{"id":4293,"date":"2024-04-03T14:15:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T14:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/?p=4293"},"modified":"2025-11-14T00:55:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:55:46","slug":"remarkably-bright-creatures-book-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/remarkably-bright-creatures-book-review-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Remarkably Bright Creatures Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1763075516598{padding-top: 12px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 12px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1763075603736{padding-top: 12px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 12px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;background-color: #F9FFC1 !important;}”]\n

\"\"Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, surprised me with its charming characterizations, implausible interspecies relationships and healing connections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tova Sullivan, the main character, lost her son, Eric, years\u00a0ago when he was just 18, and she was recently widowed at\u00a0the age of 70. Facing an unknown future, she copes with her\u00a0loneliness by staying busy at her night job cleaning the local\u00a0aquarium, purposefully performing her daily duties \u201cin the\u00a0right way.\u201d Unwelcome interruptions to her regular\u00a0routines create unexpected opportunities for change. But\u00a0can she open to the possibilities they might offer?<\/p>\n

Van Pelt sensitively attends to the experience of each of four\u00a0characters as they seek to understand and find some\u00a0resolution to their grief. Tova\u2019s quietly painful reflections\u00a0about her lost son. Cameron, a misfit soul who comes to this\u00a0small seaside town searching for the father who abandoned\u00a0him 30 years ago. Ethan, the local music-loving grocer\u00a0burned in his youth by love lost. Marcellus, the 60-pound\u00a0octopus who muses on his \u201cend of days,\u201d adding a\u00a0humorous, magical realism to the mix.<\/p>\n

The story centers on a mystery, but it was the relationships between the four\u00a0characters that captured my heart.<\/strong> Watching as each of them seeks answers to the\u00a0questions that will shape their next steps forward. Will Tova stay in the house she loves or\u00a0move to a retirement home? Will Cameron find a way to take on the personal responsibility of\u00a0adulthood? Will Ethan create more meaningful connections than those of local gossip? Will\u00a0Marcellus remain a captive in the aquarium?<\/p>\n

The relationships that develop between the four of them support the possibility of the opening of new doors and of resolving their losses. As a therapist, this beautifully told story speaks to me about the important aspects of human development that are present in each of life\u2019s stages.\u00a0For example, the challenges that aging presents, the unending process of grief, and the healing\u00a0power of relationships- even those that are unexpected and imperfect. It reminds us that\u00a0anyone – the young folks and the elderly – can learn new ways of making\u00a0meaning in life, creating and engaging in their preferred pathways.<\/strong><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1763075516598{padding-top: 12px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 12px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1763075603736{padding-top: 12px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 12px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;background-color: #F9FFC1 !important;}”] Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, surprised me with its charming characterizations, implausible interspecies relationships and healing connections. Tova Sullivan, the main character, lost her son, Eric, years\u00a0ago when he was just 18, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abramson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4293"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4346,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293\/revisions\/4346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}