We meet Ro at a time of personal crisis, she’s at the lowest point in her life; she’s never recovered from her father having gone missing when she was a teen, her boyfriend has abandoned her for a new life on Mars, she drinks way too much, and Dolores a giant octopus who she takes care of at the aquarium (and the only bond left with her father who found Dolores) is being sold to a Palo Alto tech billionaire (maybe not billionaire but super wealthy).

Ro, a first-generation child of Korean immigrants, has been stuck in the same rut for years. She has the same best friend she’s had since first grade, she lives in the same town, and she works at the same aquarium where her father worked so she can care for the giant octopus her father brought back from his research trip from a mystical Bermuda triangle-type place (the same place from where he goes missing). I did find her character hard to connect with to be honest (she just wasn’t getting her life together, wasn't allowing good things happen or getting help when offered – it was a bit frustrating). At first you feel bad that her boyfriend and best friend are gone but later the book later reveals, she has allowed the situations to occur. Ro is so scared of getting close with people that she’s closest with an octopus who shows her present emotions in her skin colors (e.g. if she’s in a playful mood she’s orange, if she’s mad she’s red etc.) so Ro always knows how she feels about her in the moment.

Why I did like the book (and it really isn’t another Remarkable Bright Creatures just because there is another octopus) was that there was some great writing. There are also some funny concepts and really it’s a book about learning how to deal with loss (maybe a little childhood trauma) and moving on in your life the best way you can. In the end, I enjoyed taking the journey with Ro.

Thank you to Netgalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Vintage for the chance to review.

Ro is stuck in a vicious cycle of self-sabotage and self-hatred due to past trauma. Her social life is crumbling: her boyfriend Tae and her break up because he has been chosen for a mission on Mars, her mother and her have a complicated relationship, her best friend barely speaks to her; while the only being she has conversations with is Dolores, the octopus from the local aquarium she works at. Dolores and the aquarium are what keep Ro connected to her father who disappeared years ago.

I saw many people link this book to ‘My year of Rest and Relaxation’ by Moshfegh, and even though I have not read that book I can see how thematically both might be similar as Chung focuses on developing a character that is destructive and lost.

I especially enjoyed the focus on difficult family dynamics and intergenerational trauma from an immigrant perspective. The structure of going back and forth between the present and the past brought so much insight into who Ro is as a person; I also enjoyed how Chung included climate change issues into this story.

What I felt was missing, which is linked to my own personal taste and the expectations I had for this book, is more of Dolores. The cover made me excited for a story revolving around an octopus, and even though she was Ro’s only connection to her father, she was not mentioned enough.

Quotes I enjoyed:

“It seems to me incredibly cruel that no matter how much has been taken from you, you never get used to the dizzying shock of losing something you love, the dull, crushing ache of it afterward. There’s no way to rehearse for heartbreak, no matter how much you might walk around expecting it.”

“I’ve often wished that human bodies were as clever as octopuses. If we could divvy up the work of one heart among three, if we could have a semiautonomous brain in each of our appendages, perhaps we’d be more efficient with our time, less likely to waste it on grudges and hurts and all the things we feel we can’t say to one another.”

“I used to count all the ways that I had been good in a given week. I gave myself points for everything I’d managed to get done without having to be asked, like making my bed or clearing the table or finishing all my homework before dinner. On Saturday nights, I’d add up all the points on respite cards I made for myself, to determine how much I should have been loved that week.”

“Love was paring myself down, again and again, until I was smooth as a block of new marble, ready to become whatever the next one needed me to be.”

I loved this!! A thoughtful, tender look at family and loss, and forgiveness for both ourselves and others. Ro is charming and flawed and deeply relatable, and I was rooting for her from page 1. And the flashbacks to her family and past build a compelling character study that shows how the ramifications of our actions and our clashes with one another can build over time. Cant wait to see this on shelves

While I enjoyed Sea Change overall, it definitely reads like a first novel. There was a lack of world-building and character development that seemed to be more stagnant than not. It's a promising debut but ultimately left me dissatisfied.

Weirdly this book won me over precisely *because* (not despite) the various threads it sets up don't lead to particularly grand plot revelations -- Tae's trip to Mars, Ro's relationship with the octopus, the missing father -- and instead everything feels like it's constantly in motion in a consistent, gradual sort of way. It's all calmer and simpler than I would have expected, having a subtle effect. That extends to its use of sci-fi: I love that it takes place in a world virtually unchanged compared to our own, allowing something like a human trip to Mars to seem essentially mundane, or at least no less mundane than the beauty that can be found on Earth, like tiny organisms lighting up the shore.

