Listened to the audiobook narrated by the stellar Marin Ireland with a bit of help from Michael Urie as Marcellus (the Giant Pacific Octopus).

What would be your suggestion for a Puget Sound-area beach where people could read this book this summer? Once your soul was soaked though with grief, any more simply ran off, overflowed, the way maple syrup on Saturday-morning pancakes always cascaded onto the table whenever Erik was allowed to pour it himself. I avoid animal stories because I usually can't handle things happening to animals but this is a story about giving life to both animals and humans and that giving makes future loss bearable. It's just your average "intersecting destinies" story with a very predictable plot proceeding at a snail-like pace.The octopus gives us this lens with which we can look at ourselves with a bit more distance and a bit more clarity. Last year, Terry threw a little “baby shower” for the entire staff, all eight of them, when the seahorses spawned. Tova works in the town's aquarium and is still grieving about her son she lost at sea years ago, presumed dead and ruled a suicide.

She also knows a lot about loss, her son Eric aged 18, disappeared 30 years ago, after taking out a boat on Puget sound. Remarkably Bright Creatures is the rarest of feats: a book that manages to be wry and wise, charming and surprising, and features one of the most intriguing and satisfying characters I've encountered in fiction in a very long time – Marcellus the Octopus. Throughout the novel, animals take on an integral role both as symbols and as active participants in the narrative.

But when she becomes an accidental cooking sensation, she challenges norms and empowers women, all with a touch of humor. But then her behavior turns bizarre; she stops eating and begins to self mutilate, tearing off her skin or even eating her own arms. He travels from California and is now in town, intent on finding that man and extorting money from him.

Not since Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke hosted Marshal Dillon, Chester and Doc every night at the Longbranch Saloon has life in a bawdy house seemed so amiable. If I could go back in time, I would collect all of it—the sneaker sole, the shoelace, the buttons, and the twin key. Also there were a lot of things in this debut novel that didn't ring true for the modern era and seemed to take up a lot of time just to add drama. Shelby Van Pelt makes good on this wild conceit, somehow making me love a misanthropic octopus, but her writing is so finely tuned that it’s a natural element of a larger story about family, about loss, and the electricity of something found.The octopus can manipulate his large body, enabling him to squeeze out of a small opening in his glass cage and wander about the room. Gaining speed after turning onto the highway that runs out to Aunt Jeanne’s trailer park, Cameron rolls down all the windows and lights a cigarette, which he never does anymore, only when he feels like garbage; and this morning he feels like hot, steaming garbage.