Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late. The watery Puget Sound setting plays a major role in the plot, but how else does the setting inform the novel How do you think the novel would be different if it were set somewhere like Arizona or Minnesota 7. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors - until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.Įver the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES takes place in a Pacific Northwest coastal town in the recent past. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Remarkably Bright Creatures is the rarest of feats: a book that manages to be wry and wise, charming and surprising, and features one of the most intriguing and satisfying characters Ive encountered in fiction in a very long time - Marcellus the Octopus. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

A charming and compulsively readable exploration of friendship and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.Īfter Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up.

Remarkably bright creatures