By: Nora Warner
Photo credit: ShelbyVanPelt.com
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was released on May 3, 2022. The book is a New York Times best-seller, multi-award winner, and has been featured by Goodreads and The Today Show. It is recommended as a great bookclub choice because of its wide appeal and great topics for discussion.
The book follows the stories of the following characters over one summer:
Tova Sullivan is an older woman. She lives by herself in Sowell Bay, Washington. After the death of her son in a mysterious incident when he was 18 years old, and the recent passing of her husband. She is a practical person who lives a simple life, insists on everything being done properly, and intends to keep herself busy. In the daytime, she enjoys spending time with her friends in their social club, The Knit-Whits. She works at the local aquarium as a night cleaner where she meets Marcellus.
Marcellus McSquiddles, the Giant Pacific Octopus, sees the world from an interesting perspective, living most of his life in the Sowell Bay Aquarium. He is intelligent, observant, and often hilariously cynical. He escapes his tank for secret adventures and comments on humans around him. His narrations are one of my favorite parts of the book.
Cameron Cassmore is 30 years old and lives in California. He was raised by his aunt, as his mother couldn’t take care of him. He knows nothing about his father. After receiving clues to who his father may be, Cameron begins a journey to Sowell Bay. Prior to arriving in Washington, his life was far from stable, but moving to Washington brought him new opportunities.
All of these characters’ lives are seemingly separate. But throughout the book, their stories begin to intertwine in surprising ways. The book features a third-person narrator who
follows Tova, Cameron, and some other characters and shares the octopus’s thoughts in first-person journal-style chapters.
What I loved most about this book was how human it was. Remarkably Bright Creatures displays how life doesn’t always go according to plan, and yet it keeps going. Each character provided something to relate to or learn from. In a short time, I got to know many characters, seeing their highs and lows in life, as they formed relationships and worked through grief. The author does a great job of developing these characters in a way that makes you feel like you know them.
I found the pacing of this book to be quick but slow enough to develop the story properly. There were consistent switches between the different characters’ perspectives and stories, so you were always learning something new or anxiously waiting to hear the next part of a different character’s story. I read this book over the course of winter break for an average of an hour a day. The short chapters made it easy to pick up for a brief time and then come back later.
I would recommend this book to anyone old enough to handle some of the more difficult themes. This book is a wholesome read that appeals to many generations in different ways. Even if you don’t love realistic fiction, the unique elements of this story, like the perspective of an octopus and the carefully intertwined plotlines, make this book a great read.
