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saurahsaurus's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
This is such a beautiful story, that I’m going to cherish for a very long time. As an animal lover, it gave me an even deeper appreciation and understanding for octopuses. I smiled, pondered, laughed, and cried in turns throughout this book. It balanced exploring serious subjects, such as grief and abandonment, with celebrating life—both human and animal—and love in its many forms—familial, platonic, and romantic.
The reflections that I came away with will stay with me for some time. I can already see myself revisiting this beautiful story later in life, as its message is timeless. Respect all life forms, embrace love, and hug your loved ones tight while you can.
The reflections that I came away with will stay with me for some time. I can already see myself revisiting this beautiful story later in life, as its message is timeless. Respect all life forms, embrace love, and hug your loved ones tight while you can.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Grief, Death, and Cursing
Moderate: Alcohol, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Suicide, Animal death, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Dementia
readyforit's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
1.5⭐️0.5💧0🌶️(one implied sex scene, closed door)
This book has been on my tbr for a while and I waited about 6.5 weeks for the ebook on libby and boy what a waste of time. Nothing fucking happens in this book. I was promised a story about a friendship between an elderly aquarium worker (I had thought she was maybe a marine biologist but she’s a nightly cleaner) and a very intelligent octopus. Right at the beginning of the story we get the octopus’s POV and we learn he’s been escaping his tank and roaming the aquarium at night. I was expecting Hank from finding dory adventures! But no, we only get a few pages of the octopus’s pov and it’s mostly about his observations of humans from his tank and his imminent death. He has some funny lines but overall it was a wasted plot device. He serves as a way to help the characters solve a mystery, which could’ve been cleared up if these people just freaking talked TO each other instead of gossiped behind each others’ backs and got their wires crossed. The miscommunication trope runs rampant in this story.
My main complaint with the book is that the characters are mostly insufferable. Tova is known as a neat freak and that’s like her only personality trait. She meets with her friends every week and she doesn’t even like them! She doesn’t listen or care about her friends’ lives, and she judges them for being gossips. The whole small town is a bunch of gossips but gossiping is fun and anyone who says differently is lying. She basically ignores everyone and makes passive aggressive comments the whole book.
Cameron is a whiny 30yo man child who thinks nothing is his fault and everything is his mom’s fault for leaving him with his aunt when he was young. She was an addict and honestly his aunt was a great mom and he never appreciated her. He frequently says “I never had a mom.” Wtf?? I kept thinking, oh BROTHER this guy STINKS as I was reading his chapters. He’s flaky, impulsive, and immature and I was like okay we started at rock bottom it can only go up from here. Let me tell you it barely goes up from there. I liked him better than Tova tho bc he at least had a slight personality. The only character I really liked was the octopus, and he was barely in the book.
You’ll be able to predict the ending very early on. There are no real twists, everything is so heavily foreshadowed you’d have to be an idiot not to get it. It got to the point where I thought the characters had put two and two together finally but then they all reached the same wrong conclusion! Eventually it gets revealed but jesus christ. This book would’ve worked better as a short story, so they could’ve cut out all the boring details that don’t matter. Why are we doing tova’s crosswords with her?? This could’ve been a like 70 page short story and would’ve been fine. The characters are rather 2d anyway. I also think I would’ve liked it better if it were in first person, instead of third person.
This story is mostly written well, sentence-structure wise, but the plot is still boring. I have to include these absolute gems the author threw in for us youths:
“Bicep day’s been lit at the gym lately.”
“Clearly, she can tell he’s riding the struggle buff this morning.”
“Hashtag SingleDogLady.”
Lastly, what is with all the teenpregnancy? It’s EVERYWHERE in this book.
I listened to the audiobook also on Spotify and man I wish I hadn’t wasted my hours on it. The octopus’s narrator is good, it sounds like the guy who did sad cat diaries years ago lol. The other narrator is a woman and she does the whole rest of the book. Don’t waste an audible credit on it.
I think I’ve learned my lesson to stay away from celeb recommended books (Reese Witherspoon, Oprah, Jenna bush, etc). They are always so boring to me. I won’t be rereading, honestly I wish I would’ve DNFed.
This book has been on my tbr for a while and I waited about 6.5 weeks for the ebook on libby and boy what a waste of time. Nothing fucking happens in this book. I was promised a story about a friendship between an elderly aquarium worker (I had thought she was maybe a marine biologist but she’s a nightly cleaner) and a very intelligent octopus. Right at the beginning of the story we get the octopus’s POV and we learn he’s been escaping his tank and roaming the aquarium at night. I was expecting Hank from finding dory adventures! But no, we only get a few pages of the octopus’s pov and it’s mostly about his observations of humans from his tank and his imminent death. He has some funny lines but overall it was a wasted plot device. He serves as a way to help the characters solve a mystery, which could’ve been cleared up if these people just freaking talked TO each other instead of gossiped behind each others’ backs and got their wires crossed. The miscommunication trope runs rampant in this story.
