Ro is teetering on the edge; with her career, her mother, her best friend and her boyfriend (who just left on a mission to Mars). It’s been 15 years since her father went missing on a research trip in the Bering Vortex and she clings to the last ties of him by caring for the animals at the local aquarium. Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus, is the aquarium’s most popular exhibit and Ro’s one joy in life. As the aquarium careens into a financial crisis, a solution is presented when a private investor wants to purchase Dolores for his home aquarium. The thought of losing Dolores so soon after her boyfriend, sends Ro into a spiral and forces her to confront her childhood traumas and the failed relationships in her life.

Sea Change is a wonderfully written novel that handles difficult themes of grief, abandonment, and dysfunctional relationships. Ro is the kind of character that you simultaneously root for and pull your hair out at the decisions she makes. However, these flaws are what make her so relatable - we’ve all lost partners (maybe not to Mars… yet), jobs, parents, and our own identity as we navigate the murky waters of our thirties. We also loved the Korean American representation that Gina Chung brought to life in her novel. This creates a space for other women to identify with Ro and cultural nuances that aren’t typically seen in modern coming-of-age stories. As an OWC book club selection, we had the pleasure of discussing this book as a group AND we spoke to Gina Chung (She’s FABULOUS) for an author interview! We highly recommend this book and we can’t wait to share our conversation with y'all soon.

This is a compelling story of a woman named Ro who works at a mall aquarium and is dealing with the absence of her missing father. Her mother is estranged, her boyfriend is going to Mars, and her best friend is getting married. The one constant that has been in Ro’s life is a giant Pacific octopus named Dolores. Once Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor, Ro begins down a spiral contemplating her purpose in life.

There have been a spate of octopus books being published lately. Is Octopus Teacher the cause? I don't know but I've been tempted to try a lot of them. The cover on this book is certainly inviting.

But it's also misleading. If you are reading this book for the octopus, know that she is not a large part of the book. If you are reading this book because you are interested in the science fiction aspect (boyfriend leaving for Mars, the Bering Vortex where Ro's father disappeared and Dolores the octopus was found) you'll also be disappointed.

I read another review that called this book a "disaster girl" book and that's probably the most accurate assessment. Ro is a mess. Some of the book is her slouching through her current life doing as little as possible to get by, but most of it is stories about her past. Her parents' unhappy marriage, her cynical high school persona used to cover up insecurity, her inability to tell her boyfriend how she felt and her continued need for him to save her, that's the bulk of the book. It's another literary fiction book with science fiction trappings, and I'm getting awfully tired of those.

I enjoyed Sea Change although it reminded me a lot of Remarkably Bright Creatures. Lonely women connecting with old and intelligent octopus in an aquarium who has ties to a lost family member. It was different enough that I could still enjoy it but it was also close enough to Remarkably Bright Creatures (which I adored) that I was a bit offended that the author couldn’t try to be a bit more original.

This is going to be a DNF for me at about 40%. I was hoping that this would be mostly about the octopus and how climate change affected sea creatures.

Well up to 40% this is a really slow starter and really centers around Ro. This felt like an adult coming of age as Ro goes over and over her story and how is she going to cope with her boyfriend going to Mars!!

OK I admit I was hoping this would be at least a bit like Remarkably Bright Creatures -- it's not. The octopus story seemed like just an added part of the story and I couldn't relate to Ro at all.

I'm struggling to relate to how this is a 2023 highly anticipated book!!

Since I did not finish the book I will not be posting to any publishing sites. I will post to Goodreads.

Thank you NetGalley and Vintage for the ARC.

I wasnt sure what I was walking into with this book. It was clear that it was some form of coming to age but I didn't realize that it was a 'mid life crisis' type thing. It was hard to find Ro relatable when she just kept making bad decisions but I guess that's what happens when you're holding onto the trauma. I've had my fair share of trauma, I just didn't fall this far down the rabbit hole. The flashbacks of her parents arguing were hard to read from my own past of being a child of parents who fell put of love. It was relatable everything she talked about her mother nitpicking. It was nice when she finally was ready to let it go. I was yelling 'yaass girl' when she was finally leaving that place, even with no plan. It wasn't one of my favorite chick lits but it wrapped up very nicely.

