#that octopus book

[bookmuseum]

[REVIEW] Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

3/5 stars (★★★)

"Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures."

Pretty cliché, as is expected of a debut novel, but I still appreciated the sentiment.

I really hope the author doesn’t see this review because I know she meant really well and worked hard on this book, so if this is you, please try not to take it personally!

I just really wished Cameron died instead of his father, who, admittedly, I probably wouldn’t have liked much either. (Tova was great, but she was such a Boy Mom that it kind of got under my skin). While Remarkably Bright Creatures had a really interesting premise and good head-start with Marcellus and Tova's switching POVs in the exposition, the story got exponentially more irritating because of Cameron (Loseron), this deadbeat white straight man I'm supposed to care about but instead grew steadily more violent towards. There are books where the author wants you to hate the character and you end up finding them fascinating in the long run just for how abhorrently well written they are, but I knew Van Pelt wanted me to sympathize with him and I just didn't. Every time the book switched to his narration, I wanted to throw it across the room because there was a drastic downgrade in writing and character quality.

In short, though I can certainly go on for much longer (and I will, just wait), Cameron was a loser and I wish he died prematurely just like his sperm donor AKA father AKA Erik. The book’s synopsis gracefully failed to mention Cameron at all despite him and his sorry excuse for a narrative taking up most of the story. Marketing-wise, that was the smart way to go because all I ever heard about in (deserving) praise of this book only mentions Marcellus or Tova, who were worlds more interesting. Cameron literally ruined everything.

This book tried to make me buy that Cameron was smart, quirky, and a misunderstood "goddamn genius" because he knew what mudminnows were and could quote the most basic lines from Hamlet -- haha so nerdy and niche! how eccentric! -- but he was thoroughly so unlikeable, plain stupid, and flat-out gross. A literal manchild who’s entitled and disrespectful to the nth degree. He was so mean to Ethan, he was a deadbeat to his supposedly closest friends Brad and Elizabeth (fuck their lame ass band; Brad was more than valid for jumping ship when he did), and he was just generally unpleasant to literally everyone he came in contact with — even innocent convenience store workers just trying to make conversation with him. And he harasses Marcellus and mocks him for most of the novel! What the fuck! For a guy who's supposed to be smart, you sure have a lot of cephalophobic comments. I know that's not a real thing, but ugh. His (ex) girlfriend Katie should’ve just shot him with a gun and saved me 2/3 of this book. Forget about putting his stuff in bags and throwing it off the balcony -- put his guts in a trash can and roll it into the dump where he belongs.

Seriously, I’m supposed to believe this inconsiderate narcissistic douchebag who smelled like mattress piss and hadn’t showered for days for a significant part of the first act somehow got the attention of a hot beach body MILF like Avery who “is a sucker for wounded creatures”? She finds him oh-so-attractive after meeting him with chocolate on his face thinking it was shit? Get real. It sounds like a man wrote their entire "love story," it was so unappetizing. Especially all of the times Cameron unnecessarily mentions her nice flat chest, "perfect belly button," and how much he wants to have sex with her. Eugh. I can’t emphasize enough how I did not give a shit about and straight up abhorred Cameron because he was literally just every other stereotypically (weaponized) incompetent guy all my girl friends have dated against common sense and better judgement. He’s a loser. Plain and simple. I wished his luck got worse and he just stopped existing altogether. He doesn't deserve a cool grandma like Tova. Honestly, the best part he was in was when he finally got to confront the Brinks guy. I for sure thought he was gonna get jumped or accidentally stumble into an underground city cult during that section, which would've been funny, but even after the scenario was "explained," it was still such a goofy scene.

RBC doesn't take itself too seriously, which was a bit refreshing. The “mystery” wasn’t hard to figure out at all, which was kind of a disappointment since I was intrigued by the book's bait of "revisiting" a 30-year-old cold case. (I wanted disgusting badly rotten skeletons washing up ominously on the beach, triggering plucky detective work by the 70-year-old Swedish janitor widow lady, but instead I got a bitchy-whiner would-be incel in the making who wouldn't know how to keep an octopus in its tank even if he was entrusted with the only key to its enclosure at the aquarium that so generously hired him, only for him to walk out because our special baby boy was throwing a tantrum. Ugh!).

