A review by pinesandpages
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

3.0

Going into this one I was doubtful of an octopus POV, but all the reviews assured me that it was well done and believable. It turns out, I was correct to be skeptical! 

I fully believe that octopuses are sentient and are smarter than we realize, but I do not believe that they can understand English and help solve mysteries. It doesn’t help that I recently read a book about animal senses and also one about octopus intelligence/consciousness specifically. Part of the thing with animal senses and understanding how they might think is that we just can’t really. They process different types of information (eg electromagnetism) and their brains are wired differently so we truly can’t even comprehend what that might be like for them. So for the octopus POV to essentially be a very intelligent creature who can help
discover long lost relations through deliberate actions and bring two people together
is a bit of a surprise. Also, ultimately, I’m not sure we needed the octopus POV. Bc the clues from the octopus were rather simple and could’ve easily been accomplished in a somewhat similar fashion even without his presence. So I’m not sure why we needed it, other than for added fun/uniqueness, I guess. 

I finished Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting earlier this month and while at first glance these stories aren’t that similar, they actually contain many similar themes! An older women not sure what to do with herself as she ages, grief over the past, finding a second act, various seemingly random people coming together and being more intertwined than they’d imagine. I’d recommend Iona over this one tho, that was one was very heartwarming and well done. Remarkably Bright Creatures was just alright. 
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