Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was our book club pick for the month.  Let's see how it shakes out. For what seems like a regular feature in our book club, it's another Read with Jenna pick! (Okay, fine, I think it's only been four books total, but that's a lot for not being purposeful about it, right?)

My husband took this out from the university library for me and got a large print edition, so my page numbers will probably be off if you have a regular print edition.

In this book, we met 70-year-old Tova Sullivan, who is working at an aquarium cleaning after hours. Her husband has died of cancer and her son went missing and was presumed dead decades ago, so she spends a lot of time alone, although she has friends wither her social group the Knit Wits and a (maybe?) burgeoning romantic relationship with the town grocer. Tova develops a relationship with a sneaky octopus named Marcellus who frequently escapes his tank at night.  Meanwhile, a no-good slacker named Cameron comes to town and soon Tova and Cameron are inextricably linked.

This book was fine. Book club consensus was that this book was fine. I mean, it's sort of perfect summer reading in that it's light and fluffy and nothing really terrible happens. Fine. It's fine. Unfortunately, there was nothing to talk about during our book club, so I guess I wouldn't recommend it for that purpose.

3.5/5 stars

Lines of note (again, large print edition):

Tova drags a hand down her face. She's losing her faculties. Yes, that's it. This is how it begins, isn't it? With hallucinations about an octopus? (page 12)

The octopus nods.
Wait, no. It did not. Did it? He rubs his eyes. Are they pumping hallucinogens through the ductwork here? (page 253)

The above two lines are such a great symmetry with Tova and Cameron both thinking they're imagining things about Marcellus. Lovely bit of complementary writing.

Tova knows how dearly Barb had loved her golden retriever, Sully. Perhaps more than she'd loved her late husband Rick. (page 27)

I snorted at this. 

"You clean, kiddo?"
Reflexively, Cameron glances down at his shirt, which maybe he should have thrown in the laundry back at Ethan's place. Then he realizes what Terry must mean. His. . . record.
"Well, mostly. Got a couple misdemeanors. This one time, the bar was closing, and --"
Terry shakes his head. "No. I mean, do you clean? As in, can you mop floors?" (page 214-215)

This is FASCINATING. I assumed that "clean" in this context meant "free from drugs/alcohol" and that in this brief passage the meaning for 1) mopping, 2) bathed, and 3) free from a police record all came up and NOT drug use sort of made my head spin.  

Appearance of the word hat:

Within minutes Tova wishes she'd brought a hat...(page 117)