Remarkably Bright Creatures

A Novel

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published May 3, 2022 by Ecco.

ISBN:
978-0-06-320415-7
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4 stars (25 reviews)

For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

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 …

8 editions

Loved the octopus, not much else

3 stars

2.5 stars, probably, but rounded up for the octopus.

I have lots of complaints about this book but I loved the octopus. More octopus POV please!

The author is from Washington but doesn't know there are no bridges to the San Juan islands; put a small town on the coast halfway between Seattle and Anacortes (so... the Tulalip Reservation?); and decided that tiny town could support a multi-employee paddleboard shop year-round, despite 9 straight months of cold rain.

She also apparently wants us to believe that no pregnant teenager (there are many, for a small cast in a book that isn't about teenagers or teen pregnancy) would even consider abortion.

But I really loved the octopus.

Review of 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I originally got this book because I like the cover :-) and that publisher summary was mildly interesting. I know, I know, "you can't tell a book by its cover"
But the actual book was more than that. And I like the way the different stories wove together and what could have been a depressing sad statement, and not being full and happy. And I love octopuses. Seriously, though, the individuals were treated dented they were actual people – or LIVING creatures of another genre altogether – and, despite outward appearances, they all had good points and features with which others could work.
I don't think that there was a single creature mentioned/addressed/discussed whom I disliked. Great book – it honestly lived up to its cover!

Not what I was hoping for

2 stars

  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. 😡

Review of 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

There's a lot in this book that should've turned me off: a sentient octopus capable of communicating with a human, a pile of far-fetched coincidences used to hold the plot together, and an unresolved storyline. And yet, here I am giving it very solid 4 stars anyway. That's the mark of a good writer.

Here's why I recommend this book:
• I loved the voice of the octopus (Marcellus). He sounded like a snarky gay man who has much better taste than the rest of us. His chapters are written like prison diaries, because he doesn't want to be living in an aquarium. He's fabulous.
• While there's a mystery to the book, it's solved for the reader about halfway in so you get to something of a co-conspirator while you wait for the characters to catch-up.
• It has a very satisfying ending. The author does a good job …

Review of 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I had such high hopes. Maybe if I was thirty or forty years younger I would’ve loved it, but as a way-over-thirty adult I found it insipid, principally because there was no life. No connection between the characters, no chemistry other than what was deemed necessary for the narrative. (Edit: okay, one, the friendship between Elizabeth and loser-boy felt real. But that was a minor part). All throughout the book, characters meet and develop bonds for no discernible reason whatsoever. Real people just don’t behave like that; it just made me think the author must be terribly young.

Marcellus the octopus was the most interesting character, of course. But... wtf was his angle? He was depicted as a storyteller, with himself as narrator, conversational in tone, but who is his audience? The author seemed to be trying to crack the fourth wall, but I didn’t find it effective. The frequent …

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