A review by yvo_about_books
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

emotional funny sad slow-paced

3.25

Finished reading: March 28th 2024


“If you spend your entire life trying to cheat death, there's no time left over to embrace life.”

I love books with animals playing an important role in the plot, so I'm still not sure how Lily And The Octopus has escaped my radar for this long. I loved the sound of the bond between main character Ted and his elderly dog Lily, and I even added it to my list of 2024 priorities in the hope I would read it sooner than later. It still took me longer than expected to actually pick it up, but what I didn't expect either was that I was going to end up having mixed thoughts instead. Things started out on a high note and initially I was loving the unique and whimsical writing style where the dog Lily has her own voice and the main character has active conversations with her. It had all the signs of becoming a high rating, but I have to say that this same uniqueness started to grate after a while. I mean, don't people around Ted see that he is completely delusional? Still, I was intrigued and entertained enough to keep reading, up until that ridiculous and overlong boat scene. This is exactly where the story lost me, and the pace was getting slower and slower even before that. That said, there were some nice deeper messages and definitely prepare to have some tissues at hand just in case. Lily And The Octopus had a fantastic start and I enjoyed the ending and message, but it was the middle where everything just became too muddled and over the top for me. I was enjoying the magical realism, but that part just took things WAY too far for me and completely ruined the reading experience (especially since it didn't even make sense). Anyhow, I can't deny that it is a story you won't forget any time soon either way. 
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