Remarkably Bright Creatures: Worth the Hype?

Hi Readers! Finally finished a book in April! I know it’s only the second week, but it felt like I was reading this book for the longest time. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt had been on my TBR for a long time. I had even started reading it on ebook when it was first released, but I couldn’t really get into it. I thought if it was a physical book, it would be different, but how wrong I was. This one wasn’t really for me, but see if you might enjoy it?

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Remarkably Bright Creatures, an 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 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.

~~THOUGHTS~~

Remarkably Bright Creatures is the story of a 70-year-old woman named Tova, who lost her husband  to cancer two years ago and who lost her son 30 years ago. She lives alone and works at the Sowell Bay Aquarium as a cleaning lady, because it’s just something to do to keep busy. It’s also the story of Cameron Cassmore, who is a walking wrecking ball, who can never keep a job and whose life is quite messy. He doesn’t know who is father is, and his mother had left him when he was nine, so he his Aunt Jeanne raised him. While he cares deeply about the people in his life, his actions some times may not seem that way. And, lastly, this is also the story of Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus.

Usually, I love books with septuagenarian characters, and I also love books where animals play a major role. Despite having both of these aspects in the novel, my interest was never peaked. Given the hype around the novel and its oncoming adaptation, I basically made myself read the book because I didn’t want to miss out. But, now after having read it, I believe I wasn’t missing out on much in the first place.

The pace of the book is wildly slow. Sure, it has short chapters, but in this case, that only made matters worse, because I just wanted to stop reading after every chapter. It must have taken me better part of three week to finish it. Aside from the pace, the actual story seemed pretty basic. The characters never really became real for me. Someone like Tova who has seen so much tragedy should be someone people could love right away. But, aside from a few quirks and a few adjectives, we don’t really see the raw humane side of her emotional side. As for Cameron, I never really cared much about his chapters from the get go. I wouldn’t call him an unlikable character, but he was written in such a way that I just didn’t care about him. This is why, the big reveal did not have the emotional weight it should have had to make it a tear jerker. The worst of all was the chapters from the octopus’ point of view which were endearing were absolutely minimal. Just one page here and there is all that we got. Because of the unformed characters and lack of octopus diary logs, it lost any wholesome appeal which it might have sought from readers. I have rated Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt at 3/5 stars!

Until next time,