Remarkably Bright Creatures

Remarkably Bright Creatures Book Review by Shelby Van Pelt

I’ve known forever that I love character-focused stories. 

However, I’ve also realized after reading this book that in order for me to love these kinds of stories, the characters have to be good. 

Unfortunately, Remarkably Bright Creatures, a debut novel from Shelby Van Pelt, doesn’t fulfill this requirement. 

The story has a simple premise and switches off between the two main characters, a young man with a chip on his shoulder by the title of Cameron and an old Swedish woman named Tova.

Other characters have random, interspersed chapters, but the only other character or…animal of note that dominates a few POV’s is a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus McSquiddles. 

Marcellus is by far the most interesting character in the book and the novel would have been ten times better overall if more—and longer—chapters were told by Marcellus.

Incredibly intelligent and observant, Marcellus figures out the plot of the novel halfway through the book, frustratingly earlier than Tova or Cameron, who are dim-witted beyond belief. 

The plot revolves around Tova’s son, Erik, who disappeared thirty years prior when he

was 18-years-old. Tova never got over this disappearance and it only punctuated her loneliness following the death of her beloved husband.

Since losing both of her family members, Tova lives by herself and is afflicted with loneliness, but stubbornly refuses the emotional comfort of the friends around her, instead opting to live in a retirement home far away that would remove her from Sowell Bay, her home of many years. 

Cameron’s whole character can be boiled down to this: annoying. Because his mother is a drug addict who left him as a child, Cameron’s whole life has been in shambles.

He can’t keep a job, a girlfriend, or save up any money. Instead of blaming himself and his choices, he condemns everyone around him and refuses to take any accountability for his actions or where they have led him. 

Cameron finds himself in Sowell Bay looking for his father with only a cockamie idea of who the man might be and some borrowed money from his aunt in his pocket.

Solely due to the kindness of the people in the community does Cameron manage to not live on the streets and go hungry, but he still decides to bitch about his circumstances to everyone and anyone. 

The “mystery” surrounding Tova’s son Erik only gets deeper with Cameron’s appearance, whose mother knew Erik back in high school and may have had to do something with Erik's “drowning”. 

The plot of this book is paltry and not that interesting. It’s laughably easy to put together as a reader that Cameron, and by extension his mother, are tied to Erik and Tova, and yet Cameron and Tova themselves can’t put two and two together until the end of the novel for...reasons.

And yet a captive octopus has no issues solving the so-called “riddle”.

The majority of the book instead focuses on Tova’s realization that she is growing old and has no one to support her. Meanwhile, Cameron slowly, slowly, mind-numbingly slowly recognizes that he is in control of his own life and the actions he takes. 

Honestly, if the whole book was told from Marcellus’ POV this would be a much better book. 

I love slice-of-life stories that focus on characters and their emotional depths. However, Cameron and Tova did not deliver whatsoever on this front.

Cameron’s inability to recognize his own faults wasn’t fun or entertaining to read about and Tova’s staunch coldness made it hard to sympathize and connect with her. 

The pacing of the book was at a molasses speed with next to nothing happening for most chapters other than infinitesimal character growth that I didn’t find interesting to begin with. 

I had such high hopes for this book after hearing from several people that it was an enjoyable read. So much so that I recommended it for my fiance’s Thanksgiving book club. It was even nominated on Goodreads for 2022’s Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction and Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel.

I…don’t understand how such a nothingburger novel could earn such high favor and acclaim. And as I’ve said over and over again, I adore character-driven stories. I prefer them, in fact. 

They just need to have good characters. 

Recommendation: Read a summary on Goodreads of the “mystery” of Tova’s son and then only read Marcellus’ chapters. They’re the only chapters worth consuming.

Score: 4/10