Remarkably Bright Creatures

this was kind of a pain to get through for me. i read this as a part of a book club but would not see me picking this up on my own

in the author's notes, Shelby Van Pelt talks about how the literary device of the octopus came from a creative writing prompt to write from an unusual perspective and i felt like this novel never really expanded from that. the octopus feels like a bit of a gimmick and rarely has any presence throughout the book. the short chapters (if you can call them that) of the octopus are the most interesting parts of the novel as they give an interesting omniscient view of what the characters are going through but his thoughts rarely expand on the plot meaningfully and are also disappointingly infrequent

the overall plot is so unbelievably predictable that it makes the latter chapters a huge slog to get through. i was expecting some sort of crazy surprise in the end since it felt like the plot beats were a bit too obvious to predict but the ending is super disappointing. it sweeps by too quickly and there's no surprising reveal that happens

the worst part for me is the character cameron. he is completely insufferable and genuinely has 0 redeemable qualities. i'm told that he's "actually smart" but he does nothing but make idiotic decisions all day. i have absolutely no sympathy for this guy even though he's built up as the "down on his dumps" character

would not recommend this one. it's just slightly too long to be a quick read and overall just not very interesting. can't see what anyone could get out of this one but i won't yuck your yum if you enjoyed it