Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Rating:     10    Serendipitous. Heartfelt and enjoyable. A lovely warm tale about  a woman and a tentacled creature. If only life mimicked this book, rewarded truly deserving people who have weathered fate’s storms.

Skip factor: I skipped nothing. 0%   

Who should read? Readers who need a boost from life’s norm. Women who love serendipitous stories and especially those who like fairy-tale happy endings.

Summary: This is the story of a woman named Tova. She’s a widow, but more devastatingly, her only child, a son Erik, died when he was eighteen. Hold on! This will steal your heart not hurt it.

Tova works at an aquarium, cleaning. She grows fond of a remarkably bright octopus, Marcellus, who often leaves his cage to explore the aquarium. Because the story is told from the octopus’s point of view, you might say it is unbelievable, yet, it’s so sweet and heartwarming, you want to believe it could happen.

Tova has no other family but she does have a set of female friends, the Knit-Wits, and a gentleman friend, Ethan, who seems interested in her. Just about the time Cameron, a young man searching for the father he never knew, arrives in town, Tova suffers a fall and must take several weeks off work. Cameron fills in for her, but Tova cannot stay away from the octopus and other sea serpents, so she visits the aquarium, and therein lies the secret to this serendipitous tale.

Characters: I fell in love with Tova almost the first time her name appeared on a page. I loved Ethan and the Knit-Wit friends, too. Cameron, however, I had to grow to love, and rightly so. He entered as a self-centered, unreliable young man and left as…well, I’ll let you decide. Van Pelt’s character development was perfect.

Writing style: This author is fabulous. Her writing, superb.

Read this author again: No question. Yes.

Read on!
_________________________________________________
CJ Zahner is the author of The Suicide GeneDream Wide AwakeProject DreamFriends Who Move Couches and Don’t Mind Me, I Came with the House. Zahner’s Dream Series novels were inspired by true-life experiences. Listen to her interview about her 9/11 a premonition here. Download her Beyond Reality Radio podcast here or her Online Book Circle podcast hereRead more about Zahner in Voyage Raleigh. Purchase her books on Amazon  and follow her on InstagramTwitterFacebookGoodreadsBookBub, or LinkedIn.

2 thoughts on “Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt”

Comments are closed.