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oraclereadings 's review for:

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
4.0
emotional funny sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book will make you cry!

So I'm not a big crier when it comes to reading, but animals just hold a special place in my heart. I didn't full on sob like I was expecting, but there some moments where I shed a few tears. It also didn't help that "Lily" is also the name of my Siamese kitten so it felt personal.

I think one of the big reasons I didn't cry really hard was because the "octopus" is introduced at the beginning so the outcome--in my opinion--was quite obvious as to what was going to happen. Our main character, Ted, just calls it an octopus because he can't bring himself to call what it actually is. (
A tumor.
) It does kind of start off strange because Ted even calls it an octopus to his friends, family, and even the professionals; but it becomes apparent that this is just his way of coping as he and Lily "quite literally" battle against The Octopus.

Lily and The Octopus also "talk" and I actually found it entertaining. I listened to the audiobook for this so the different voices for both Lily and The Octopus were quite enjoyable.