My main complaint with the book is that the characters are mostly insufferable. Tova is known as a neat freak and that’s like her only personality trait. She meets with her friends every week and she doesn’t even like them! She doesn’t listen or care about her friends’ lives, and she judges them for being gossips. The whole small town is a bunch of gossips but gossiping is fun and anyone who says differently is lying. She basically ignores everyone and makes passive aggressive comments the whole book.
Cameron is a whiny 30yo man child who thinks nothing is his fault and everything is his mom’s fault for leaving him with his aunt when he was young. She was an addict and honestly his aunt was a great mom and he never appreciated her. He frequently says “I never had a mom.” Wtf?? I kept thinking, oh BROTHER this guy STINKS as I was reading his chapters. He’s flaky, impulsive, and immature and I was like okay we started at rock bottom it can only go up from here. Let me tell you it barely goes up from there. I liked him better than Tova tho bc he at least had a slight personality. The only character I really liked was the octopus, and he was barely in the book.
You’ll be able to predict the ending very early on. There are no real twists, everything is so heavily foreshadowed you’d have to be an idiot not to get it. It got to the point where I thought the characters had put two and two together finally but then they all reached the same wrong conclusion! Eventually it gets revealed but jesus christ. This book would’ve worked better as a short story, so they could’ve cut out all the boring details that don’t matter. Why are we doing tova’s crosswords with her?? This could’ve been a like 70 page short story and would’ve been fine. The characters are rather 2d anyway. I also think I would’ve liked it better if it were in first person, instead of third person.
This story is mostly written well, sentence-structure wise, but the plot is still boring. I have to include these absolute gems the author threw in for us youths:
“Bicep day’s been lit at the gym lately.”
“Clearly, she can tell he’s riding the struggle buff this morning.”
“Hashtag SingleDogLady.”
Lastly, what is with all the teen
I listened to the audiobook also on Spotify and man I wish I hadn’t wasted my hours on it. The octopus’s narrator is good, it sounds like the guy who did sad cat diaries years ago lol. The other narrator is a woman and she does the whole rest of the book. Don’t waste an audible credit on it.
I think I’ve learned my lesson to stay away from celeb recommended books (Reese Witherspoon, Oprah, Jenna bush, etc). They are always so boring to me. I won’t be rereading, honestly I wish I would’ve DNFed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Suicide attempt, Cursing, and Alcohol
imstephtacular's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Drug use, Cancer, Addiction, Grief, and Pregnancy
Minor: Abortion, Animal death, Cursing, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Death, Medical content, Suicide, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail
singinglizard1's review against another edition
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Death of parent, Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, and Grief
Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Excrement
thalia16's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Cursing
Minor: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Death of parent, Animal death, Child death, and Chronic illness
hkantola11's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Abandonment, Drug use, Cursing, and Death
stacy837's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Child death, and Animal death
Moderate: Cursing and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Suicide
baearles's review against another edition
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Cursing, Child death, and Death
Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, Addiction, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal death, and Terminal illness
zombiewilhelm's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Y'all this made me cry real tears. I don't know why. It wasn't even until the last 30-50 pages where I was just like 😭. If you can make me cry, instant 5 stars. Haha.
But seriously, I felt like the characters in this book were different than other books I've read recently. One is Marcellus, the octopus, and he's my favorite of the four POVs. I love him and his entire persona. Apparently, he's the smartest octopus to ever exist, but he doesn't quite understand human idioms.
I love seeing older characters. I'm overwhelmed with teenagers and 20-somethings. Give me the grandmas! 😂 These characters felt so real. Tova is a very particular sort of lady, but she's great. She's kind of a no-nonsense woman who prefers things her way. Don't let her fool you, she has a sense of humor. I loved watching her grow.
I love these kinds of stories. Stories where you have all these characters that are not connected in the beginning. I love seeing them progress and watching their stories intertwine. While the ending was predictable, it was immensely enjoyable. The writing was really well done and I was so invested in their stories, hence the crying.
But seriously, I felt like the characters in this book were different than other books I've read recently. One is Marcellus, the octopus, and he's my favorite of the four POVs. I love him and his entire persona. Apparently, he's the smartest octopus to ever exist, but he doesn't quite understand human idioms.
I love seeing older characters. I'm overwhelmed with teenagers and 20-somethings. Give me the grandmas! 😂 These characters felt so real. Tova is a very particular sort of lady, but she's great. She's kind of a no-nonsense woman who prefers things her way. Don't let her fool you, she has a sense of humor. I loved watching her grow.
I love these kinds of stories. Stories where you have all these characters that are not connected in the beginning. I love seeing them progress and watching their stories intertwine. While the ending was predictable, it was immensely enjoyable. The writing was really well done and I was so invested in their stories, hence the crying.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Cancer, Grief, and Cursing
linzlee's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Abandonment, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Suicide, Cancer, and Pregnancy