Shelby Van Pelt
“Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.”
8.3
After the death of her husband, Tova Sullivan, finds solace in the silence as a night cleaner at the Sowell Bay Aquarium—an unexpected encounter with the aquarium’s most intelligent (and opinionated) inhabitant leads to an unlikely friendship. Tova wrestles with her past as she plans for her future. With warmth, wit, and a gentle touch of the extraordinary, Remarkably Bright Creatures explores love, loss, and the small moments that connect us in unexpected ways.
Judging The Book By It’s Cover
The copy being discussed in this review is the 2024, Bloomsbury Publishing paperback edition. Design is by David Mann.
This book cover is very eye-catching with its bright and warm colours. The watercolour style illustration really helps to capture the whimsical nature of the story inside. We really enjoyed the use of ‘That Octopus Book’ as part of the cover, we ourselves often referred to the book this way and having the design team acknowledge that this was the way readers would refer to it felt like we were in on the joke making the book more inviting. Overall we really like this cover, it definitely makes you want to pick this book up. The only thing we don’t like is the non-removable ‘bestseller’ sticker but that’s a whole other debate…
Closing the Book
Remarkably Bright Creatures is a warm and heartfelt novel. With a cast of relatable characters set in a sleepy seaside town, it made for an easy and refreshing read.
The characters all have their own personalities but mesh well enough that it feels very realistic of a small seaside town. Each character has their own flaws and ideals, each has their own plans and individual story. The character progressions created natural growth and nothing ever feels forced to happen. We love Marcellus. His unique point of view is refreshing and more relatable than one would think of an octopus.
The writing style is simplistic and easy to follow. The author’s style works really well for a book that jumps between points of view. Van Pelt has done an excellent job of making Marcellus almost alien, you're not reading from a human pretending to be an octopus, he actually feels like an octopus.
Remarkable Bright Creatures is a wonderful read, it was hard to put down. It did feel a little predictable at times but that often made it all the more engaging. We found ourselves willing on the characters in hopes they would realise what we ourselves had already figured out.
Rob went into this book expecting not to like it, it’s not his usual thing and the blurb didn’t particularly entice him. After reading it we both felt it has been the best read of the year so far.
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