Book Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures
I think my reaction to it may be a function of me misunderstanding what it was going to be based on the premise. I thought it was going to do something potentially really interesting with the conceptualisation of octopus intelligence / sentience, but, spoiler alert , it does not. Marcellus the octopus, while certainly the most engaging of the three characters that share the POV (sadly, he has the least page time), is just an anthropomorphised smart guy in a tentacle suit, with really nothing alien or other about his mind at all.
The plot itself was a protracted converging-stories farrago that has been done better (and in less pages!) by others. Set in the town of Sowell Bay, Washington, the action centres around the local aquarium, its staff, and their friends within the town. The arrival of a newcomer from California, ne'er-do-well Cameron Cassmore, leads directly to older stories and older hurts in the town.
Elderly aquarium cleaner and octopus-befriender Tova, one of the other POV characters, is mildly interesting as a character, and has some decent observational content, but failed to really fully grab me. That said, both Tova and Marcellus leave the third POV character, Cameron, in the dust - a whinier, more cringeworthy, less appealing MC I have not often encountered. A man of 30 acting, and talking, like an aggrieved 14 year old ignoramus is neither clever nor interesting to me as a reader.
The extreme predictability of the plot got so irritating at times that I was tempted to (but didn't) skip the obligatory misunderstanding-of-the-bleeding-obvious scenes. The neat little bow tied around the ending did not shock me at all.
Overall, it was ... just OK! Read it if you like that kind of "predictable convergences in a small town" story - it's very gentle, so it won't cause any reading crises. If you are looking for a book that really delves into non-human intelligence and sentience in fiction, though, keep walking. I give it 5/10.
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