
A wholesome and heart-warming debut novel about a small community set in West Coast America who learn to cope with their personal challenges of bereavement, love and belonging through companionship with their neighbours, new and old. A 2024 book club favourite, both sides of the Atlantic!
- best book club reads -
Readability
★★★★★★★★★✰
Talkability
★★★★★★★★★✰
Den scores
★★★★★★★★✰✰
REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES
BY SHELBY VAN PELT
361 pages
'Remarkably Bright Creatures’ is best remembered for Marcellus, a giant Pacific Octopus - ‘that octopus book’! However, aside from the larger than life mischievous creature, this is an endearing and heart-warming story about a small community set in West Coast America who learn to cope with their personal challenges of bereavement, love and belonging through companionship with their neighbours, new and old. Infused with humour and a sense of adventure to resolve unsolved mysteries and some lost ‘treasures’, this was a book club favourite in 2024 and enjoyed in groups both sides of the Atlantic.
The story opens with Tova Sullivan, a widow who keeps her mind busy with a night cleaning job at the local Sowell Bay Aquarium, having mysteriously lost her teen son, Erik, who vanished on a boat some thirty years ago. Whilst she has enjoyed the comfort of her ‘Knit-Wit’ group who gather regularly to work on knitting projects, shoot the breeze and put the world to rights, she is unsettled by the news of her estranged brother’s death and the realisation that living alone in later life is fraught with issues that she is keen to attend to.
Running in tandem with Tova’s story the reader is introduced to Cameron, a lost teen whose backstory (abandoned by his mother, brought up by his aunt) leads him to Sowell Bay in search of his father who he hopes will resolve his own financial hardships. Cameron lands up in Tova's small community, finding work, romance and unexpected friendships including Ethan an aged Scottish gentleman who manages the local grocery store and then Tova herself, who Ethan is also keen to befriend and spend time with. As both Tova and Cameron find themselves distracted by lost ‘treasures’ - Nova her son and Cameron, a lost father, it brings us back to Marcellus, the octopus whose night time habit of escaping his aquarium, hunting for treasure to hide in his tank, provides unexpected clues to solve the impossible home truths of the past.
The book brought plenty of joy and discussion in book club and is a wonderful debut novel by the author Shelby Van Pelt whose wholesome tale was an instant New York Times bestseller. With a Netflix adaptation in the pipeline, 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' is an unexpected book club delight that you will want to read ahead of any streaming!