Even Marcellus got frustrated with how obvious the facts of the case were and I was right there with him. (Van Pelt should've just given Marcellus a gun). I usually don’t mind miscommunication being used to drive the plot, but this book felt like it was dragging itself by the heels with it. The argument scene between Cameron and Ethan right before Tova makes that mistake about Ethan's memorabilia band shirt made my eyes roll. We don’t have time for this!

The writing wasn’t all that engaging either. I wish I could describe it better, but it’s obvious this book was written in the 21st century by a first-time author during the pandemic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I find most books like this one aren’t as literary as I’d like. Of course, that’s just a matter of personal taste, but it was like the author wrote down whatever came to mind (or whatever their editor told them to write) and most of it was meaningless, self-reflexively unoriginal, and boring. Cameron’s sections were especially cringe-worthy and bad. I almost couldn’t believe this was the same writer who wrote Tova and Marcellus’ interesting POVs. Seriously, the downgrade gave me whiplash.

Ethan wasn’t all that interesting a character. I was hoping the book would go into his past when he was “chasing a lass” a bit more. His crush on Tova was cute, but I don’t think they’d ever work, especially since Ethan’s such a mess. I appreciate that in the end Tova and Ethan aren't "together," although it's heavily implied. (Tova is totally aro/ace comphet though ...). I also liked that we never found out what really happened to Daphne.

Needless to say, the book’s best parts are when Marcellus talks. Half of the time he insults the human race for being so stupid, but I completely agreed with him on pretty much everything, so there’s that. His chapters were usually less than a page long, which genuinely made me quite sad. Marcellus said he cant stand to communicate with me for long chapters because it makes him tired, so I made my peace with it and tried to understand. (He's an old octopus so I wanted to be respectful). That final scene where Tova sends him back to the ocean and he got one day of freedom plus a bit of extra spring in his dying swish-swish made the book worth it. I didn't know giant Pacific octopuses only live 3-4 years, with most cephalopods barely making it past 12 months. Even though it was clear Van Pelt wasn't a oceanographer and/or marine biology expert, she still did her job well as a writer in that she made me consider a lot of things differently. Above anything else, I really loved Marcellus:

"But I do not like the hole in her heart. She only has one, not three, like me."

You have four hearts, Marcellus, and one of them's mine!

[nenan]

“The Octopus Warrior in Shunga Paintings” book by SHENGZHE

[lospaziobianco]

Spider-Man Vs. Doctor Octopus by Yusuke Murata

[the-orion-inexpirience]

Always wanted to illustrate a story book 💙💜

[doubledaybooks]

Praise for Katherine Rundell's new nonfiction bestiary of extraordinary animals, VANISHING TREASURES

“Whether she is writing about a jumping spider, a hedgehog, or the curious, pine-cone-like mammals known as a pangolin, Katherine Rundell stuns us with wonders. Each of her essays is a polished gem—and each will leave you newly smitten with love for life.” —Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus

[jadafitch]

Deskscape

[marrfixated]

Okay so maybe I am less sick than yesterday at least

[fhtagn-and-tentacles]

EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #7

Cover art by Lee Bermejo

[towritecomicsonherarms]

Things and stuff

[r-aindr0p]

"Get a load of this guy"

The eels say mockingly

[lemon-and-lead]

I'm so mentally ill about that old man.

[lospaziobianco]

by Gabriele Dell'Otto on Tumblr

[thethirdmaulertwin]

My three favorite men (Donald, doc Ock, Naruto). In a car. The nerds are traumadumping, Naruto is hungry. That's. That's basically the show

Done with the man the myth the legend @cyrusking100 let's fucking GO

[blendereels]

If you were to inspect the last remaining octopuses in Stain'd-by-the-Sea, you may be surprised to see that they are entirely black. Their ink is exceptionally dark and incredibly staining. As the octopus population has shrank and been pushed into smaller pools, the same few schools of octopi have been used for their ink, becoming gradually darker.

Stain'd octopuses were named after the town closest to their habitat rather than their discoloration, which is a recent development. The Stain'd octopuses that still live in the sea have retained their ability to change colors.

[maeumsim]

excuse the terrible lighting im not interested in aesthetics at the moment but I just finished reading winter in sokcho and I genuinely thought it was written in english but turns out the author's french-korean so I read it in the original text. it's a great debut novel and I especially loved the sensual scenes and how delicate the narrative was..

[skeith-platinumprincess]

The four horsemen of Japanese Spider-fication