Book Review: "Sea Change" by Gina Chung

One of my goals for 2025 is to read more books I own. Like many of you, I’m sure, I have lots of books at home that often get passed over for shiny new things, so I’m definitely going to try and shop from my stacks a bit more.

When I bought Sea Change, I’ll admit I was drawn in by the octopus on the cover. I was still riding the high of loving Remarkably Bright Creatures, so I was looking forward to another story about a relationship between the main character and an octopus.

I was wrong.

Ro’s life isn’t going the way she thought it would as she entered her 30s. Her boyfriend broke up with her to train for a space mission to Mars, her always-prickly relationship with her mother has grown into estrangement, and she probably has a drinking problem. The one thing that brings her solace is her job at an aquarium in the mall.

Ro enjoys spending time with Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus. She feels that Dolores gets her, plus the octopus was one of the last things her marine biologist father found before he disappeared on a trip when Ro was in high school.

When the aquarium sells Dolores to a wealthy private investor, Ro goes into emotional freefall. She misses her boyfriend even though she wasn’t the best girlfriend, she barely speaks to her childhood best friend, and she doesn’t know how to pick herself up and pull her life together.

This was a depressing book, and Ro isn’t the most sympathetic of characters. The book jumps around in time a lot, and other than Ro’s brief time with Dolores, there wasn’t much in the book that really grabbed me.

Book Review: "Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby Van Pelt

This is an absolutely fantastic, beautiful story about friendship, family, and second chances.

I love when a book is even better than I hoped it would be. That’s definitely the case with this one!

After Tova’s husband dies, she starts working as a cleaner at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Her friends think she’s crazy, a woman of her age doing that kind of work, but it gives her a sense of purpose, and it keeps her from mourning her husband as well as her son Erik, who disappeared one night more than 30 years ago and was presumed drowned.

Tova strikes up a most unlikely friendship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living in the aquarium. Marcellus is smarter and more resourceful than anyone realizes, and he starts to take a liking to Tova too, in his own way.

Little by little, Marcellus starts to realize a secret that’s been kept hidden for years, and he’s determined to help Tova discover the answers she’s been seeking. But it will require every bit of cunning he has left—and could endanger his life.

I didn’t think another non-human character would touch me more than Six-Thirty from Lessons in Chemistry, but Marcellus was amazing. I really enjoyed so many of the characters in this book. It’s the kind of story that will make me look at aquatic creatures a little closer the next time I’m at the aquarium!