You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse
Minor: Cancer, Suicide, Suicide attempt
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
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
Cute story - loved the octopus angle. The lead characters were very sweet and lovable, and it was a story that end wrapped tightly with a bow. It will make me look at the animals in our conservation spaces (zoos and aquariums) differently, but didn’t fully change the way I think or live otherwise. But I’m very happy I read it, very sweet with a touch of nostalgia. Would recommend to those that are looking for a light and cute read. And GO COLLEGE OF DUPAGE!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Grief
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is going to sound brutal but I only finished this book out of spite and had so many issues with it that I needed to write a review.
My impression in the first 50 pages was that it switches tenses a lot: ‘Is’ to ‘had’ to ‘was’ to ‘says’ in the same paragraph. None of it was gramatically wrong, but it veered into disorientating. When I put it down, I couldn’t remember if it was in past or present tense.
So much of the text feels unnecessary, like it’s trying to meet a word count. It could have easily been 150 pages shorter. Another thing that bothered me early on is the chapter titles, “Maybe Not Marrakesh” “Busted But Loyal” “Not A Movie Star, But Maybe A Pirate” “The Downside Of Free Food”, which are just phrases from the pages to come. I had to stop reading them because they’re distracting and break up the flow of the book. It feels like the text is congratulating itself every time it uses an interesting phrase.
The primary main character, Tova, has no actionable desires, doesn’t seem to enjoy anything and doesn’t like her friends. Many times people ask her about her life, attempt to connect with her or offer her help and she brushes them off. She resents their sympathy and gossip. She’s meticulously polite and distant from everyone, and her dialogue is filled with ‘Quite’ ‘Certainly’ ‘I see’ and ‘I should think so’
“Thank you, but I am fine.”
“Thank you, but I have no such need.”
Chivalrously, he opens it and steps aside for her to enter, for which she thanks him politely.
Tova smiles, but doesn’t sit, remaining in the doorway. “That’s kind, but no thank you.”
“My father would be pleased to hear that,” Tova says politely.
Her one cleverly written character flaw is obsessive cleaning, which has real consequences (good and bad) in the plot. This is resolved at the very end, but there’s no learning curve to it, it’s just gone in the epilogue.
But my biggest problem is with Marcellus, the octopus.
I *hate* the way the octopus is anthropomorphised and how he addresses the reader directly, as if writing a diary in first person (for context, the rest of the book is in third person). Nevermind the hand-wavey explanation of Marcellus being able to read and understand English, he understands human relationships and emotions too, and expresses exclusively human thoughts despite being a solitary creature in the wild. The brain and nervous system of an octopus are so different to ours and it could have been fascinating for the first-person prose to reflect that. But no, he even nods and ‘sighs’ like a person.
Marcellus’ POV adds absolutely nothing to the book. He speaks to the reader like a Sherlock roleplayer who uses big words to make himself seem superior, making edgy social commentary about humans and telling you directly what the plot twist is going to be, 200 pages before the other characters realise. If you removed these sections, there might even be some intrigue.
If I were the editor, I would suggest keeping a prologue and epilogue narrated by the octopus to round off the story.
If I were the editor, I would suggest keeping a prologue and epilogue narrated by the octopus to round off the story.
Just to give you an idea of how the octopus ‘writes’:
How predicatable you humans are!
What a preposterous thing to say.
Foreign currency, as you humans call it.
Child’s play, as the humans might say.
Your skepticism is understandable. It appears to defy logic.
I was young, naive, and looking for a place to crash, as you humans might put it, in the open sea.
The man is a cuckold, one of my favourite human words, I must admit.
As a result of Tova’s lack of motivation and Marcellus’ whole vibe, Cameron is the heart of the story. He takes up about half the book and is the other main character, despite not being mentioned once in the blurb or promotion. I actually really liked the exploration of his poverty and how hard it was to break the cycle. You really wanted him to find his father, for other people to give him a chance, but he was self-sabotaging. I don’t have much else to say about him, it’s just weird that in all this book’s advertising he is never mentioned.
I did like the scene with Tova wheeling Marcellus out to the sea to release him before his death. It was the best ending possible. No octopus should know the meaning of the word cuckold.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Abandonment
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Soso cute and was very touching at times.. just a really good feel-good book tbh
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death
Minor: Suicide attempt
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This caught my attention because I love octopuses. Marcellus is a wonderful octopus and character, I wish there were more of him in the book. He’s very present in the beginning, and as the plot unfolds there are longer and longer stretches without him.
The protagonist, Tova, is a very endearing and relatable character. I was very invested in her story. She and Marcellus work well together as characters, and it’s a shame the book strayed from focusing on them.
This is an odd book. The plot is quite predictable, yet still has surprises. When another character is introduced named Cameron, the story fills out and goes in directions I didn’t anticipate and found less compelling. The authors approach to portraying grief isn’t my style. It was handled with grace and accuracy, but the plot resolutions and character arcs felt like slapping a smiley face-patterned bandaid over a wound, whilst being acutely aware that doesn’t address the wound of grief directly. It’s confusing to come to this conclusion, as she seems to understand grief very well.
I enjoyed reading it, and I’m glad I satiated my curiosity. It’s a good example of using an unexpected narrator (in the form of an octopus.) The predictable parts of the ending didn’t land for me, as I found them trope-y. There were parts of the end I enjoyed.
Van Pelt’s prose is engaging, and her humor was decent. I don’t think I’d recommend this book, as I feel simultaneously satisfied and unsatisfied with the experience.
The protagonist, Tova, is a very endearing and relatable character. I was very invested in her story. She and Marcellus work well together as characters, and it’s a shame the book strayed from focusing on them.
This is an odd book. The plot is quite predictable, yet still has surprises. When another character is introduced named Cameron, the story fills out and goes in directions I didn’t anticipate and found less compelling. The authors approach to portraying grief isn’t my style. It was handled with grace and accuracy, but the plot resolutions and character arcs felt like slapping a smiley face-patterned bandaid over a wound, whilst being acutely aware that doesn’t address the wound of grief directly. It’s confusing to come to this conclusion, as she seems to understand grief very well.
I enjoyed reading it, and I’m glad I satiated my curiosity. It’s a good example of using an unexpected narrator (in the form of an octopus.) The predictable parts of the ending didn’t land for me, as I found them trope-y. There were parts of the end I enjoyed.
Van Pelt’s prose is engaging, and her humor was decent. I don’t think I’d recommend this book, as I feel simultaneously satisfied and unsatisfied with the experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse
Minor: Animal death, Sexism
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
A bit slow in places and not as thriller/crime based as I thought it would be. I loved Marcellus (the octopus) and I wish there was more of him in it. But then ending was lovely and I definitely got emotional.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought this book was a nonfiction book about octopuses, so I resisted reading it. But after seeing it on everyone’s lists of their favorite books, I finally caved and I’m so glad I did. It’s a bittersweet story about loss and family and second chances and human connection, even when that connection is between two different species.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death