Remarkably Bright Creatures

Cute, “family movie” vibe with the added gimmick of an octopus and his internal monologue. It's in the same vein as A Man Called Ove, featuring an older person who has been through some tragedy and gets the chance to connect with new people. (Hey, octopuses are people too!)

I wish she had pushed the light comedy a bit further and made it funnier. There was potential, but most of the characters were humorless. Van Pelt kept very specific characterizations. Cameron: resentful, Tova: practical, Ethan: generous, Knit-Wits: meddlesome, Avery: spirited. There wasn't much complexity.

Other reviewers mentioned disliking Cameron, and I get it. He's insufferable to the point where I didn't want to see things work out for him. The author must have thought readers would be on his side if she kept serving him bad luck. Sometimes it's more about how the character handles setbacks than the setbacks themselves.

Despite all the backstory of death, child abandonment, and other heartbreak, it's uncomplicated and light-hearted if you're in that type of mood. It was entertaining for the time I spent reading it.

Peaceful, straightforward read about elderly no-nonsense Swede, Tova, coming to terms with grief and learning personal growth amid a tumult of coincidences and magical realism that bring people together.

Tova is very well-written, fleshed out character, and I wanted to see more of our gruff Scotsman, Ethan, with a heart of gold. Cameron came across as a little flat, and his penchant for not listening to people until they're done with their sentences conveniently added ~40 pages to the end of the book.

Also, I missed why Cameron didn't send a follow-up text to Avery after talking to Marco because it's not like Marco liked Cameron to begin with enough to do him a favor. The octopus duex ex machina could've been edited out of the book all-together and the ending would have still been the same.

This is a lovely book in a beautiful setting in Washington State, but the languid pacing and octopus shoe-horned in pulled me out of Tova, Ethan, and Cameron's story.

This was a bit precious for me, though parts of it definitely work. The interpersonal drama kicks into gear somewhere halfway through that has me engaged, but a lot of the resolutions were a little pat.

It moves along briskly though and you could do worse for a summer read.