E’s Reviews > Remarkably Bright Creatures > Status Update

"Tova never liked shaking hands, well, not with people, anyway. Octopuses are another story."

It's an odd thing to have the Happy Days song playing on loop in the back of your mind while events and character arcs are just beginning to coalesce. Not *entirely* offbeat of the narrative, especially when it comes to Avery and Cameron's paddleboarding date, but slightly dissonant with the overall tone of the narrative, which is more poignant and has softened into beautifully-imagined emotional complexity.

My vacay ended today (yesterday) by getting jumpscared by a mummified dead bat in the cabin bathroom. God knows how long the poor thing had been tucked under the corner cabinet awaiting some cleaning fool to sweep its body out of the shadows.

Anyway, nice to return home to the aquarium of Sowell Bay where a giant talking octopus brings calm and sanity, and a critical eye to the cleanliness of the floor.

You know that sweet, melancholy feeling--like you're yearning for a song, but none of the music is quite right? The notes are fine, but the words are wrong. Or vice versa. This book sort of gives me that feeling. Like fingers just brushing the edge of the play button, knowing it's not quite the track I want.

As a weird aunt myself, I can't help but take note of Weird Aunts in narratives and wow it's whiplash to compare Aunt Jeanne and Aunt Gladys (from Weapons)--who sincerely have no basis for comparison except that I happened to encounter. them both in the same window of time lol

Cameron is so lucky he wound up with an Aunt Jeanne, just sayin' ^^;