This was an impulse audiobook purchase because of the cute cover and good narrator! It has a really high rating on Goodreads and quite a few reviews considering I haven’t heard that much about it. It’s a nice feel good story featuring widow Tova Sullivan, plucky young Cam who can’t seem to keep a job, and Marcellus – an giant Pacific octopus imprisoned at the Sowell Bay aquarium in Puget Sound.

Tova is working as a cleaner at the aquarium while grieving the passing of her husband when Cam rolls into town searching for his father and also winds up working at the aquarium. They form an unlikely bond when Marcellus tries to escape his enclosure one night and in turn, Marcellus learns something about them that he must find a way to communicate.

I can see why a lot of people like this. It’s quirky and fun and Marcellus is a hard character not to love. Personally I found it entertaining and enjoyed the reading experience, though ultimately it is a bit of a forgettable book. I appreciate any book with a senior aged protagonist because they’re not very common and are often forgotten or ignored in our society.

Overall I don’t have a lot to say about the book. Tova and Marcellus are lovable characters and while Cam is a bit whiny and annoying at times, he has a certain charm. It was a good read, but there was one thing that really bothered me that I want to talk about. The problem is that it’s a major spoiler, so if you’re planning to read it (and I do recommend it, it’s a fun book), then please stop reading here.

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Spoilers Below

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The main plot point is that Tova is Cam’s grandmother. It’s the point of the entire story and on its own I have no issue with it, it’s a great premise for the story and ties together all of the key pieces. What I didn’t like was how suddenly having a grandson solved all of Tova’s problems and loneliness. Tova is a sad character – she is a wife and mother, but she loses her son when he’s only a teenager and she is later widowed. Of course she would be lonely and lament the loss of her family.

I loved that she was actually wildly practical about how she would take care of herself moving forward and that she made the decision to check herself into a retirement home. She has lots of friends in Sowell Bay that helped to ward off the loss of her husband, but a lot of them were moving away themselves, either to homes or to move in with their children. So moving into a retirement home seemed like a great choice for Tova as it would likely provide a great sense of community for her. She recognizes that she doesn’t have children to take care of her and while that makes her sad, it is the case for many seniors and that’s okay. My Nan has 8 children and deciding to move into a home was a hard choice for her, but a great decision that helped her social life thrive.

There’s a lot of emphasis placed on how sad everyone is for her to leave her home and all her friends try to convince her not to. Then conveniently, the one thing she’s longing for – family – turns up just in the nick of time and she cancels all her plans. I’m glad she found that family, but it just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Lots of people don’t have children or lose children and find themselves alone in the final years of their lives. This is a reality and there’s nothing wrong with that. To me, I thought this narrative would have been so much stronger to focus on the agency Tova has over her own life and her decision to continue to move forward.

Ultimately the author wants that fairytale ending and it’s what the entire story revolves around, so I get it, that’s the feel good story most people want. Personally I just didn’t want it. And that’s fine too. Not every book has to think critically about social commentary. It’s still a great story, the ending just didn’t speak to me the way it spoke to a lot of people. Oh well, better luck next time!