Tova Sullivan, a 70-year-old widow who passes the time by working at the local aquarium makes an unconventional friend with the giant pacific octopus, Marcellus. This old lady and oversized sea creature learn to help each other with their loneliness and maybe solve a mystery or two.  

This book is gorgeous. I devoured every beautifully crafted sentence and metaphor, and the circular writing was so heartbreaking. Some paragraphs were completely irrelevant, but I didn’t care one bit because they were written so delightfully.

The book is told from a few different perspectives: Marcellus – Yes, the octopus – speaks to us through second perspective, while the rest of the characters are told from 3rd person limited.

These were all very distinct perspectives. I am always amazed when an author has the ability to write with different personalities, getting into the heads of their characters. 

And these characters had DEPTH. I was actually drowning in how deep they were.

I love Marcellous, he’s so likable and goofy. Tova too, her chapters were written in such an angelic style and I want her to be my grandma. 

Then there’s Cameron; this guy’s an idiot. I saw a lot of reviews giving the book less stars because of how obnoxious he is, but I think it makes the novel more organic. What a skill it is to have me both care about and hate a character at the same time. 

I was rooting for Cameron to realize how ignorant and unreasonable he is, I was praying for self-reflection. This author did a really good job explaining how Cam’s childhood trauma led to the way he is now. Sigmund Freud who?

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but go ahead and judge because this one is gorgeous inside and out. I’ve never commented on the cover of a book but this one needs some recognition. Even inside, all of Marcellouse’s pages were decorated with a little sea life and tentacles. So fun!! Books should illustrated more.

I thought this was going to be a murder mystery novel, but that was just a facade for the real story of a mother learning to recover after the death of her son. I’m giving it 4.8 stars.

https://www.goodreads.com/joliedx2