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Anna Avian's Reviews > Remarkably Bright Creatures
Remarkably Bright Creatures
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The book was incredibly slow and very mundane at times. More than halfway through nothing significant had happened. There were a few chapters that were completely pointless and didn't contribute to the story in any way.
The author failed to give enough reasons for me to care about any of the characters. They all felt predictable and halfhearted.
Cameron's character was just the regular annoying, whiny kind of loser who blames everybody else for his "hard" life. We are constantly reminded how smart he is and yet the only way his smarts present themselves is through some random trivia. A 30 year old man who was raised by an aunt who made sure he had a roof over his head, rather than just being thrown into the system, who still blames his mother for all of his life choices and mistakes, is not someone I can feel sorry for. Grow up and get your act together ffs.
Marcellus was the only thing that kept the whole book together and he should have been given more space in it. I would have gladly read an entire book told only from his perspective.
The author failed to give enough reasons for me to care about any of the characters. They all felt predictable and halfhearted.
Cameron's character was just the regular annoying, whiny kind of loser who blames everybody else for his "hard" life. We are constantly reminded how smart he is and yet the only way his smarts present themselves is through some random trivia. A 30 year old man who was raised by an aunt who made sure he had a roof over his head, rather than just being thrown into the system, who still blames his mother for all of his life choices and mistakes, is not someone I can feel sorry for. Grow up and get your act together ffs.
Marcellus was the only thing that kept the whole book together and he should have been given more space in it. I would have gladly read an entire book told only from his perspective.
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Reading Progress
May 31, 2022
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Started Reading
June 1, 2022
– Shelved
June 1, 2022
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 64 (64 new)
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Kierstyn
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rated it 1 star
Jun 02, 2022 06:45PM
Ugh I am on page 125 or something and I am so sad to hear that nothing will happen until more than halfway through. I'm not sure I want to finish it now!
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Thank you for your review, I feel exactly the same!! Im stunned by all of the 4-5 star reviews I forced myself to finish it. I wish the whole book was told from Marcellus’s perspective. The rest was a bore, unfortunately.
Thank you for this! I just finished and am feeling so heartless because I just don’t get the love.
I had to push myself to finish it. I didn’t think it was great until the last 30-40 pages.
If I'm honest, I did some skimming in the last couple chapters because there was too much Cameron and not enough Marcellus. I literally don't have words for Avery giving him a chance when he smelled like pee. Like how small is this town?
I'm at the half way point and it's taken me a few weeks to get here. Hope it picks up soon.
You should read The Soul of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery! It is non fiction about the life and souls of octopus and you would be amazed that the things that Marcellus could do were, in fact, real things that octopus can do!
Toni wrote: "You should read The Soul of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery! It is non fiction about the life and souls of octopus and you would be amazed that the things that Marcellus could do were, in fact, real th..."Thank you for the recommendation, Toni. I will check it out.
I do agree with your assessment of Cameron, and I was hoping for a confrontation between him and Tova or, more likely, him and Ethan, but he did have some redeeming qualities . For example, he made sure he repaid his aunt after she sent him money. He did appreciate her and all she had done for him. He had changed by the end of the story - grown up a bit, although I wish the author had spent a bit more time on the ending relationship between Cameron and Tova and Cameron and Avery and Cameron and Ethan.
Thank you for your review! After all the great reviews, I wondered what I was missing. The answer: nothing. It simply wasn’t for me. I pushed through the last 1/3, but it wasn’t easy. I stopped at one point to double check that it wasn’t YA vs. Adult. I prefer books that make me to think. Mostly what I thought was sadness for Marcellus & hoped he would be set free. For those who loved the book, awesome! I’m grateful we have access to so many authors, genres, & stories. So many books, so little time.
Ugh. I am at the 40% mark and just not into it, and yet I feel compelled to give it a full chance. Everyone LOVES it. But I'm really bored . . .
Couldn’t agree more!
Ugh what a waste of time! Thanks for the honest review. I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was. Soooo boring!