What a beautiful first novel. Gina Chung's Sea Change is about Aurora (Ro), who lives in a somewhat nebulous near future where climate change has accelerated and perhaps led to mutations in sea creatures, including Dolores, the Giant Pacific Octopus that Ro cares for at the aquarium where she works. Dolores is one of Ro's only remaining links to her father, who disappeared years ago and whose fate is entirely unknown. She is also dealing with her boyfriend leaving her to join a mission to Mars, a mother she has a hard time connecting with, and a best friend who seems to be more interested in her job and upcoming wedding than anything else. So when Ro is told that Dolores is being sold to a billionaire, she is sent spinning a bit.

This one is not for my plot girlies. It is a story of interiority and growth and self-reflection. We get chapters set in the past, where we get to see glimpses of Ro's life with her dad before he was gone. We see how the catastrophizing, always expecting the worst, has led to her feeling stuck in her life. There are moments of this book that are so heartbreaking in their relatability. Sea Change is about the strength of inertia, loneliness, and especially grief - grief over a loss, grief about the unknown, grief of the life you thought you would have. Gorgeous and affecting. I can't wait to see what else we get from Gina Chung.

cw: depression, miscarriage

This forthcoming novel reminded me of several I’ve read before—Rachel Khong’s Goodbye, Vitamin; Weike Wang’s Chemistry; and Alexandra Chang’s Days of Distraction. It doesn’t have a propulsive plot—it’s focused much more on a melancholic interiority. Ro, the protagonist, is working at the same New Jersey aquarium that her father did before he disappeared on a research trip to the Bering Vortex years ago. Her boyfriend, Tae, has just left her to go on a Mars mission. Her longtime best friend, Yoonhee, has recently gotten promoted in the aquarium’s development department and is happily engaged; the two are beginning to drift. And it’s Yoonhee who tells her that Dolores, the beloved octopus Ro’s father had discovered and brought to the aquarium, is to be sold to a private buyer.

Over the course of this novel, Ro has to confront her feelings of stuckness: stop drinking, believe that her father really is gone, mend her relationship with her mother, reconcile with Yoonhee. She has to untangle the complexities of her parents’ relationship, wondering how it, and her father’s professional barriers and need to please as an immigrant, have affected her. I personally wanted more octopus content, which is about me and not a criticism—just know that this is not really an octopus story. It’s a nuanced coming-of-age narrative about a thirtysomething who’s still unpacking childhood trauma; who’s underwater and coming up, at the end, for air.

Ro is stuck in a quarterlife crisis. Although her father disappeared years ago, she is still grieving his loss as she has never been able to accept his absence. Her life is held together by very fine thread only and it doesn't take much to make it all fall apart. The only thing that brings her some kind of joy is caring for Dolores, the last specimen of the Pacific Octopus on earth. If you are a diver like me, you'll know that there a many Pacific Octopuses left, but the story takes place in a not so far away future, where our planet has taken some more backlash and species have disappeared. And I give absolute kudos to the author to manage to make an octopus a believable character !

The main themes in the book are obviously grief and its consequences, and displacement in all its forms. It's about Ro's parents who left Korea for the US to carve out a better life, without really knowing what that means. It's Dolores who has been fished out of the poisonous Bering Vortex and put in an aquarium tank. It's Tae - Ro's boyfriend - who will leave Earth and try to colonize Mars. These themes have been written in an easy but beautiful prose and it made me understand and sympathize with Ro instantly.

This book has left a little dent in my heart and Ro and Dolores are characters that will linger for a long time. The next time I'll meet eye to eye with an octopus in the wild, I'm sure I'll think back to both of them.

A heartfelt thank you to NetGalley, the publisher Vintage and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this #ownvoices debut coming of age story that follows Korean American Ro as she struggles with depression following a breakup with her boyfriend Tae and increasing job dissatisfaction. Ro works at an aquarium and has a deep connection to the long-time resident Dolores, a giant pacific octopus who has ties to her long-missing father.

I found Ro really relatable as she struggles with drinking and making connections. She grew up in a household with unhappy parents and doesn't have a lot of faith in love. Her best friend is also not around as much as she plans her wedding leaving Ro more and more alone with her negative thoughts.

Recommended for fans of Remarkably bright creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (another book set in an aquarium that features a giant pacific octopus). Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary audio copy in exchange for my honest review! Gina Chung is definitely an author I'll be looking forward to reading whatever she writes next.

