Remarkably Bright Creatures

You know what makes this book interesting? Seeing human beings from a perspective of the giant octopus, Marcellus but with over time, the way Marcellus forms a bond with humans is incredible. I love how the title and cover exactly portrays what’s inside the book. Remarkably symbolises emotional depth of both human being and creature. You will see a visible change/shift in perspectives of both if you will compare them with how the story begins and how it ends. It all felt like a beautiful memory that has hit the mark. While Bright speaks about the grief, abandonment, loss, and loneliness, the characters felt in this book yet hope and resilience kept them moving. Creatures because they play an essential role in this book. They are the protagonists of the story. The story will stay with you like an external part of your soul because at the end, how misunderstandings clears and each of their bond strengthens. Especially Marcellus and Tova. For Cameron and his mother, I felt bad. There was a part where Cam said his childhood was robbed off and he grew up with his aunt, knowing that he has been abandoned by his parents. While there were clues that unveiled Daphne’s story. I felt so emotionally connected with this book and characters in it. Finishing it felt like leaving behind something that I wanted to stay a little longer. This book felt like a warm hug and read along made it even more interesting.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 When a slow burning yet a happy ending book makes you emotional, it has something to do with the way you attach with the characters, take time to understand the plot, remember characters, make connections between the characters, etc. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is such a book. It hits after almost half way through but it makes you stay excited all the time rummaging for what’s next in the plot. This story follows three plots simultaneously, featuring the Giant Pacific octopus, Marcellus, the 70-year-old Tova Sullivan and Cameron. The Octopus is a rescue kept as an exhibit in an aquarium and the story begins when Tova lands at the aquarium for a job as a cleaner. Later on, Cameron joins Tova for the work giving her a wonderful company. While the Octopus indirectly helps Tova to find the mystery behind her dead son, Erik, she realises that she is blood-related to Cameron and she is the happiest grandmother as the story ends. Though she still misses her dead son it was the happiest moment of her life. I liked the parts of the book when Marcellus comes up with his thoughts about humans, shares his treasures that he has collected over the years and makes me laugh at some of his silly dialogues. I waited all the time for those parts to be revealed. While the story slowly unfurls the mystery, it revolves around the themes of friendship, loneliness, grief, companionship, freedom, intelligence, etc. Also, the other characters (there are many tbh) play a very important role in shaping the plot beautifully. This is a beautiful book for the people who love to explore plots having meaningful connections and relationships, bonding between humans and animals, etc. It is a beautiful one indeed. I highly recommend this masterpiece!!! A thought/ reflection of mine: “Sometimes meaningful and beautiful relationships and connections are built with living creatures apart from humans too and it stays forever like how Marcellus, even after he was sent back to the place he belonged to, remembered Tova and her love and care for him.”

This is hands down one of the best books I’ve read in 2026...it gave me every possible emotion.. it broke my heart, made me laugh, comforted me, and left me emotional in the best way possible... Honestly, the first 70 pages felt a little slow for me and I genuinely thought about DNFing it...But I decided to give it one more chance… and thank god I did, because after that, this story completely consumed me...at the center of the story is Marcellus..a giant Pacific octopus counting down his last 160 days at an aquarium..While the humans around him are grieving, lost, lonely, and falling apart, Marcellus quietly watches everything unfold… and somehow gives them answers they couldn’t find in 30 years...This book felt so comforting, wholesome, and deeply human... I was always waiting for Marcellus’ POVs because he truly became the heart of the story for me. And the ending? It made me cry so baddd😭and i already miss Marcellus terribly.. I genuinely wish I could erase my memory just to experience this book for the first time again... 200% recommend this if you’re looking for a comforting, emotional, wholesome read that stays with you long after the final page....