Yes! That is how I feel about those book it’s definitely overrated
Thank you for writing this review - couldn't agree more!
I agree with you. I ended up DNF because I couldn't stand Cameron and I wished there was more about the octopus. It is nice to hear other people feel the same since I hear its high ratings.
Thank heavens I’m not alone. I’m closing it and starting something else. I’m bored.
Thank you for this! I am an hour and a half into the audiobook and I'm bored and lost with all these characters.
I didn't even like Marcellus. Tova was more 90 in the 1960s than 70 in the current decade. And all just works out in the end? Yuk.
I read this book because a friend loved it and thought I'd like it. It was a slog at first with manbaby Cameron, but I pushed on and things became better with the other people in the book and, of course, Marcellus. I never did warm up to Cameron and just wanted to bitchslap him.
I couldn't have said it better myself! This Anna's review reflects exactly my thoughts after being halfway through this book LOL
I could not stand Cameron. He made his own problems then blamed everyone else!
Good review, except I didn’t even believe the octopus story. The magical realism just didn’t work here.
Lee G you probably never believed in Santa Claus either. :)
Totally agree. Also, how about him getting mad at Ethan who, for free, provided a place for him to park his camper, eat the expired but still good food from the grocery store, use his laundry machines and then YELLS AT HIM for not hurting him to be a manager at his business. Bro, what the actual eff.
It’s feeling similarly to me. I’m reading the Marcellus parts closelbut skimming the human ones.
Great review and how I felt!
I am so glad that I wasn't the only one to resist the hive mind when it came to this book. The constant rave reviews and 5-star ratings convinced me to try reading this book. I couldn't get through it, and I tried several times, I felt like there was something wrong with me bc I found it so dreadfully low-stakes and boring. The only memorable character was the octopus, and there wasn't enough of him. I found myself trudging through the all of the forgettable character portions just to get back to Marcellus. In the end, he just wasn't enough to keep me interested.
This is exactly how I felt!
My thoughts exactly. I don’t understand the hype of the book. It was really really boring.
Exactly how I felt. I zoned out for large sections and it made no difference to the story
I'm exactly halfway through and already feel the same way lol
My thoughts exactly
Agreed! I thought all of the characters were boring , and if it weren't for the gimmick of the octopus, I would never have picked up this book. I hung in there to find resolution with why Eric supposedly killed himself , and did not even get that satisfaction.
Yes!! I think it would’ve been so interesting for us to see everything purely through Marcellus’s eyes!
I felt very similarly and felt like it really wasn’t until the very tail end that anything happened
Ugh. I felt the same way. It was a good story, but nothing great like everyone makes it out to be.
These were my exact thoughts after reading
Cameron annoyed me for that whole reason, he did nothing but complain and the growth and character development happened way to quickly without real substance
i think a big part of the book was experiencing grief and trauma with the characters and watching them grow. i became so attached to them and watching them navigate the things they’ve experienced
I couldn’t agree more.
Agree “that guy� 🐙 was the most interesting thing in the book
I liked the book more than you but yes, when I started reading I thought it was going to be a story from Marcellus� perspective
I give this book 5 stars and it’s reviews like this that reinforced to me that all art is subjective and I care much less about other people’s reviews on here than I do about reviews of television and movies because it is much more subjective.
Agreed. I actually read the summary online so I could figure out the relationship and what the point was to this book. It helped me get through as I skimmed it and then enjoyed the ending. Glad you mentioned this point.
“Grow up and get your act together FFS� - This is literally what happens.
Yeah, I kept being so annoyed with him! And we are not speaking a teenager here either - a grown man of 30! I don't as much mind books where seemingly nothing significant is happening - life is like that anyway but this whole teenage drama got old real fast.
Same. What a waste of time. I found very little to like about this book. It felt so unrealistic and every character was annoying.
Still reading, but not impressed with the writing. Very amateurish and cliched, especially when it comes to Tova and her friends. The Marcellus chapters are better. And I, too, would happily read a book told entirely from Marcellus's POV.
