Remarkably Bright Creatures

Author: Shelby Van Pelt

Who Picked the Book: Stephanie

One-sentence summary: Two lonely people dealing with grief and loss are brought together by circumstances and the clever workings of an elderly octopus.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 8

Our favorite thing about it: We loved the voice of Marcellus, the octopus.

Our least favorite thing about it: It was a bit predictable.

Main Topics of Discussion: Friendship, Struggle/Grief/Loss, Growing Older, Self-Sabotage

Our favorite quote: “Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?”

Notes: We all really enjoyed reading this sweet, and sometimes sad story. We liked how it ended (happy) and we thought the story line was mostly interesting. The best part of the book is undoubtedly the chapters dedicated to Marcellus' voice. He is humorous, provides a unique perspective on humans, and taught us many things about octopus that we did not know. His character and voice also added something unique to this story that made it more than mundane. 

We did think the story was a little bit predictable. And in fact, the reader finds out less than halfway through the main crux of the connection of characters. And then, a lot of the book after that was slow and sometimes frustrating. It just took too long to reach a conclusion after we already knew the "twist" and some of the events seemed contrived to keep the characters apart, which is annoying. 

We did like the descriptions of loss and grief that both Tova and Cameron's characters made us privy to. It was very satisfying to see them become a family in the end after their loneliness. However, while Tova was a very likeable character that we had no issues rooting for and identifying with, Cameron was sometimes annoying. He came around in the end and redeemed himself, but some of his choices made us roll our eyes and contributed to the above-mentioned contrived circumstances that frustrated the plot. 

Overall, despite minor critiques, we thought this book was fun to read and we enjoyed it. 

Memorable Meeting Moments: This was the first time we had a "host" for the meeting that did not pick the book. Christina hosted us at Velvet Taco and Stephanie chose the book. The reason for this is that we met ON Stephanie's birthday! 

What We Ate: Lots of tacos. But seriously - we had everything from cauliflower tacos, to chimichurri steak tacos, Chicken Tikka tacos, blackened shrimp tacos, and others. We also had queso, guac, and elote corn with chips. AND celebratory Nothing Bundt Cake Bundtinis in various flavors for dessert.