My TBR pile is always ridiculous. How about you? I hadn’t even intended to add this book to it, but when I saw the premise, I had to. Remarkably Bright Creatures is about the friendship between a Giant Pacific Octopus in an aquarium and the older, widowed woman who cleans the aquarium. Finding out that one of the POVs is the octopus sealed the deal.
Marcellus is a remarkably bright creature, who thinks that humans are sometimes remarkably bright creatures too. Every entry in his POV enumerates the day of captivity for him. He may be captive in the aquarium, but certainly not his tank. He roams all over the building after hours, which is when Tova is working.
They gradually build a relationship, and Marcellus uncovers the tragedy in Tova’s history–the drowning of her only child, her son Erik. Tova is preparing for retirement, and is training her replacement, a young man who is in town digging through his own family history, so Marcellus must work fast to help Tova solve the mystery surrounding her son’s final days.
I found the beginning a little slow to develop, but when the pieces all tie together, it is spectacular. This book is heartwarming. I was surprised how much suspense the author was able to instill around a 30 year old mystery, especially when I figured out the end game pretty early. It doesn’t matter. If anything, it pushes you further to the edge of your seat wanting to find out how Marcellus can lead Tova to the answers.
Van Pelt’s characterization is fantastic, and impressive for a debut. Tova is endearingly stubborn and strong. She’s walled up in her grief and afraid to rely on others. Cameron, the young man searching for family ties in the past, is well drawn as unmoored and ineffective at life. His exposure to Tova and Marcellus, and some other great side characters grounds him and turns him around. Of course, the star character is Marcellus. He may not have a lot of page time in his POV, but he grows from a mischievous and cranky creature out for the bests snacks to a wise and caring creature desperate to help a friend and leave his legacy.
Leave it, he does. The ending is both satisfying and bittersweet. I cried and I loved it.
I highly recommend this book if you love a thoughtful, well characterized story that features an animal POV.
