What I’m Reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

My rule for choosing books: if the cover is badly designed, then the content will be remarkably bright. The same goes for choosing wine. I’ve never had good wine with a creatively designed, beautifully crafted label. If the label is bad, then the wine is good and vice versa.

Even though Remarkably Bright Creatures was Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, every page of the book is quite impressive. Her prose is spot-on, and the characters are quite unique, real (even Marcellus, the octopus), and complex. I’d say when literary fiction meets magical realism in a contemporary setting, you are invested from the first to the last page, and if you’re like me, you might want to underline or reread a lot of good sentences.

The ending? I loved the ending in a heartbreaking way, so I’d rather not talk about it. I don’t want to spoil it for you either.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, as a book, was on the New York Times Bestsellers list for quite some time before it was made into a Netflix movie.

The Netflix movie adaptation of Remarkably Bright Creatures is also remarkably bright, if you ask me. It is directed by Olivia Newman, who made Where the Crawdads Sing, starring Sally Field as Tova, a widow who works as a cleaner at a local aquarium, and Lewis Pullman as Cameron, a 30-year-old hoping to find his dad. The unique character, Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus, provides the narration, voiced by Alfred Molina.

I loved the ending, although it was hard to say goodbye. I could have wandered around in their universe forever.

You can get your copy on Amazon.