Remarkably Bright Creatures – Finally a book review by yours truly! 🌊🐙✨

Hi everyone! How are you doing? Good I hope 💚. This week’s post is up early because the book I’m about to review comes out tomorrow, the 26th of May, so I wanted to do this before then and I got here just in the nick of time! 😅 Wouldya look at me breaking the blog schedule rules! We must have all switched over to another dimension for this (because a solitary moment such as now would surely have the power to do that, right? 🤣💫). It’s been sooo long since I last wrote a book review! Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is one of the first books I’ve finished in well over 1-2 years (the other, incase you’re wondering, was part one of the Heartstopper graphic novels earlier this month and I like to think that both that and the book I’m sharing today are a joint starting point as ones full of words and the other is full of pictures (Heartstopper!). I zoomed through that because of the art and altho Remarkably Bright Creatures was the longer read, I quickly made my way through it too for reasons you’re about to find out! 👀 Anyway, I’m rambling!

Disclaimer: I was given this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review and I’d also like to mention that I’ve tried to make it as spoiler free as I can.

My Netgalley rate dropped low when I was no longer reading and old options got archived but now I’m getting back ontop of things! 📚😆 Chronic pain doesn’t seem to want to release it’s hold but my mind was able to drift away into the book in question and I can’t wait to share more about it with you! 🙌 I connected Netgalley to my Kindle and seeing the book loading was highly exciting!! When it was good to go, I was way ahead of it. The poor book didn’t know what hit it 🤣. Let’s do this!

Synopsis

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night cleaner shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago, keeping busy has helped her cope. One night she meets Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who sees everything, 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 body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late…

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible

Review

This novel made me feel!! ✨ If you’ve ever read a book that did that then you’ll know what I mean (and I’m not trying to be weird, it’s a genuine thing I swear 🤣). I fell into the lives of the characters after initially not expecting there to be more than one narrator. I came to enjoy the switchover and I don’t think I ever really liked those types of books before. Shelby Van Pelt has a mesmerizing way of describing things, from the very beginning with an intricate description of rain falling from the sky and hitting upon the rooftop to the comings and goings of the mind of a highly intelligent octopus! That same way of writing is what drew me to connect with each of the characters and I soon found that I was picking apart the way they behaved. I realized that I didn’t particularly like shards of their personalities, I yearned for them to learn from mistakes, I smiled when they did and I felt an overwhelming sense of joy in where their paths eventually took them.

The story pulled me in and I soon noticed a big secret 🤯 (and I’m sure if you read it you will too! Then again, I’m aware it was probably intended that the reader should know but yeah…I wanna feel like I was the one who figured it out and it wasn’t just handed over to me 😁🤣). I don’t know if that’s a spoiler, damn it 😑. It unleashed in a good way tho because up until then I hadn’t been expecting it and then there was like a fuzzy feeling where I was all OH MY GOD!! It ties things together very well ✨.

It was a calming read that I at first thought held a sort of unnerving undertone but then I got into the swing of what was really going on and I saw that it’s actually a comforting read with a whole lot of mystery thrown in! Even when I as the reader, knew what was going on and wanted the characters to see it for themselves, it wasn’t the type of thing that made me want to put it down just because I thought I had the plot all completed, it drew me closer to connecting with the people themselves, Tova especially, Cameron in his own way and Marcellus the most! (What’s bigger, especially or the most, you’ll never know because I can’t decide for myself 🤣).

It feels strange referring to an octopus as a character that can have such a huge impact and even develop as the story goes on but there you go! I got annoyed more than once, I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it, I laughed and I cried when it drew to a close. I found ways to relate to the characters and they felt REAL. The story was spun in such a magical way that I might as well have been watching it play out infront of my eyes. The minds eye saw it all and even tho I’m not good with faces in my head (who else can’t picture faces when they think about people/dream? 😵‍💫) I could envision their environment with thanks to the author’s detailed descriptions that allowed me to escape further into that world I often forgot was fiction ✨.

I liked that there were hidden messages running throughout the book highlighting what really matters in life, it added a whole other layer to the story that ran in sync with the plot perfectly. The characters put things up on a pedestal that didn’t really matter so it was nice seeing that come to light. It was like when the characters did something they needn’t have done or changed their ways for the better through even the smallest of signs, it taught a lesson and had a meaningful place in the story.

I loved witnessing Tova step out of her shell through doing things you can tell she’d never have believed she was capable of and Marcellus was hilarious! I don’t think I’ll be able to not think about him whenever I see anything to do with octopuses 🤣🐙. At times one character in particular annoyed me a lot and I don’t want to name any names….but I have to, it was Cameron!! I couldn’t hold back because he was kinda irritating ngl 😅. I will say this tho, I do understand why he behaved the way he did and what had drilled that way of seeing the world and also himself into his personality. In a lot of ways he’s relatable, maybe even more so for me than Tova was but she was more of a person I wanted to read about. I personally think that it was intentional to have him behave in a certain way so that you can see a lot of potential growth to be made and it certainly was, I’ll give him that much! I think he needed things to play out the way they did so that he could realize the world doesn’t revolve around him 🙈. I did want the best for him tho because he wasn’t a bad person, he was only human! (I’m really reaching for a compliment there aren’t I? 🤣).

There was a side I wished could have been delved more into but then again, a part of me thinks it was best left because it’s more of a real interpretation of how things would turn out and it’s true that things don’t always go the way we’d like them to. One criticism I have is that there were loads of spelling mistakes, well maybe not spelling exactly but there were a lot of errors. I only started noticing them halfway through as I think I took anything that went wrong before that as problems to do with reading via my Kindle because it loaded as a document instead of a book. The errors were double words or important words like “the/of” missing from sentences which would throw me off a bit when I was reading in a free-flowing manner 🌬️🤣. It didn’t take away from the story at all but it did make the text appear to be kind of rushed/not checked over but that could just be a Kindle thing anyway!

Remarkably Bright Creatures is a book that truly needs to be read and experienced and I was so sad when it came to an end! It sounds silly but there’s been a little bit of a changeover from who I was before I finished it and who I am now, it provided a sense of calm that only a journey like that with a hint of otherworldly charm can hold. Although I guessed part of the ending (like I’m sure the majority of readers will do/have), there were still puzzle pieces to be connected and everything fell into place. With this being my first book review on the blog in over two years, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anything else as these words just appeared and I’ve really wanted to express how much I enjoyed it. I’m thinking about getting a paperback version to pass around my family as I know they’d love it too and since this is me just getting back into reading, it feels good to be recommending an amazing read! 😄✨

Thank you for checking out this review! 😉📚 It means a lot. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is published tomorrow, the 26th of May and I very much hope you’re intrigued to give it a read because I know you won’t regret it! 🙌

Right! I’m off, but before I go I wanna know what your thoughts are on firstly this book and also other books that involve animals! I normally steer clear for fear that they’ll end in an upsetting way (you know I’m thinking about Marley & Me, I’m trying not to tho 🥲🤣). Let me know in the comments below!

I hope you have a lovely day and I’ll see you again soon! Take care, stay safe and buh-bye! 🌊🐙✨💕

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