For some the octopus on the cover will be a draw and for others a hindrance. I have already heard friends bemoan a book that seems similar to Remarkably Bright Creatures. So let me get this out of the way: it’s nothing like RBC. Yes, there is a (mutant) octopus but this book is moreso a later in life coming of age as well as an immigrant story. Ro, a Korean America woman who works in an aquarium, is our heroine and we find her life spiraling out of control. Her boyfriend has left her, her relationship with her family is frayed, her BFF is abt to get married (sending her into a shame spiral) and now her only “friend”, Dolores the octopus is getting sold to a bajillionaire. We flash back to Ro’s dysfunctional childhood and there were so many heartbreaking moments but also moments of relatability. I found the writing beautiful and I was so captivated by Ro’s story and the way her childhood affected her later on. Her relationship with her mom, dad and even her best friend were so well formed and I loved all of their interactions. I definitely recommend this to those that like coming of age, fish out of water (sorry, yes, pun) and immigrant stories. I alternated listening to this one too and the audio is fantastic.

I readily admit that I first picked up this book because I was captivated by the image of the octopus on the cover. This book however, is not about the octopus but more about the complicated life of the main character. I enjoyed this book, even though it was not what I had expected.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Sea Change very much falls into the "sad girl lit fic" category that others such as My Last Innocent Year, Thirst for Salt, and Queenie belong in. We follow Aurora, or Ro, a thirty-year-old Korean American who is struggling with feelings of being stuck in a dead-end job and reeling from a lack of closure over her father's disappearance on a research trip for work when she was 15. Her ex-boyfriend has been chosen for the first mission to Mars, in which Earth will intend to establish a colony. Her best friend just got engaged to her dream man and is planning a wedding. Meanwhile, Ro works at the aquarium her father worked at and cares for Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus her father brought back during one of his work trips. She is also tip-toeing around her relationship with her mother, which has been dysfunctional for as long as she can remember.

If you're looking for a unique plot, I don't think you'll really find one here. This follows the typical story arc for the books I've read that are similar to it, but our main character is Korean American, which I appreciated. It's character-driven, and slow-paced, understated in what it has to say, but written very well. I enjoyed the commentary on relationships in general as she explored the dysfunctional relationship between her parents, her friendships, and her romantic partnership, and how the trauma she experienced as a child and teen affected the ways she approached each.

The main reason I docked it half a star is because of the way the book went back and forth between the present day and the past. It was fine, and the past influenced the things we learned about the present, but sometimes it got a little long-winded or meandering when I felt it could have been tighter.

Overall though, I'm glad I read it. Thank you to Vintage Books and NetGalley for giving me advanced reader access to this in exchange for an honest review. Sea Change by Gina Chung publishes on March 28, 2023.

The beautiful cover of Sea Change by Gina Chung had me excited to dive into a story about an octopus and its handler. I found the book to be engaging at the beginning, when much of the focus was on Ro's interactions at the aquarium where she is employed.

Unfortunately, the deep dive ended up being into the misery of Ro's life. Despite the fact that her father disappeared many years ago, Ro lets his memory and her mom's judgemental ways dictate her life decisions. Her insecurities along with her alcoholism and general disregard for other people's feelings make for a rather dreary story, particularly in the middle of the book.

By the end of the book, the story picked up some and redeemed itself to a degree. I could see the author's talent come through the fog of the story's depressed tone. I really wanted to like this one more than I did. Ro's unwillingness to take steps to improve her life went on too long and kept me from rooting for her in the end.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Sea Change, by Gina Chung, is about Dolores, a giant octopus in captivity, and about Ro, who cares for Dolores while everything else in her life falls apart. This is a terribly relatable story about being stuck and being aimless at the same time.

Dolores was an amazing almost-character, because who doesn’t love a story about a giant octopus? But Dolores is also a connection to Ro’s childhood and her father. Her father was an adventurous marine biologist, who once worked at the same aquarium. He brought Dolores back from an expedition to the Bering Vortex, a dangerous environmental phenomena that helped mutate Dolores to a giant with a massive lifespan. (Something something toxic waste, I think.) The Bering Vortex is also where Ro’s father disappeared on a research expedition a few years later.

Ro’s settled into a repetitive, low-level job at the local aquarium. She does a lot of cleaning and menial work for an underwhelming boss, but she gets to see Dolores at work. Besides, work isn’t a career or a calling, it’s just how Ro funds her drinking. Most of it’s solo drinking, too, which serves to highlight how isolated she is..
When Ro learns that Dolores the octopus will be sold to a billionaire’s private aquarium, she feels like she’s losing her only friend and only connection to her dad. The self-destructive, introspective spiral that follows is — again — so terribly relatable. Ro must examine and reexamine her childhood, her choices, her family, her relationships and her future possibilities, although she does most of this through a haze of alcohol first.

With the mutant octopus and mission to Mars, this seems like a scifi world, but it’s really just our own world. Sea Change is a novel about loneliness and self-destruction, a coming-of-age in which the promising teen protag is replaced with an angry and isolated heavy drinker. Ro cannot redo her past choices, none of us can, but she’s not as trapped as she felt. I just loved reading a coming-of-age that wasn’t wildly optimistic, but still showed a turning point, Ro’s personal sea change.

