'Remarkably Bright Creatures' author talks writing beginnings, bestselling book, Netflix movie

May 12-Shelby Van Pelt wrote a lot of "Little House on the Prairie fan fiction" as a child, filling up notebooks of stories of traveling west in a wagon with her cats.

But, she grew up in Tacoma.

"You can't really go west in Washington state," she said.

She fell away from creative writing as a teen and did not try writing fiction again until her 30s when she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do in life.

She struck gold in 2022 with the publication of her first novel, "Remarkably Bright Creatures," spending more than 64 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and selling more than two million copies. The book's film adaptation premiered last week on Netflix and is a top-10 movie on the streaming platform.

Van Pelt spoke to a sold-out Spokesman-Review Northwest Passages Book Club crowd Tuesday night at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center at Gonzaga University.

The novel follows Tova Sullivan, who forms an unlikely friendship with Marcellus, a giant octopus at the Pacific Northwest aquarium where she works. Van Pelt said Tova, played by actress Sally Field, is inspired by her grandmother Anna, and the aquarium was fueled by her visits as a child to the Point Defiance aquarium in Tacoma.

Van Pelt said her grandmother loved to clean, taking jobs cleaning church basements and a community room at Pacific Lutheran University. Tova works as a night cleaner at the fictional Sowell Bay Aquarium in the book.

"I was very close to my grandmother," Van Pelt said.

She said the circumstances of Tova's life are fictional, but "a lot of my grandmother" is in her.

She said the movie's creative team lent Field's character an "uncanny" resemblance, from her hair to her clothing, to Van Pelt's grandmother. Van Pelt said it was like "seeing a ghost of my grandmother."

"They just nailed it," she said.

Van Pelt said Netflix told her in 2024 it wanted to finance a movie based on her novel and the "scrappy film started coming together." She said Field was on board to star in the film from the beginning.

"She read the book and loved it and wanted to be a part of it," Van Pelt said.

The author said she even has a cameo in the movie in the audience of an open-mic night at a bar scene.

With some of her family in the front row Tuesday, Van Pelt answered questions about her novel from Spokesman-Review managing editor Lindsey Treffry. Many audience members raised their hands signaling they read Van Pelt's book and saw the movie.

"Remarkably Bright Creatures" was one of the top five novels last year at the Spokane County Library District.

Many fans of the book fall in love with Marcellus. One man in the audience Tuesday told Van Pelt that, "I want more Marcellus" and "I need more Marcellus."

She said the most interesting fact she learned about octopuses is they have nine brains, including eight spread out in their arms, which can move each arm independently.

"It's almost like eight different organisms connected by the center," she said.

Van Pelt said she's been on a Netflix press tour for the movie the past two weeks and looks forward to returning to her family in the Midwest while continuing to write her next book. She provided audience members Tuesday with a sneak peek.

She said the novel, which is about halfway done, follows a "messy" family and a cat that inspires the journey the family goes on.

"They've been so much fun to write because they're such a disaster," Van Pelt said of the family.

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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 8:41 AM.