Eerily similar to Remarkably Bright Creatures which I recently read and didn't particularly like. I liked this book more than that one! Working at an aquarium, Ro, and a giant octopus named Diane strike up an unlikely 'friendship'. They were introduced by Ro's father who has been missing for years.

This book isn't centered on the octopus like I was sort of hoping, but more so family, relationships, immigration and environmental protection.

This was such a wonderful book! Perfect book for a book club read. It's a great story! I'm looking forward to reading the next book she writes.

I wanted to like it more than I did in the end. It was an okay story. I couldn't really connect with Ro and I found the character development to be too slow. I guess I got really frustrated with her behavior and bad coping mechanisms and wanted to tell her to get her sh*t together. I also didn't like the ending. I felt it was too abrupt and open and I wanted more solutions and closure.
Some of the writing was beautiful but other times it felt a bit clunky.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read another novel with an octopus. This novel wasn’t as octopus centered as I hoped. I wasn’t very invested in Ro’s story, but perhaps it is because I had little in common with her. The writing itself was done well and overall I enjoyed the book.

Thirty-something Ro is feeling particularly down these days. Her boyfriend left her, her best friend is busy planning a wedding and she spends her days in a job with no future prospects and her nights drinking alone. The one bright spot in her days is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus that lives at the aquarium where she works. When the aquarium plans to sell Dolores to a private buyer, Ro is forced to face the prospect of life without her which inevitably leads to facing other issues in her life as well.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Some parts were beautifully written while others felt a bit clunky. I connected somewhat with the struggles the main character faces as a woman in her thirties but there wasn’t enough plot to really keep me interested. It felt like there was no substantial storyline, merely a brief snapshot of Ro’s day-to-day life that often wasn’t all that entertaining. I didn’t deeply dislike this book but I also can’t say I got much out of it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for the advance copy of this book.

What initially drew me in when reading the synopsis of this book was, you guessed it, the octopus. I just love friendships between humans and animals, and this one sounded very special. "Sea Change" is not a novel centering on this friendship, though. It is, in its core, a story about generational trauma, about the lived experience of immigrants (Asian-American in this case). Ro, our protagonist, works at an aquarium, where she tends to a giant octopus named Dolores. Her importance to Ro does not stem from the fact alone that they have developed a bond, but because it was her father who once introduced them to each other - a father that has been missing and presumed dead for years now, back when he chose a research mission over his family.

Chung writes beautifully and the emotion is raw, relatable. Still, the story never managed to really captivate me. I always wanted just a little more - a little more depth to some of the narrative beats, a little more world building regarding the environmental change that has already happened in the book, a little more of everything, really.

But I still gladly give this 4 stars. It's a thoughtful., well crafted novel about a woman stuck in her life, and I absolutely adored every single part of it that dealth with sea life, so there's that. Can definitely recommend.

2022 and 2023 have been the year of books with Octopuses as the main characters. However, Sea Change is definitely different than others there. It focuses more on Ro, who works at the local aquarium. Her boyfriend recently left her, she's estranged from her mother, and she is on the verge of losing her job at the aquarium. When she learns that the Giant Pacific Octopus, Dolores, is going to be sold to a private collector, it forces her to take a hard look at her life and what she wants.

While I felt like there were parts that were really slow, the overall story was good. I did enjoy it, and felt like the story had a strong ending.

Thank you Vintage Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

I recently read and loved Remarkably Bright Creatures and I have been wanting more. This book filled that big hole and I LOVED IT. At first, I honestly thought it sounded a little too similar, but after reading the Sea Change, they are completely different in the best way. This was such a good book and pulled me out of a little reading slump. I really look forward to reading more from this author!

Book Review! Sea Change by Gina Chung -

Gina Chung's debut novel is an inventive take on the "recently single woman tries to find herself after the breakup" trope—but this one adds some intriguing futuristic touches to the usual narrative.

Ro was just broken up with by her boyfriend Tae, who is going on a mission to colonize Mars. She finds comfort by spending time with Dolores, the grossly oversized octopus that's held at the mall aquarium where she works. Because of toxicity in the Bering Strait (now called the "Bering Vortex"), sealife like Dolores are adversely affected by the noxious chemicals in the water. Ro's father left his family repeatedly to travel to the Vortex and ended up disappearing on one of his trips when Ro was a teen.