I was drawn to this book as I try to read everything about octopuses. My favorite animal, I strive to learn more about them as well as daydream about having a job where I would get to study them. It’s weird that this book has come out so soon after Remarkably Bright Creatures, as both books are so similar. Both books feature a female protagonist who is abandoned by those she loves through tragedy or circumstance, and end up finding solace and wisdom in the presence of an octopus at their workplace. Sea Change is beautifully written. I screenshot one page and sent to some friends because I was in awe of the sentiment and the writing. What is uncomfortable is Ro’s pain. Her father disappears on a research trip when she was a teen, and the man she is in love with leaves her to join a inaugural trip to experimentally colonize Mars. Never close with her mom, and alienated by her best friend, she is truly alone. She turns to alcohol and self-loathing to numb her pain and I found these passages hard. But the writing in this book is excellent. Although the facts far-fetched, (Giant Pacific Octopuses only live a fraction of the time they do as portrayed in this book) once I suspended my disbelief and just enjoyed the story, I was better off. If you enjoyed RBC, I think you will like this one too.

My favorite parts of this book always felt a tad out of focus, but I think some of what you find frustrating about reading it is meant to be what you find frustrating about real life as well. Some people prefer to leave that at home, some will relish in it. Not a book to be judged by the cover, but a good book nevertheless. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity with this title.

I was expecting a re-make of "Remarkably Bright Creatures" but this wasn't it. I did like Ro's story and her struggles with her family and her identity. She was a mess but I appreciated her character.

This was such a good story. I think it will be a book club pick for many. Highly recommend this one!

Some of you won't like this. There's just something so inherently similar about the immigrant experience and generational trauma that I relate to so well with various Asian American stories.

Ro and her boyfriend Tae have broken up. He is preparing for a mission on Mars. She is stuck in a rut working at the aquarium that houses Dolores, the octopus her father once found. Dolores is the only thing that brings her joy. As an aside, her father is also missing. Her mother seems to have moved on.

Ro has a bit of a drinking problem. Her apartment is sloppy. She has let go of most ties to family and friends. She is in a bit of a rut. Does she seem unlikeable? Yes. Do I also empathize with her situation greatly? Also yes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

<i>Many thanks to NetGalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This is one of those novels that is really hard for me to rate, and I'm settling on 3 and 1/2, rounded down to 3. I enjoyed reading it; I found it relatable on many points; the writing was good; the characters felt complex and real enough to me... and yet. It was a thoughtful novel about growing up but not much more than that, which tends to be a common issue for me with most literary fiction novels.

The story is set either in a maybe-not-so-distant future or in a soft-balled dystopia - one where the disasters of climate change are nearing an irreversible point and humankind is on the brink of colonizing Mars. This is the setup for the three main things that upend Ro's life: her father's disappearance 15 years ago in the fictional "Bering Vortex", a highly polluted zone of the Pacific ocean; the upcoming sale of Dolores, a giant octopus born in that zone that, due to pollution, is more fantastical than your regular giant Pacific octopus; and Ro's ex boyfriend's upcoming expedition to Mars. And in that sense, the setting is important: both Ro's father and boyfriend have gone to a place Ro can't follow. But it's also... not that important, nor does it have any bearing on the rest of the story. Her father could have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle or the Mariana Trench, and her boyfriend could have gone on to live in a colony in the South Pole or joined a cult to a similar effect, and regular octopuses are still pretty damn rad.

So, Ro is struggling with abandonment on multiple fronts. Here are some bits that hit me hard (I enjoyed):

- The complicated relationship between Ro's parents and how it shapes Ro's understanding of herself and her relationships, her feeling that nothing good can last, her fear and discomfort at expressing love and need because it was so sparingly expressed in words to her (LOVED the reference to 10cc's "I'm not in love").

- Ro struggling with the fact that her mother's choices could have been different if she hadn't gotten pregnant with Ro, wondering if things wouldn't have been better for everyone if she hadn't been born, and feeling cheated because all she ever wanted to do was talk to her mother, and when her mother wants to let her in, Ro has too much resentment to react anything but poorly.

- All of this congealing into a feeling of inadequacy in her romantic relationships, a fear that she'll turn out just like her parents, that she can't let another person really see her because then they'll see the worst of her, too, that it's better to just let go.

Like, geez, was this written specifically for me??

While I enjoyed all of these things and even more -the way Ro decides to move forward with her life and her existing relationships, the animal facts- I also am left wanting more. More answers, more world-building development/purpose (since the author chose to use this setting and it is labelled as fantasy), more twists...

But again, I understand this is what literary fiction is like in general and that I'll always be expecting more than the genre is able to give me. it's certainly a well-written, thoughtful book that makes for an interesting (if somewhat gloomy) read.