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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A heartwarming story about overcoming grief, that is populated by a plot filled with very likable characters in general spar one annoying immature man-child that is critical to plot development but thankfully I am able to largely endure, most importantly elevated by the presence of a very charming octopus, conveying its main theme of hope and love in way that has endeared many readers in need of a positive read.
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
At first i wasn’t on board with a partial narration from the perspective of an animal. But this book was truly remarkably bright.
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Was super excited for this book and it held up!!! Really fun read and amazing for someone's first novel. Shoutout to my sister for the early birthday present while we were visiting the Pacific NW when she got me this!
I really liked Tova's characterization and she felt quite real. I think Van Pelt did a great job characterizing her and her latent grief and despondence of losing her family, while not having to reveal too much of her headspace or having to have her exposit too much. It was subtle and I enjoyed that. Tova is incredibly likeable.
I also don't think I've read a book in a while like this that makes me feel how the setting lives and breathes; the gossip traveling slowly from person to person felt very lifelike and drew me into the small-town atmosphere. Chapters from side characters like Ethan made me not just attached to the main three characters, but the whole place too. The emphasis on the setting enhances my disappointment when Cameron decides to leave the place where he fit right into, and augments my pride in him when he turns around to go back to make amends. The way side characters like Terry, Avery, and Avery's son played into the story and individually interacted with each of the main characters made their lives feel genuine, even though we never saw the story from their heads. When Avery's son lied to make Avery think Cameron stood her up, I liked that a lot! The natural motives of the characters felt very truthful to me. Probably my favorite part of reading this book.
Marcellus was totally the star of the show, it was stellar to see what Van Pelt imagined the rich internal life of a super-octopus would be. It's a great dynamic, with him adding humor and shenanigans into the story and allowing Tova and Cameron to explore the sadder parts of the story. I love the aquarium and as someone who grew up going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it brings back good memories.
As for things I didn't like as much, I felt like Cameron's character work felt somewhat weird to me? To me, he felt a little like he was bending to what the plot needed rather than being his own person. He's smart and demonstrates great intuition when he fixes his trailer and gets Ethan's truck unstuck, but he also just doesn't have that intuition at times? Leaving his jewelry in the luggage on essentially a Walmart Spirit Airlines flight? Leaving alcohol stains on his scholarship papers? Cameron is an incredibly emotionally animated character and I get it when his hot head overrides his smarts, but I also feel a tad like it's a bit of a writer's shortcut to write a character that "is smart but is just so stupid sometimes" and I think I would like his personality to feel a bit more consistent. I quite liked Cameron especially in the back half of the book and could relate with his moments of anger and the impostor syndrome, but I think I couldn't fully imagine him as a real guy in my head.
However, I have a bigger gripe about the plot, because you know there's a reason why the hell Cameron's in the story and eventually you realize that he's connected to Erik and his death somehow. You probably deduce he's related to Tova based on circumstance before Marcellus reveals it himself. This reveals a ton of very interesting questions, like "What happened on the night of Erik's disappearance?", "How does Cameron's mom fit into this?", "How will Marcellus make Cameron and Tova realize their relationship?", and "How are there 200 pages left?"
The answers to all these questions, it turns out, felt somewhat unsatisfactory. Erik got knocked off the boat on accident by the boom of his sail, and Cameron's mom was kinda just there. Marcellus reveals a trinket to Tova that makes her realize Cameron's lineage and the 200 pages were a little unnecessary. I mean I'm all for subversion of expectations, but I really felt that at the point mentioned earlier, there were at least three or four more interesting directions the story could've went in! I felt like the story set itself up for more but ended with a somewhat ordinary ending. There's so much possibility when someone disappears with maybe a person or two but never gets seen again and 'getting knocked off the boat on accident' is generally a pretty disappointing reveal in comparison to like, anything else.
I also felt like the story focused on too many of the side plots once the main plot came in; I was less invested in Cameron searching for Mr. Brinks because we knew it wasn't his father. I wasn't really invested in Tova moving to a nursing home because I mean as long as someone figured out her relation to Cameron (Ethan was getting pretty close anyway) surely they could just go up to the nursing home and tell her, right? It felt like a contrived deadline in a way.
And it just felt so contrived when Tova and Cameron would get so close to realize that they might be related and then don't pursue that idea. When Tova did the math and realized Cameron could be Erik's kid but she held herself back because she didn't want to open up her old grief, that felt reasonable. When Ethan held back telling her after she ruined his vintage shirt, I felt like Ethan should've just told her and the scenario felt contrived but also eh whatever. When for once the town gossip didn't travel to Tova about Cameron being Daphne's kid I started getting pretty irritated. It definitely shouldn't need Marcellus to nearly sacrifice himself for him to make Tova realize. Marcellus also felt kinda out of the story once the second act began, which sucked because he was the most interesting thing about the story; I always wanted to get back to his short chapters to see what he was thinking, and they fizzled out near the end.
I felt the ending came too slow, but after the catharsis of Tova and Cameron embracing and finally finding family, the story basically ended and I wanted more!!! One of the big themes throughout the book was the solitude of Cameron and Tova and how losing/not knowing what became of their direct family has affected them and torn them down, and the novel never really explores what happens when they finally realize they have each other because the book ends like 5 pages after.
I really was annoyed at what felt like missed potential with the plot but I still highly recommend the book!!! The atmosphere latent in the writing made this amazing, even in the back half of the book. I really cared about the characters, their struggles, and the setting. There is so much more about this book that makes it special and unique than what peeved me about it. The similes and the tone were amazing! and the ability for Van Pelt to jump between the characters was done much better than other writers. The more sombre attitudes of the older characters were stark in contrast to the flirty and snarky dialogue of Cameron and Avery. The thematic arc for Cameron was pretty fucking sweet. I also think Van Pelt used her plot well and executed her vision well; I just think the way it was structured just led me to easily create a more exciting story in my mind, only to be disappointed by the actual vision.
