Author | Shelby Van Pelt |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Fiction |
Publisher | Ecco |
Publication date | May 3, 2022 |
Publication place | United States |
Pages | 368 |
ISBN | 9780063204157 |
Remarkably Bright Creatures is a novel by American author Shelby Van Pelt. It was published in May 2022 by Ecco Press. It has been on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list multiple times. [1]
It was awarded the 2023 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize by the Writer's Center. [2]
Remarkably Bright Creatures is a story of the friendship between Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus, and Tova, a widow who cleans at the aquarium where Marcellus lives. [1]
The book was a resounding success, reportedly selling over two million copies and going through 30 reprintings since its 2022 debut. [3]
According to Book Marks, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on seven critic reviews: three "rave", three "positive", and one "mixed". [4] [5]
A film based on the novel has been commissioned by streaming service Netflix, with actress Sally Field reportedly set to star as titular character Tova Sullivan. The film is to be directed by Olivia Newman, and produced by Anonymous Content. [6] [3]
An octopus is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda. The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like other cephalopods, an octopus is bilaterally symmetric with two eyes and a beaked mouth at the centre point of the eight limbs. The soft body can radically alter its shape, enabling octopuses to squeeze through small gaps. They trail their eight appendages behind them as they swim. The siphon is used both for respiration and for locomotion, by expelling a jet of water. Octopuses have a complex nervous system and excellent sight, and are among the most intelligent and behaviourally diverse of all invertebrates.
Shedd Aquarium is an indoor public aquarium in Chicago. Opened on May 30, 1930, the 5 million US gal aquarium holds about 32,000 animals and is the third largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere, after the Georgia Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The Seattle Aquarium is a public aquarium in Seattle, Washington, United States, located on Pier 59 on the Elliott Bay waterfront. The aquarium opened in 1977 and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi, and starred Paul Terry as James. The film is a combination of live action and stop-motion animation. Joanna Lumley and Miriam Margolyes played James's self-absorbed Aunts Spiker and Sponge, respectively, with Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Jane Leeves, Susan Sarandon and David Thewlis, as well as Margolyes, voicing his insect friends in the animation sequences.
James and the Giant Peach is a children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The first edition, published by Alfred Knopf, featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. There have been re-illustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael Simeon, Emma Chichester Clark, Lane Smith and Quentin Blake. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1996 which was directed by Henry Selick, and a musical in 2010.
Cephalopod intelligence is a measure of the cognitive ability of the cephalopod class of molluscs.
References to the fictional kraken are found in film, literature, television, and other popular culture forms.
The Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) is a privately owned aquarium in Hillarys, Western Australia. Located approximately 20 km (12 mi) north-west of Perth City, it is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike.
Jeanne Villepreux-Power, born Jeanne Villepreux, was a pioneering French marine biologist, described by English biologist Richard Owen as the "Mother of Aquariophily." In 1832 she was the first person to invent and create aquaria for experimenting with aquatic organisms. The systematic application of the aquarium to study marine life which she created is still used today. As a leading researcher on cephalopods, she proved that the Argonauta argo produces its own shells, as opposed to acquiring them. Villepreux-Power was also a noted dressmaker, author and conservationist, as well as the first female member of the Accademia Gioenia di Catania in 1832.
Tentacles is a 1977 horror-thriller film directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis and starring John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins, Cesare Danova, Delia Boccardo and Henry Fonda.
Sally Nicholls is a prize-winning British children's book author.
The kraken is a legendary sea monster of enormous size, per its etymology something akin to a cephalopod, said to appear in the sea between Norway and Iceland. It is believed that the legend of the Kraken may have originated from sightings of giant squid, which may grow to 12–15 m in length.
Cephalopod attacks on humans have been reported since ancient times. A significant portion of these attacks are questionable or unverifiable tabloid stories. Cephalopods are members of the class Cephalopoda, which includes all squid, octopuses, cuttlefish, and nautiluses. Some members of the group are capable of causing injury or death to humans.
Sy Montgomery is an American naturalist, author, and scriptwriter who writes for children as well as adults.
Sally Rooney is an Irish author and screenwriter. She has published four novels: Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021), and Intermezzo (2024). The first two were adapted into the television miniseries Normal People (2020) and Conversations with Friends (2022).
The Overstory is a novel by Richard Powers published in 2018 by W. W. Norton & Company. It is Powers' twelfth novel. The book is about nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forests. Powers was inspired to write the work while teaching at Stanford University, after he encountered giant redwood trees for the first time.
The 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, honoring the best achievements in film and television performances for the year 2022, were presented on February 26, 2023, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, California. The ceremony streamed live on Netflix's YouTube channel, starting at 8:00 p.m. EST / 5:00 p.m. PST. The nominees were announced on January 11, 2023, by Ashley Park and Haley Lu Richardson via Instagram Live.
Meg: Hell's Aquarium is a 2009 science fiction horror novel by American author Steve Alten. It is the sequel to Meg: Primal Waters and the fourth book in the MEG series. Described by Alten as "the pinnacle of the series", the novel continues the adventure of Jonas Taylor and his family, as his son David, hired as a handler for two megalodons (megs) being sold to a royal prince of Dubai, is tricked into overseeing an expedition to capture a Liopleurodon (Lio) from the remains of the Panthalassa, while Jonas, Terry, and Dani deal with a terrorist group seeking to unleash the remaining megs unto the oceans of the world. The novel's audiobook was narrated by Keith Szarabajka, with Lana Wood, a self-professed fan of the series, licensing her image for Alten to write in a fictionalised version of herself, promoting the novel then-after, Alten attributing the novel's delay to the development hell of The Meg.
Shelby Van Pelt is an American writer from Tacoma, Washington. Her debut novel Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022) has been on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list multiple times.
Sea Change is a 2023 debut novel by American writer Gina Chung, published by Vintage.