GENRE: Adult Literary Fiction
LENGTH: 355 pages
PLOT
An aging woman, Tova, who lost her son years ago spends her nights as a cleaner at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. There she befriends an octopus, Marcellus, who escapes from his enclosure at night. They are soon joined by Cameron who arrives in town searching for his biological father.
CHARACTERS
Tova likes to keep busy as a way to cope with the losses of her son and husband. She’s a dedicated worker and a kindhearted person. I liked that, though she didn’t really have family, she still had a strong support system.
Marcellus thinks very little of humans (with the exception of Tova) and views his captivity as him being a prisoner. He’s very intelligent and intuitive. Marcellus and Tova develop a touching friendship that is at the heart of this story.
Cameron is very unlikable. He makes a lot of poor decisions and doesn’t take accountability. He does eventually mature some, but it was grating to have to read from his perspective.
Ethan is the owner of a grocery store who has a crush on Tova. Despite being a side character he was my favorite of the bunch. He’s friendly and generous – though how he makes any money when he keeps giving so much away I’ll never know.
WRITING
This book is told from multiple perspectives; Tova’s, Cameron’s, and Marcellus’s. The thing that really made me want to read this book was that the octopus was a POV character. Anthropomorphism feels like it was made for octopi given we know they are so incredibly intelligent. Based on how his story is written I think the author was trying to do commentary on keeping wild animals in captivity. Now, I love zoos and aquariums and, in my opinion, they do a lot of good for a lot of animal species. However, when it comes to hyper intelligent animals like octopi I do start to wonder if there is a line we should draw. For instance, I think most of us can agree that orcas shouldn’t be kept in captivity.
The storyline with Tova and Cameron was pretty predictable. In spite of that, it could have been a very touching one if only Cameron hadn’t been such a terrible character.
This is a slow, character driven story without a lot of plot. It handles topics like grief, child loss, and the realities of aging in our society. It also features drug use and hoarding. If any of those things may trigger you then proceed with caution.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can see why so many people have given this book high ratings. I definitely found the friendship between Tova and Marcellus to be more touching than that between Tova and Cameron. One scene towards the end between Tova and her cephalopod friend had me feeling especially emotional.
I was glad that Cameron grew up some in the novel, but for a lot of it he really was a hindrance. For someone that is meant to play such a key role in the story, he was the one who made me contemplate not continuing it.
FINAL RATING: 4⭐️
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