REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt

Giant Pacific octopuses (not octopi) may be exceptionally bright, but this novel exaggerates their abilities to include reading.  I don’t think so.  I can see this book as an animated movie, but I found it not only unrealistic—intentionally, I’m sure—but also very predictable.  Marcellus, the octopus, a sometimes first-person narrator here, lives in an aquarium and frequently escapes from his tank, knowing that he can spend a maximum of eighteen minutes out of the water.  He also knows that he is fast approaching the end of his expected life span.  Tova, an elderly cleaning lad at the aquarium, becomes Marcellus’s friend and accomplice.  Her husband has died recently, and her son drowned mysteriously at the age of eighteen.  Then along comes Cameron, a ne’er-do-well who is on a quest to find his biological father.  He takes over Tova’s cleaning shift while she is temporarily injured.  Marcellus proves himself to be even smarter than we thought, putting two and two together, and has to devise a way to pass his observations on to these two humans.  Ahem.  I can almost imagine reading this book to a child as a series of bedtime stories, minus a few plot points and some of the language, as this is a fast read with no long sentences or unfamiliar vocabulary.  If you want to read a more intelligent book about intelligent animals in captivity, try T.C. Boyle’s Talk to Me instead.