Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Books Similar to Remarkably Bright Creatures
Looking for books similar to Remarkably Bright Creatures? Shelby Van Pelt’s 2022 debut shouldn’t work on paper — a lonely widowed aquarium janitor solving a decades-old mystery with the help of a grumpy, secretly brilliant giant Pacific octopus — and yet it became a word-of-mouth phenomenon precisely because it takes its own premise completely seriously. Grief, loneliness, and the specific ache of an unfinished family story get real weight, even with a cephalopod narrator occasionally taking over the page.
This list stays in that same warm, slightly odd territory: unlikely friendships, eccentric protagonists the world has underestimated, small towns holding old secrets, and grief handled with humor rather than heaviness.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 books · Fiction & Book Club · Updated August 2026
Quick answerThe books most similar to Remarkably Bright Creatures are A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, for a grieving, difficult protagonist unexpectedly softened by unlikely connection, and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, for a lonely, socially unusual character whose interior warmth slowly surfaces. Both share the same book-club-favorite blend of humor, grief, and hard-won hope.
| Book | Genre | Closest to Remarkably Bright Creatures for |
|---|
| A Man Called Ove | Fiction, 2012 | A grieving, difficult protagonist softened by unlikely connection |
| Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine | Fiction, 2017 | A socially unusual narrator with hidden depth and grief |
| Lessons in Chemistry | Fiction, 2022 | An unconventional protagonist finding an unlikely family |
| The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry | Fiction, 2014 | Grief and connection built slowly in a small, specific community |
| The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry | Fiction, 2012 | An ordinary older protagonist on an unexpected journey of meaning |
| The Rosie Project | Fiction, 2013 | An odd, methodical narrator whose warmth surprises everyone |
| Convenience Store Woman | Fiction, 2016 | A protagonist who sees the world sideways from everyone else |
| Where’d You Go, Bernadette | Fiction, 2012 | An eccentric woman the world has underestimated |
| The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Fiction, 2008 | A small community’s collective warmth carrying a wounded outsider |
01
FictionA Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman · 2012
Ove is a rigid, rule-obsessed widower who’s given up on life and is planning to end it — until a chaotic young family moves in next door and, against his considerable resistance, pulls him back into a community he’d sealed himself off from. Like Remarkably Bright Creatures, it earns its warmth by taking real grief seriously first.
Both books use a prickly, isolated older protagonist and an unlikely relationship to get at the same idea: that connection can find you again even after you’ve stopped expecting it to.
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02
FictionEleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman · 2017
Eleanor lives an extremely regimented, isolated life, entirely convinced she’s fine, until an act of kindness toward a stranger opens a crack in her carefully maintained routine — revealing, slowly, the trauma underneath her rigid exterior and the possibility of real connection on the other side of it.
Both novels build their emotional payoff around a socially unusual protagonist whose defenses the reader is invited to see through before the character can see through them herself.
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03
FictionLessons in Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus · 2022
Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist repeatedly sidelined by 1960s sexism, ends up hosting a wildly popular cooking show where she teaches chemistry instead of recipes, building an unconventional found family — including her whip-smart daughter and an unusually perceptive dog — along the way.
Both books share a stubborn, unconventional protagonist, a found family that doesn’t look like anyone expected, and real emotional stakes handled with a light comic touch.
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04
FictionThe Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Gabrielle Zevin · 2014
A.J. Fikry, a grieving, curmudgeonly bookstore owner on a small island, finds a baby abandoned in his shop and, in raising her, is slowly pulled back into connection with the small community of customers, friends, and eventually love he’d shut himself off from after his wife’s death.
Same emotional architecture as Remarkably Bright Creatures: an isolated, grieving protagonist, an unlikely catalyst for connection, and a small community that turns out to be quietly holding them the whole time.
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05
FictionThe Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Rachel Joyce · 2012
Recently retired Harold Fry sets out to mail a letter to a dying former colleague and, on impulse, decides to walk the 600 miles to deliver it in person instead — a journey that becomes an unexpected reckoning with his marriage, his regrets, and a lifetime of things left unsaid.
Both novels use an ordinary older protagonist and an odd, out-of-character undertaking as the vehicle for genuine emotional reckoning, arriving at real feeling through a premise that sounds almost whimsical on paper.
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06
FictionThe Rosie Project
Graeme Simsion · 2013
Don Tillman, an autistic genetics professor, designs a rigorous scientific questionnaire to find the perfect wife, then meets Rosie — who fits none of his criteria and upends his entire methodical approach to life. The humor comes from Don’s precise, literal way of seeing the world; the heart comes from what Rosie reveals underneath it.
Like Tova and the octopus, this pairs an unconventional, systematic thinker with someone entirely unexpected, and finds real tenderness in a mind that processes the world differently than most fiction bothers to represent.
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07
Fiction · TranslatedConvenience Store Woman
Sayaka Murata · translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori · 2016
Keiko has worked the same Tokyo convenience store job for eighteen years, finding in its rigid rules and routines a comfort and clarity the rest of the world has never offered her — while everyone around her insists she should want something more conventional. A slim, sharp novel narrated by someone who genuinely sees the world sideways from everyone else.
Both books center a protagonist whose way of processing the world reads as strange to everyone around them, and both refuse to treat that difference as something that needs fixing rather than understanding.
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08
FictionWhere’d You Go, Bernadette
Maria Semple · 2012
Bernadette Fox, a once-brilliant architect turned reclusive, agoraphobic mother, vanishes just before a family trip to Antarctica — the mystery of where she’s gone, and why, is pieced together by her teenage daughter through emails, letters, and documents, revealing a woman the world had written off as merely eccentric.
Another portrait of a woman everyone around her has underestimated or misread, told with the same comic warmth Remarkably Bright Creatures brings to its own unlikely cast.
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09
Fiction · EpistolaryThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows · 2008
A London writer strikes up a correspondence with the residents of Guernsey, learning about the book club they formed during the German occupation of the island in World War II — and slowly falls in love with the tight-knit, quirky community that emerges through their letters.
Both books build their warmth from a small, specific community of unlikely people brought together by circumstance, letting genuine grief and genuine humor sit right next to each other throughout.
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Frequently asked questions about books like Remarkably Bright Creatures
What book is most similar to Remarkably Bright Creatures?
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman is the most commonly recommended comparison, sharing a grieving, difficult protagonist who’s unexpectedly softened by an unlikely relationship. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is the other frequent match, for a socially unusual narrator whose hidden warmth slowly surfaces.
What should I read if I liked Remarkably Bright Creatures?
The best books to read if you liked Remarkably Bright Creatures are: A Man Called Ove (grief softened by unlikely connection), Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (hidden depth behind social unusuality), Lessons in Chemistry (an unconventional protagonist and found family), The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (small-community warmth), and The Rosie Project (an unconventional mind seen with real tenderness).
Is Remarkably Bright Creatures based on a true story?
No, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a work of fiction. Author Shelby Van Pelt has said she was inspired by real research into octopus intelligence and by volunteering experiences at aquariums, but the specific characters and plot are invented.
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