REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES: The Unlikely Friendship of a Giant Pacific Octopus

“Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt tells the story of Tova Sullivan, who, after her husband’s passing, begins working the night shift cleaning at Sowell Bay Aquarium. Tova likes to keep herself busy, a coping mechanism she’s used since the mysterious suicide of her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, over three decades ago.

While at the aquarium, she develops an unlikely friendship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus residing there. Meanwhile, Cameron, down on his luck, relocates to Sowell Bay in search of his father and starts working at the aquarium and strikes up a friendship with Tova. The story unfolds alternating between Tova’s, Cameron’s and Marcellous’ perspectives.

I would have usually found Marcellous’ narration kitschy; like how I felt in “Lessons in Chemistry,” when the character’s “genius” family dog provides narration. However, here, I loved Marcellous. In his chapters, he shares insightful observations about life and the human condition. Marcellous plays an important role in forming the relationships among the characters. His chapters felt natural and genuine.

This was such a feel good book, and I really loved it. I read this as part of a New York City book club I’m in, and the general sentiment was that everybody else loved it too.

I actually picked this book for the group to read. I feel like there’s been a lot of fascination with octopus lately—between the Netflix award winning film “My Octopus Teacher” and a few recent books that have been written about octopus intelligence (“The Soul of an Octopus” and “Other Minds”). I wanted to dip my toes into this newfound popularity, and I thought I would start with reading this book. I’m so glad I did; I can’t wait to recommend this one to others, and I look forward to reading more of Shelby Van Pelt’s books in the future.

You can read more about Shelby Van Pelt on her website here.