V171 reviewed Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
None
2 stars
Damn, I sure wish this book was actually about a fucking octopus.
Tova is an old lady whose son died when he was 18 back in the 80s. Also her husband recently died. Also the Scottish owner of the local grocery store likes her. Cameron is a young thirty-something year old guy who was abandoned by his mom and never knew who his dad was trying to find his place in life, and lands in the same town Tova lives. Tova cleans tanks at the small, local aquarium, where there's a big orange octopus named Marcellus who has a tendency to get out of his tank to explore. We learn more about Tova and Cameron and the challenges and mysteries about their lives as they get to know each other better. It's all a nice warm hug of a story.
Boringggggggg, this took me forever to get through because I …
Damn, I sure wish this book was actually about a fucking octopus.
Tova is an old lady whose son died when he was 18 back in the 80s. Also her husband recently died. Also the Scottish owner of the local grocery store likes her. Cameron is a young thirty-something year old guy who was abandoned by his mom and never knew who his dad was trying to find his place in life, and lands in the same town Tova lives. Tova cleans tanks at the small, local aquarium, where there's a big orange octopus named Marcellus who has a tendency to get out of his tank to explore. We learn more about Tova and Cameron and the challenges and mysteries about their lives as they get to know each other better. It's all a nice warm hug of a story.
Boringggggggg, this took me forever to get through because I did not careeeeee. I'm not heartless or callous, I just value a more dynamic story. This was predictable, sickly sweet in an uninteresting way, and one-note the whole way through. In fact, I'm shocked it's as well regarded as it is considering it contains some of the most derided aspects of writing, like the near constant miscommunication trope, the meandering pace, and the flat characters.
I wouldn't be surprised if others consider the characters a positive of this story, but everyone was so one dimensional. We sat with Tova most of the book, but she still was just the exact same sweet old lady cover to cover, and it was boring. I wanted her to change, I wanted her to like.. have an opinion on something. Cameron was a bit better, but all of the other characters were just like Tova but worse, one-note the whole time.
I don't really see what others saw in this book, I guess it'll make a nice little low 70% movie on rotten tomatoes when Reese decides to cash in this cow, but yuck. What a slog.
