4-4.5 Heartwarming and heartbreaking. And oh so annoying - because you see the twist in the story very early and even when it is revealed, the protagonists remain unaware or just plain ignorant and you want to SCREAM at them but also at the author because she is torturing you for dragging out the story so much. Well, sometimes it obviously takes an obnoxious octopus to help them along a bit. There’s nothing especially new or groundbreaking about this novel, even if it’s the first one I read where a cephalopod simultaneously is a somewhat omniscient narrator and Deus Ex Machina in the storyline - this protagonist should have been featured even more. And the story certainly has its weaknesses, even if sometimes only minor, like stereotypical characters and a few somehow incomprehensible plotlines (not to say plot holes). Still, and in no small part thanks to Marcellus, it is a effortless and highly enjoyable read, with overall lovely characters, whose struggles you mostly might empathize or even relate with, and I highly recommend it when you are looking for a pageturner which doesn’t leave you with bitterness.

3.5⭐ What a cute and heartwarming story. It took me a longer time than I expected to finish this book but that was just because I listened to the audiobook and those usually take me a bit longer. So it had nothing with the story which I thought was really good. The reason I picked this book up is because the premise is so unique. I mean a friendship between an older woman and an octopus??? How cool is that?! And yes it was very cool, but not just that it was also soo sweet how Tova, the main character, cared for Marcellus, the octopus. What I also thought was really was that we had chapters in between were Marcellus tells us his view on the story and I liked to see how he tries to help unsolve "the mystery" out of love and friendship for Tova. I also really liked the development of the other main character Cameron and I was really happy for him at the end of the book. So was it the greatest book of all time no. But I think this is an important about family and friendship and also dealing with grief which made me like this story a lot.

4-4.5 Heartwarming and heartbreaking. And oh so annoying - because you see the twist in the story very early and even when it is revealed, the protagonists remain unaware or just plain ignorant and you want to SCREAM at them but also at the author because she is torturing you for dragging out the story so much. Well, sometimes it obviously takes an obnoxious octopus to help them along a bit. There’s nothing especially new or groundbreaking about this novel, even if it’s the first one I read where a cephalopod simultaneously is a somewhat omniscient narrator and Deus Ex Machina in the storyline - this protagonist should have been featured even more. And the story certainly has its weaknesses, even if sometimes only minor, like stereotypical characters and a few somehow incomprehensible plotlines (not to say plot holes). Still, and in no small part thanks to Marcellus, it is a effortless and highly enjoyable read, with overall lovely characters, whose struggles you mostly might empathize or even relate with, and I highly recommend it when you are looking for a pageturner which doesn’t leave you with bitterness.

This novel features Marcellus, a gigantic octopus that narrates a tragic, but ultimately heart-warming and endearing story about humankind, family and love. Synthesising animal love and the pragmatism of a female protagonist from the nordics, the story inevitably became tragicomical that made me sad, happy and hopeful at the same time. Looking forward to visiting an aquarium soon to observe octopuses