by death, captivity, or abandonment. A very remarkable story and one that, while wildly hyped, is worth it. You won’t regret reading Remarkably Bright Creatures.

TIP: The voice of Marcellus and his few lines, are worth the audible version. ( )

At the start of the year, I was looking at social media to see what people thought was the best book of 2023, and "Remarkably Bright Creatures "was regularly mentioned. At the halfway mark I was still wondering what all the fuss was but by the end, it had won me over, especially Marcellus, the octopus.

I have always found octopuses slightly creepy with their tentacles, big mantle, high intelligence and Houdini-like skills when escaping small enclosures. However, the author made me fall in love with the old Giant Pacific octopus who was kept as a specimen at the small aquarium where Tova worked as a cleaner. Who would have thought?

I loved Marcellus' and Tova's stories and how they rescued each other, but it took quite a while to warm to Cameron. As I was reading his story, I kept finding myself wishing Marcellus had more of a voice. His dwindled significantly the more I read, which was a shame. I usually detest animals narrating the story but I found Marcellus' voice extremely interesting and often amusing. A sweet read. ( )