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.

I’m not sure what expectations I really had going into this book, but whatever I expected, I don’t feel like I really got here. It could be just completely due to my personal taste, but Remarkably Bright Creatures didn’t resonate with me.

Well, okay, I guess the more I think about what I expected, I’d say I thought that there would be more of a mystery element. What does Marcellus, the octopus, understand? (Meaning would the characters want to further understand how Marcellus clearly understands everything.) What really happened to Tova’s son? However, these topics didn’t really feel mysterious, they were just kind of…there. It was one of the ways that the book felt like a slice of life, which may work for some readers, and that sometimes works for me, but it didn’t in this book. I think the fact that we’re told the answers to these questions before most of the characters are left me really underwhelmed and frustrated.

The characters motive’s felt really muddled at times, with the exception of Cam, the 30-something guy who can’t hold down a job and is looking for his birth father that he’s never known. That’s probably why the chapters from his point of view were a lot more interesting to me, though I found it strange that he wasn’t mentioned at all in the synopsis when about half of the book is about him. Tova was a fun character who I felt a lot of sympathy for, but I didn’t feel like she went on quite as much of a journey, or maybe it’s just that her journey felt more drawn out. I don’t read a lot of books about older characters who have to figure out who will take care of them in their old age so that was interesting, but again the synopsis didn’t mention anything about her age or the themes of her character. This likely isn’t the authors fault but it is a mistake on the publishers part in my opinion.

There were some pros of this book. I liked the writing style, and I liked the small town setting, and I liked the chapters from Marcellus’ point of view. I think this would actually make a really cute miniseries. I think there just wasn’t enough plot going on to really engage me in the book, and I couldn’t find myself connecting to the characters in a way to make this a meaningful book for me like it has been for so many people. This is a wildly popular book though, so if what were cons for me sound like pros for you you’ll probably love this.

★★★