Simply brilliant....full of warmth, hope, humour and relationships - not just human!! Loved it

The beautiful bond between Tova, a 70 year old janitor, and Marcellus, a Pacific octopus is endearing. Tova's character is well sketched. The small setting, a sprinkling of different characters, and their quirks add to the plot with a dash of humor. It begins well, with a warm and fuzzy feeling. You smile as Marcellus keeps sharing his observations of humans passing his tank in the aquarium. You want the old, petite, strong, and resilient Tova to find her son or some sort or a closure. Her journey to that end with Marcellus as the guide/ conspirator is the core of this book. In comes Cameron, a man in search of a long lost father. The small town bursts with chatter. And here on the Story dives right into a typical movie plot of lost and found relations, reunions and happy endings that give every character the piece of pie they were after. It's a nice feel good read but halfway down the old tropes and formulae writing try your patience.

🐙"Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures." . . . 🐙A really heartwarming novel 🐙Marcellus is ofcourse my favorite character in the book, such an endearing sentient being, the curmudgeonly exceptional octopus who was bored and exasperated with humans. Such a witty persona created by the author. 🐙The novel makes a point for what is to be truly human and humanity. 🐙Excerpts I highlighted in the book: 🐙"where I might live were I not a prisoner here." "I was brought here as a juvenile. I shall die here, in this tank. At the very most, one hundred and sixty days remain until my sentence is complete." (Makes one feel for captive animals, that they should be in their natural habitat.) 🐙Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire? 🐙But I do not like the hole in her heart. She only has one, not three, like me. Tova’s heart. I will do everything I can to help her fill it. 🐙Some trees aren’t meant to sprout tender new branches, but to stand stoically on the forest floor, silently decaying. 🐙Never to feel my arms sucker onto the cool glass, to taste that humanity on the inside of her wrist, to touch, in turn, my Collection’s treasures. 🐙Entering someone’s home is always an intimate act. 🐙To the somber bay that took them both, a cherished son and an exceptional octopus, she whispers inscrutably: “I miss you. Both of you.” She taps her heart. 🐙A 4 star ⭐⭐⭐⭐read for me. 🐙I read the kindle edition.

Nice one to read. It was a very good book. I really enjoyed reading this book to the core. It was great.

Remarkably Bright Creatures is such a simple, quietly written story, yet every line carries so much emotion. It’s warm, funny, heartbreaking, and comforting all at once. The book explores grief, loneliness, healing, and found family in such a gentle and human way that it slowly sneaks into your heart before you even realize it. Tova was such a beautiful character to follow, but let’s be honest… Marcellus completely stole the show for me. His dry humor, dramatic observations about humans, and constant judgment of humanity had me laughing throughout the entire book. I swear he carried this whole story in all eight of his arms. Every chapter from his perspective was pure gold. Also, special mention to the grey cat because apparently this book wanted me emotionally attached to every creature in it. What I loved most is how the story shows that even after loss and heartbreak, connection can still find you in the most unexpected places. It’s soft, hopeful, and deeply comforting. Funny how a story about an old woman and an octopus ended up becoming one of the most emotional books I’ve read in a long time.

