Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

"For fans of A Man Called Ove, a ... debut novel about a widow's unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium--and the truths she finally uncovers about her son's disappearance 30 years ago"--

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.

Read for the work book club of April!

A nice discovery with a strange start. I loved how each chapters changed the point of view to one of the characters while moving the story forward. Also loved how the octopus saw the world from his limited window and its observations about our human behavior. In the end it was a very beautiful story with touching characters and I must admit I cried a bit in the end even if I knew (partially) what was coming.