After a surprisingly long time of not being able to read (Yay chronic fatigue and brain fog) I pulled myself together to finally get through my latest library hold before I was put back on a several month long waitlist. Something cute, light, and featuring an octopus.
The story primarily follows Tova, the old woman who cleans the aquarium and is watching as the other elderly people she is friends with move on with their lives and confides in the octopus at the aquarium that she is still struggling with the death of her son from decades ago. Slowly, she learns that her son has not completely vanished from her life and has left behind a secret that she was not expecting to find.
It is a really cute story, and particularly entertaining interspersed with the perspective of an octopus who does not understand why these dumb humans can’t see the obvious right in front of them. The perspective of Marcellus, who is constantly escaping his tank and trying to make the most of his final days of life and captivity is a lot of fun and honestly the best part of this book.
The other perspectives I had a harder time with. I honestly didn’t really care about them as characters. Cameron in particular was a very frustrating read given that most of the misunderstandings in the story revolve around him and many of his problems were self inflicted. When things do eventually turn around for him, it doesn’t feel like it was earned or that he changed, just that it was narratively appropriate for it to happen, which was disappointing.
Overall, though, it was really cute and a fun read. Marcellus is lovely, Tova is endearing, and maybe just skim over Cameron’s chapters if self pitying characters aren’t your thing.