Ro's coping mechanisms involve binge-drinking and shunning her best friend, whose upcoming marriage serves to amplify Ro's losses. Although Ro starts the novel on a self-destructive path, Chung wisely gives us glimpses into her childhood, where we see how her Korean-immigrants parents' dueling personalities and purposes caused them to neglect their daughter.

At times it felt like Ro's loss and self-loathing were so murky and suffocating that she would never find her way to the surface and overcome the depths of despair. Yet hope—and renewed purpose—do shine through a bit. This isn't a book that gives Ro easy answers or even an ending of complete closure. And some plot points felt too open-ended (Ro's habit of purposely drunk driving without consequence). Overall, though, I did like it and was absolutely compelled to read to the end. Chung has a distinct literary voice, and I'm intrigued about what story she'll tell next.

Sea Change
By Gina Chung
Pub Date: Mar 28, 2023
Vintage
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Not my favorite book. Topics included are inter generational trauma, immigrant stories and anti Asian rhetoric.
I became fatigued with Ro’s inability to heal. The ending was not powerful either.
3 stars

The story of Ro's friendship with Dolores, the giant Pacific octopus, is a heartwarming one, especially since it's her only connection with her missing science father, who had discovered and captured the octopus which now resides in the local aquarium.

I was a little disappointed when the story veers away from Ro's father never returning and her boyfriend leaving, perhaps forever, on a space exploration trip to Mars.

The novel includes Ro's friends and other young Korean Americans and their lives in the U.S. Their stories don't mesh with the story of Dolores, the giant Pacific Northwest octopus and the sadness of Ro's missing father.

The information about the octopus, its personality and its importance to Ro are the key parts of the novel although at least half of the book is devoted to Ro's other friends,.

Amazing book combining elements of climate change, relationship drama, family dynamics, and the pains of having to grow up and be an adult. Loved it and can't wait for @overeducatedwomenwithcats to interview Gina in just a few short weeks! Look for our interview and review in early May!

I think this book tries to recreated Remarkably Bright Creatures but falls short. I was bored and didn’t care for the jumping of timelines.


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

The following review was posted on my blog on Sunday, March 26th, two days before publication. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.



“(…) Then the image of Eriko snapping at her trainers and slamming into the other dolphins, all while continuing to circle her tank in tight, anxious spirals, comes to mind. I realize that the main difference between Eriko’s situation and mine is that she never had a choice in her entrapment, but I do. I don’t have to be stuck anymore.”

Genre: General Fiction
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Describes the disappearance or death of a parent, dysfunctional families, and racism. Discusses sexual content, but isn’t explicit.

“Sea Change” follows Aurora (Ro), a zookeeper at a mall aquarium, as she tries to find new meaning in life after a very special animal is set to be sold to a private investor. The aquarium Ro works at is aiming to financial ruin, so when some rich family asks to buy their giant Pacific octopus for a great sum of money, the aquarium declare said octopus sold. But this isn’t just any octopus—this is Dolores. Dolores was caught by Ro’s father in one of his expeditions before his research boat is lost at sea and him and his crew are presumed dead. Dolores is practically all Ro has left from her father, how can the aquarium sell her just like that? -queue tears-

I am going to be honest upfront: I’m completely biased when it comes to reviewing this book. I am a marine zoologist, how on Earth would I not love this? But now, hear me out, regular fiction usually bores (I need me some romance and spice, don’t judge me) so my hopes weren’t too high but oh wow, did I binged “Sea Change” in a span of 24 hours.

The concept of a vortex that’s so polluted and inhabitable that organisms started to adapt to it? Terrifying but not so far from what could actually happen. In the end, nature will always find a way, with or without us. Gina Chung’s debut novel was an ode to marine life but also a mystery exploring difficult family dynamics and a very unique character—Ro.

If you like general fiction reads and marine animals, and you’re looking for a book that’s a bit futuristic but in a possibly-realistic way, then don’t hesitate to grab “Sea Change.”

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Vintage in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: March 28, 2023