Dragons and Other Creatures
Apr. 27th, 2025 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearRemarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt has been recommended to me a fair few times since it came out, and I finally got around to reading it this week. Aaaaand - I'm afraid it was a bit of a disappointment...
It's about an octopus in a Washington state aquarium, and the various humans who interact with him in different ways. It's the genre of book I would normally be very keen on - disparate characters brought together through interesting circumstances to make each others' lives better.
But, somehow, this one just didn't really work for me.
I didn't feel connected to any of the characters, it pretty much completely failed to engage my emotions - and the weirdness of the octopus viewpoint (as well as the frankly fantastical nature of his involvement in the story) really jarred against the otherwise entirely mundane, real-world setting.
There certainly wasn't anything wrong with the writing - and I'm sure (in fact, I know) other people likely love this book - and I wish I had! But I didn't.
On the other hand, Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson was an absolute delight! Victorian setting, really lovely romance between protagonists in the their 40s, great range of characters (though the sister felt like a bit of a caricature at times), some level of threat but generally pretty cozy - and an adorable dragon to boot! I loved the housekeeper character in particular - and, even though I don't have a huge amount to say about the book really, I thoroughly enjoyed it and will very much look forward to carrying on with the series.
It's about an octopus in a Washington state aquarium, and the various humans who interact with him in different ways. It's the genre of book I would normally be very keen on - disparate characters brought together through interesting circumstances to make each others' lives better.
But, somehow, this one just didn't really work for me.
I didn't feel connected to any of the characters, it pretty much completely failed to engage my emotions - and the weirdness of the octopus viewpoint (as well as the frankly fantastical nature of his involvement in the story) really jarred against the otherwise entirely mundane, real-world setting.
There certainly wasn't anything wrong with the writing - and I'm sure (in fact, I know) other people likely love this book - and I wish I had! But I didn't.
On the other hand, Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson was an absolute delight! Victorian setting, really lovely romance between protagonists in the their 40s, great range of characters (though the sister felt like a bit of a caricature at times), some level of threat but generally pretty cozy - and an adorable dragon to boot! I loved the housekeeper character in particular - and, even though I don't have a huge amount to say about the book really, I thoroughly enjoyed it and will very much look forward to carrying on with the series.
