Both Tova and Cameron feel alone with their grief, but there are also some people who have been there as important support. He is 30 years old and nothing in his life is settled, and he can be his own worst enemy. Cameron’s mother walked out on him when he was eight and he’s never known his father. She is retired and doesn’t need the money, but she does the nightly cleaning job at the aquarium to fill time, time which seems empty these days. Tova is a widow of five years, but the loss of her son thirty years ago is what haunts her and defines her. The connections in the coastal town of Sowell Bay don’t stop at this magical one, but it is this particular bond that opens up Tova to life beyond grief and readers to a beautiful story. The inexplicable bond between Marcellus and Tova is the stuff of reading magic. Tova Sullivan is a widow who started working the night shift to tidy up the small aquarium. Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus living at Sowell Bay Aquarium in Washington state. One of the main characters is a favorite creature of mine, an octopus. The one I just recently read is Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Others over the years have included The Girls by Lori Lansens, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, and Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. The year before it was The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. Last year it was The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. It seems that every so often a contemporary fiction book comes along that's not in my preferred mystery/crime genre, a book that touches my soul, connecting with me on a special level.

Remarkably bright creatures goodreads