What a wonderful surprise this was! I thought Remarkably Bright Creatures was a story about a woman and an octopus, but it turned out to be so much more than that. This is Shelby Van Pelt’s first book, and I don’t think a debut has affected me like this since I read Hollow Kingdom, another story that unfolds through the eyes of an animal. The story has a bit of magical realism to it, in the sense that parts of it are told from the octopus’s point of view, but otherwise it’s simply a delightful tale about family and connections that had me ugly crying by the end of the book. In the first chapter we meet Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus on display in the Sowell Bay Aquarium near Puget Sound. Marcellus has been in captivity for 1,299 days, and based on his life expectancy of about four years, he believes he only has a handful of days left to live. His dreary days in a small glass enclosure are broken up by secret nighttime excursions, as Marcellus is extremely smart and has found a way out of his tank. Tova Sullivan is a seventy-year-old woman who has been working nights at the aquarium as a cleaning lady for the past two years. Tova knows how to remove the hundreds of fingerprints on the tank walls and can polish the floors to a brilliant shine. She’s also quite fond of the sea creatures she encounters each night, especially Marcellus, and the two have formed an unusual bond since Tova saved Marcellus one night after he escaped and became entangled in a bunch of electrical cords. Next, we meet Cameron Cassmore, a thirty-year-old man who is drifting through life with no real purpose. Cameron lives in California, and one day his aunt gives him a box of his estranged mother’s things. Inside the box he finds a photo and an old class ring, clues that could lead to the identity of his father, a man he never knew. Cameron hops on a plane to Washington state, convinced the man he thinks is his father—a rich real estate tycoon—will be so distraught over abandoning his son, he’ll shower Cam with money. At least that’s the plan. Finally, Ethan Mack is the owner of Sowell Bay’s Shop-Way, the local grocery store. Ethan has known Tova for years and secretly has a crush on her, but Tova is much too distant to notice his interest. When Cameron shows up at the Shop-Way looking for a job, Ethan directs him to his friend who manages the aquarium, which is how Cameron and Tova meet. Tying all these characters together is Marcellus, a remarkably bright octopus with a penchant for stealing and hoarding the treasures he finds after hours on the aquarium floor, and who just might be able to bring two people together who need each other—but don’t yet realize it. Van Pelt’s chapters alternate among all these characters and introduce a slew of side characters as well, each one vitally important to the story. At first, we don’t realize how each character is connected to the next, but slowly the author reveals her secrets until the stunned reader begins to understand the depth of these connections. Each character is given a detailed backstory that becomes very important to the plot. Tova’s story in particular was heart wrenching, as she has experienced quite a bit of loss in her life and finds herself mostly alone in her twilight years. Luckily she belongs to a group of women who call themselves the Knit-Wits, and the four of them meet weekly to eat, drink, gossip and support each other. Tova came to America from Sweden as a little girl, so the story is filled with details about growing up with her Swedish mother and father. Even the Dala horses her mother collected play a part in the story, and I found these little details added so much richness. At first I couldn’t figure out how Cameron fit it, but once he arrives in Sowell Bay and meets Ethan and Tova, his story takes on new meaning. Cameron meets a woman named Avery who also plays a vital part in filling in some of the missing pieces about Cameron’s father, and I loved the way the author gave even the most insignificant side characters meaning and purpose. Van Pelt infuses her story with so many emotional moments and themes. We see how the Knit-Wits are going through the aging process, as their numbers have dwindled over the last few years. Tova is facing being alone in her old age, with no children or husband to take care of her, and so she makes the rash decision to sell her beloved house and move into a retirement community. I don’t want to give too many details about Tova’s past and her losses, because I think it’s better to discover those revelations for yourself. Let’s just say that I felt Tova’s pain and wanted nothing more than for her to be happy. And Van Pelt includes so many funny moments in her story that kept the tone light, despite some of the more heavy themes. There’s an ongoing bit about Cameron’s lost luggage that was hysterically funny, and Tova inherits a stray cat at one point, which was a delightful side plot. I also loved the story about the t-shirt that Tova uses to clean Ethan’s kitchen—you’ll just have to read the book so you can experience the hilarity too! And of course, I can’t forget the star of the story, Marcellus the octopus. As the days tick by—each of his chapters starts with a marker (“Day 1,299 of my captivity”, etc)---the tension builds as Marcellus gets closer to his impending death (at least that’s what he thinks). Marcellus understands human nature more than most humans, and I loved the way he wisely intuits each character’s needs. Ultimately, this is a story about creatures—both human and animal—saving each other. The way Marcellus’s story plays out was absolutely perfect—heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. This is a very special book, and I’m so glad I was able to finally read it. Highly recommended!

At first glance, with the title and cover, I expected the octopus to take center stage in the story—but it turned out to be more of a family-searching journey, which was a lovely surprise. That said, the octopus adds just the right spice to the story, offering a unique perspective on the human world. Personally, this book reminded me of my grandfather, who was adopted as a baby and spent years searching for his original family. It gave me a deeper understanding of why people feel such a strong desire to know their roots.

Lovely history

A gentle read that sparks continued enjoyment and a growing interest for more. Delightful characters that are deeply relatable. Well written, worth the read.

Excelente! Eu amo esse tipo de livro com narradores intercalados. Neste romance há 3 histórias: um narrador polvo; e outro narrador neutro que conta as histórias de Cameron e Tova, em capítulos intercalados. A história é encantadora e recomendo muito a leitura!