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A Novel
by Shelby Van PeltWinner of the 2022 BookBrowse Debut Award
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.
After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. 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.
Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. 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.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.
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.
Day 1,299 of My Captivity
DARKNESS SUITS ME.
Each evening, I await the click of the overhead lights, leaving only the glow from the main tank. Not perfect, but close enough.
Almost-darkness, like the middle-bottom of the sea. I lived there before I was captured and imprisoned. I cannot remember, yet I can still taste the untamed currents of the cold open water. Darkness runs through my blood.
Who am I, you ask? My name is Marcellus, but most humans do not call me that. Typically, they call me that guy. For example: Look at that guy—there he is—you can just see his tentacles behind the rock.
I am a giant Pacific octopus. I know this from the plaque on the wall beside my enclosure.
I know what you are thinking. Yes, I can read. I can do many things you would not expect.
The plaque states other facts: my size, preferred diet, and where I might live were I not a prisoner here. It mentions my intellectual prowess and penchant for cleverness, which for some reason seems a ...
What I find exceptional about Remarkably Bright Creatures is the author's ability to capture those pivotal times in a life when one knows things are changing and must figure out how to adapt. Tova, for example, has endured the death of her husband and the decline of her peers over the past few years, and has to come to terms with the fact that she herself is aging and can no longer live in her vast, multi-storied house. Cameron, too, has his periods of self-reflection and revelation, and these scenes add an unexpected richness to the novel. The book combines realism with the supernatural; certainly an octopus capable of intervening in human affairs is an unlikely beast. But while Marcellus's actions are critical to the plot's ultimate resolution, it's the novel's underlying themes of grief, loneliness and change that propel it along...continued
Full Review (772 words)
(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
In Shelby Van Pelt's novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, Tova Sullivan treasures her collection of Dala horses brought to the United States from Sweden decades ago by her mother.
A Dala horse, also known as a Dalecarlian horse (or "Dalahäst" in Swedish), is a type of hand-carved, painted statuette in Swedish culture. According to Chintana Odell, an owner of Stockholm's Wooden Horse Museum, "It has such a strong identity and connection with Sweden that a Swede would feel at home anywhere in the world once she or he sees a Dala horse. It is almost sacred."
Imagery of horses has a long history in the country, where the animals have been associated with strength and respected for their usefulness to humans. The carved figurines ...
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