I was so close to giving this five stars but I thought about Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and I just couldn't. BUT! it's still a banger!!!
Spoiler
I really liked Tova's characterization and she felt quite real. I think Van Pelt did a great job characterizing her and her latent grief and despondence of losing her family, while not having to reveal too much of her headspace or having to have her exposit too much. It was subtle and I enjoyed that. Tova is incredibly likeable.
I also don't think I've read a book in a while like this that makes me feel how the setting lives and breathes; the gossip traveling slowly from person to person felt very lifelike and drew me into the small-town atmosphere. Chapters from side characters like Ethan made me not just attached to the main three characters, but the whole place too. The emphasis on the setting enhances my disappointment when Cameron decides to leave the place where he fit right into, and augments my pride in him when he turns around to go back to make amends. The way side characters like Terry, Avery, and Avery's son played into the story and individually interacted with each of the main characters made their lives feel genuine, even though we never saw the story from their heads. When Avery's son lied to make Avery think Cameron stood her up, I liked that a lot! The natural motives of the characters felt very truthful to me. Probably my favorite part of reading this book.
Marcellus was totally the star of the show, it was stellar to see what Van Pelt imagined the rich internal life of a super-octopus would be. It's a great dynamic, with him adding humor and shenanigans into the story and allowing Tova and Cameron to explore the sadder parts of the story. I love the aquarium and as someone who grew up going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it brings back good memories.
As for things I didn't like as much, I felt like Cameron's character work felt somewhat weird to me? To me, he felt a little like he was bending to what the plot needed rather than being his own person. He's smart and demonstrates great intuition when he fixes his trailer and gets Ethan's truck unstuck, but he also just doesn't have that intuition at times? Leaving his jewelry in the luggage on essentially a Walmart Spirit Airlines flight? Leaving alcohol stains on his scholarship papers? Cameron is an incredibly emotionally animated character and I get it when his hot head overrides his smarts, but I also feel a tad like it's a bit of a writer's shortcut to write a character that "is smart but is just so stupid sometimes" and I think I would like his personality to feel a bit more consistent. I quite liked Cameron especially in the back half of the book and could relate with his moments of anger and the impostor syndrome, but I think I couldn't fully imagine him as a real guy in my head.
However, I have a bigger gripe about the plot, because you know there's a reason why the hell Cameron's in the story and eventually you realize that he's connected to Erik and his death somehow. You probably deduce he's related to Tova based on circumstance before Marcellus reveals it himself. This reveals a ton of very interesting questions, like "What happened on the night of Erik's disappearance?", "How does Cameron's mom fit into this?", "How will Marcellus make Cameron and Tova realize their relationship?", and "How are there 200 pages left?"
The answers to all these questions, it turns out, felt somewhat unsatisfactory. Erik got knocked off the boat on accident by the boom of his sail, and Cameron's mom was kinda just there. Marcellus reveals a trinket to Tova that makes her realize Cameron's lineage and the 200 pages were a little unnecessary. I mean I'm all for subversion of expectations, but I really felt that at the point mentioned earlier, there were at least three or four more interesting directions the story could've went in! I felt like the story set itself up for more but ended with a somewhat ordinary ending. There's so much possibility when someone disappears with maybe a person or two but never gets seen again and 'getting knocked off the boat on accident' is generally a pretty disappointing reveal in comparison to like, anything else.
I also felt like the story focused on too many of the side plots once the main plot came in; I was less invested in Cameron searching for Mr. Brinks because we knew it wasn't his father. I wasn't really invested in Tova moving to a nursing home because I mean as long as someone figured out her relation to Cameron (Ethan was getting pretty close anyway) surely they could just go up to the nursing home and tell her, right? It felt like a contrived deadline in a way.
And it just felt so contrived when Tova and Cameron would get so close to realize that they might be related and then don't pursue that idea. When Tova did the math and realized Cameron could be Erik's kid but she held herself back because she didn't want to open up her old grief, that felt reasonable. When Ethan held back telling her after she ruined his vintage shirt, I felt like Ethan should've just told her and the scenario felt contrived but also eh whatever. When for once the town gossip didn't travel to Tova about Cameron being Daphne's kid I started getting pretty irritated. It definitely shouldn't need Marcellus to nearly sacrifice himself for him to make Tova realize. Marcellus also felt kinda out of the story once the second act began, which sucked because he was the most interesting thing about the story; I always wanted to get back to his short chapters to see what he was thinking, and they fizzled out near the end.
I felt the ending came too slow, but after the catharsis of Tova and Cameron embracing and finally finding family, the story basically ended and I wanted more!!! One of the big themes throughout the book was the solitude of Cameron and Tova and how losing/not knowing what became of their direct family has affected them and torn them down, and the novel never really explores what happens when they finally realize they have each other because the book ends like 5 pages after.
I really was annoyed at what felt like missed potential with the plot but I still highly recommend the book!!! The atmosphere latent in the writing made this amazing, even in the back half of the book. I really cared about the characters, their struggles, and the setting. There is so much more about this book that makes it special and unique than what peeved me about it. The similes and the tone were amazing! and the ability for Van Pelt to jump between the characters was done much better than other writers. The more sombre attitudes of the older characters were stark in contrast to the flirty and snarky dialogue of Cameron and Avery. The thematic arc for Cameron was pretty fucking sweet. I also think Van Pelt used her plot well and executed her vision well; I just think the way it was structured just led me to easily create a more exciting story in my mind, only to be disappointed by the actual vision.
I was so close to giving this five stars but I thought about Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and I just couldn't. BUT! it's still a banger!!!
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes