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Remarkably Bright Creatures

by Shelby Van Pelt

An unlikely bond at the aquarium

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

An unlikely bond at the aquarium

At the Sowell Bay Aquarium, Tova Sullivan’s night-shift routine brings her into contact with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus. Their friendship connects two strands of the novel: Tova’s life after her husband’s death and the long-unresolved disappearance of her son, Erik, who vanished from Puget Sound decades earlier. Marcellus’s observations lead him to investigate what happened that night, giving the story’s focus on friendship and grief a mystery to pursue. The book also explores how revisiting a painful past can open the possibility of a different future.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in character-centered fiction about grief, friendship, and hope.
  • Readers who enjoy a mystery woven into a contemporary literary novel.
  • Readers drawn to stories set around an aquarium and its resident giant Pacific octopus.

Themes

Friendship across speciesGrief and lossUnresolved family historyHope and the past

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A New York Times Bestseller * A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick

Now a Netflix Film

"Remarkably Bright Creatures is an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut. . . . Memorable and tender." --Washington Post

A charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine 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 invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

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

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