Remarkably Bright Creatures Book Review

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt has undoubtedly become one of the most popular books to come out in the last two years. And, it’s not hard to see why. It had an octopus as one of the narrators. What other novel has a creature like that? I finally read it recently, and I enjoyed it, especially for its main characters.

Remarkably Bright Creatures is about a widow and her unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus. After her husband’s death, Tova Sullivan took up night shifts mopping floors and tidying up at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Keeping busy has always been her way of coping, especially after her 18-year-old son Erik mysteriously disappeared on a boat in Puget Sound over 30 years ago. She becomes acquainted with Marcellus – a curmudgeonly giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. He knows more than anyone could imagine, but he wouldn’t lift any of his 8 arms for his human captors until he starts a friendship with Tova. Marcellus, ever the detective, deduces what happened the night of Erik’s vanishing, and he must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster in order to discover the truth before it’s too late.

After reading it and discussing Remarkably Bright Creatures at a book club, I realized that it uses the blueprint mostly used by Fredrik Backman. Many of his novels are character studies and feature a cranky elderly person who finds a way to connect with others in the most unlikely of ways. Think of Ove and Britt-Marie. In this case, Remarkably Bright Creatures has Marcellus and Tova – an octopus who makes snarky comments on human attendees at the aquarium and a human who keeps her distance from others in order not to get hurt. It’s not the first book I reviewed that uses this structure, yet it still stands out with its main characters.

Let’s start with Tova. She is a 70-year-old widow who works at the local aquarium to keep herself busy. At first, Tova comes off as standoff-ish and wants things done in a certain way like lining the trash bins. She wants to be around people and not interact with them at the same time. This dynamic is seen whenever she’s with a group of friends that called themselves the Knit Wits. Once she begins bonding with Marcellus, she realizes that she enjoys having company and tries to make more of an effort to be more present. Tova sees Marcellus as incredibly smart – a trait that most humans fail to realize, for he’s able to escape from his area and retrieves items like keys from various places.

And there’s Marcellus. As I alluded to earlier, there hasn’t been a novel that features an octopus as a main character. He’s the best part of Remarkably Bright Creatures. His snarky, but endearing voice is absolutely memorable, and I love how Van Pelt starts his sections with the day number of his captivity. And at one point, he expresses that he’s had enough of counting the days that he’s been in the aquarium. When Marcellus begins his friendship with Tova, one can feel the sweet side of him coming out, as if he’s grown accustomed to her face. Marcellus brings out the open side of Tova so much he becomes desperate to solve the mystery involving her son Erik. The only thing I have to complain about with Marcellus is that for a book that’s heavily marketed on him, he’s not in it for all that much compared to Tova and the other main character Cameron.

One would probably notice from my summary that Cameron isn’t mentioned. I’ve read other blurbs for the book, and many of them fail to include him too. There’s a good reason for that. He’s kind of a spoiler. For those who haven’t read the novel yet, how he fits into the picture gets revealed by the end in a clever way. 

More importantly, there are some readers that don’t really like Cameron. I understand that. He’s a whiny deadbeat who’s still angry that his mom abandoned him when he was a child, and he’s 30 years old. I wasn’t bothered by him, for he’s supposed to be annoying. Readers are supposed to be irritated by him because he remains stagnant and doesn’t know his true potential. Also, since this is from Tova’s perspective, she sees him in that light at first. Overtime, she realizes that Cameron is more than that. On the other hand, I find it interesting that many of the positive reviews omit him. I get that too. He basically exists to show the opposite way of handling grief and as a contrast to that of Tova. In other words, the level at which one can enjoy this book depends on how one can tolerate Cameron.

I also listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Marin Ireland and Michael Urie. Ireland is an actress who’s appeared in television shows like Law and Order; movies like Rachel Getting Married, Glass Chin, and The Irishman; and plays like Reasons to be Pretty, which earned her a Tony nomination. She has previously recorded audiobooks like Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, and a handful of novels by Fredrik Backman. Ireland puts on a good performance. She voices Tova as an uptight, but sweet older lady, which becomes more relaxed as the novel progresses. Cameron is portrayed as whiny and immature. The rest of the male characters kind of sound the same, but the minor female ones have some distinctions. Cameron’s Aunt Jean has a chatty and coddling voice that’s straight out of a trailer park.

While Ireland is good, the real standout is Urie. Urie is an actor best known for his role as Marc St. James in the television show Ugly Betty. He has also been on Broadway in musicals like How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as Bud Frump, Spamalot as Sir Robin, and Once Upon a Mattress as Prince Dauntless. He’s great as Marcellus. Urie puts in the right amount of snark and sincerity to make not only the octopus three-dimensional, but also the friendship with Tova believable. I was always looking forward to his sections because listening to him is a godsend. Marcellus was already a memorable character, and Urie brought him to life even more. Honestly, I wish Remarkably Bright Creatures could be adapted into a musical, so Urie could be cast as Marcellus and sing as the curmudgeonly octopus. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is a remarkable novel (yes, I finally had to say that word). It contains one of the memorable hooks for any book with Marcellus the octopus. On top of that, the friendship between him and Tova is so endearing. Of course, readers will have to put up with Cameron just like Tova does for most of the novel. I would recommend it to those who love reading about animals, friendships between them and humans, grief, and loss. And if one has the chance, listen to the audiobook; Michael Urie is great as Marcellus. 

Before I go, I want to let everyone know that I will be recording another episode of the Adapt Me Podcast this month. Jesse McAnally – co-host of The Cheese Wheel Podcast – and I will discuss how we would adapt this novel. Keep an eye out for the link.

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