Two weeks later, and I have now read the dream book. 🐙🫧 Aaannd... I don't think I'm ever trusting my subconsciousness to control my To Read List again, lol.
For those who don't know, "Remarkably Bright Creatures" follows a three primary characters:
Tova, an elderly widow who has spent the last several years grieving over her son (who died at only 18 y/o) and now her husband. Tova tries to fill the emptiness and loneliness in her life by working as a janitor at a local aquarium, where, among other things, she ends up befriending the octopus Marcellus.
Marcellus, the aquarium octopus, who routinely chortles to himself about how much more intelligent he is that most of his fellow sea creatures, and also routinely thinks about his short lifespan and counts down roughly how much more time he has to live. Marcellus is the one who notices a connection between Tova and Cameron, and, genuinely concerned about his human friends/caretakers, he works hard to communicate his findings to them and bring the two of them together.
And Cameron, a young man who moves to the area trying to find his biological father and ends up also working as a janitor at the aquarium. Cameron is still hurt from his mother abandoning him as a child, and he goes back and forth between taking responsibility for his own actions and just acting out wildly and blaming others for his failures.
Genuinely, the best part of this book is when the narrative addresses the characters' grief, their senses of loss, and concerns for their futures. I found those parts well-done, and they gave me some catharsis.
There's also a certain amount of dry wit that Tova's and Marcellus' sections carry, which I also quite enjoyed.
The less good (in my opinion) part of the book is the mystery behind Tova's and Cameron's connection. If you've ever engaged with a thriller or detective story before, you'll be able to figure out what the truth it pretty early on. And, if for some reason you haven't figured it out from all the obnoxiously loud clues that are scattered all over, Marcellus will literally just tell you the answer about halfway through the book. That means that, for most of the book, I felt trapped watching the human characters flounder, unable to see the obvious that was right in front of them (and I hated it).
(Honestly, this book would have been significantly shorter if either Tova or Cameron ever had any sort of meaningful conversation with anyone. But, since neither of them can be bothered to talk to or listen to anyone else, it's not happening.)
The end of the book also felt weird? Slight spoilers, but the author takes a very "everybody gets a happy ending!" direction with it, even when those "happy endings" feel forced, unearned, or not a good fit for the character. And I just didn't care for it, tbqh. It kinda made me mad.
If you're looking for a book that's actually about someone healing from grief, this isn't it. The protags in this one go straight from grieving to a happy ending (or what the author believes a happy ending should be) with very little actual process in between. It feels like their grief was instantly healed off-screen. (But, if you want your characters to be sad and then instantly happy, maybe you'll like this one.)
Some images of how my copy is looking, now that I've read through it:
I expect the movie to be utter cash-grab garbage, because I can't fathom who in their right mind thought this introspection-heavy book would make good movie material. I won't be going out of my way to see it.
