Is Remarkably Bright Creatures Worth Reading?
Ada’s Score
A grieving widow, a missing son, and an octopus with a startling gift for observation — Van Pelt builds her novel around an unlikely narrator whose cold intelligence cuts through human self-deception with precision and wit. The structural gamble pays off: Marcellus the octopus isn't whimsy for whimsy's sake, but a formal device that sharpens the emotional core. The prose is unshowy and assured, the mystery mechanics competent if familiar. Where the novel truly earns its warmth is in its argument that connection persists across grief, age, and species. Best suited to those who want feeling grounded in craft.
Episode 3“Don't let the whimsy fool you. There's real grief in these pages, and Marcellus will observe you straight through your defenses.”
Eight Arms and One Big Heart: The Unexpected Magic of Remarkably Bright Creatures
You would be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at 'octopus narrator solves a widow's grief mystery' as a premise — and yet Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures became one of the most quietly beloved novels of its year for exactly that reason. Marcellus the giant Pacific octopus is, improbably, one of fiction's most compelling observers of human longing, and the book's warmth sneaks past your defenses before you even realize you're crying. We dig into how Van Pelt built something genuinely unusual — a novel about loss that leaves you feeling more alive.
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“Don't let the whimsy fool you. There's real grief in these pages, and Marcellus will observe you straight through your defenses.”
Eight Arms and One Big Heart: The Unexpected Magic of Remarkably Bright Creatures
You would be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at 'octopus narrator solves a widow's grief mystery' as a premise — and yet Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures became one of the most quietly beloved novels of its year for exactly that reason. Marcellus the giant Pacific octopus is, improbably, one of fiction's most compelling observers of human longing, and the book's warmth sneaks past your defenses before you even realize you're crying. We dig into how Van Pelt built something genuinely unusual — a novel about loss that leaves you feeling more alive.
Book Details
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Published
- January 1, 2022
- Pages
- 368
- Language
- ENG
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Affiliate linksISBN: 9780063204164
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Ada’s Score
4.2
Ada’s editorial score — not an aggregate of reader reviews.
Common Questions About Remarkably Bright Creatures
- Is Remarkably Bright Creatures worth reading?
- Don't let the whimsy fool you. There's real grief in these pages, and Marcellus will observe you straight through your defenses. Ada rates it 4.2 out of 5.
- How many pages is Remarkably Bright Creatures?
- Remarkably Bright Creatures is 368 pages long — around 7–8 hours at an average reading pace.
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