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A review by readyforit
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
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 bus 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 bus 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, Death, and Child death
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Cursing, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol