Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

NetGalley is a digital platform that provides book people with FREE advance reading copies (ARCs) of books yet to be released in exchange for a review written and posted on their site, on Goodreads, on Amazon, on your own social media. Sometimes you are offered a book, but more often you request a book that sounds interesting to you or is by an author that you follow. Sometimes your request is granted, and sometimes it is not. Publishers get to choose who gets approved and who is denied.

That approval system is based upon your track record, your stats, on how many books you have requested and received compared to how many of those books you have read and reviewed. This stat is in the form of a percentage, and it is posted right next to your name in your profile. The higher the percentage, the more likely you are to be approved for books you request. NetGalley is very upfront about this. They say in black and white that the “recommended feedback ratio is 80%.”

For the record, I have been a member of NetGalley since 2017 and my current feedback ratio is 75%. I have been approved for 136 books and have given feedback on 102 of them. Some just got away from me time wise before they were archived, especially when I was teaching full time. I had a lot of essays to grade and books to read for my literature classes I was teaching. The archiving of books occurs shortly after their publication date, after which you will have to get your own copy if you want to read it.

As a result of my never-ending attempt to reach the golden 80%, I sometimes request lesser known books, debut novels by new writers, nonfiction that is targeted at a certain niche audience, and children’s picture books. In order to be approved for big hitters like Elizabeth Strout or Anne Tyler or Ann Napolitano or (God forbid) Richard Osman, I request and read and review some books that I otherwise would never have picked up from a library shelf or a bookstore. Those books I call my “stretch books,” books in genres like romance, thrillers, and fantasy.

Last night I finished one of my stretch books. The White Octopus Hotel (Del Rey/Penguin, October, 2025) by Alexandra Bell is a book that defies genre classification. Historical fiction? WWI France and a Belle Epoque Swiss hotel, check. Realistic fiction? London, 2015, art appraiser, check. Magical realism? Octopus tattoo, whose normal placement is on the main character’s thigh, moves around her body at will, check. Time travel? Main character Eve Shaw bounces around chapter to chapter between 1992, 1917-1918, 1934-1935, 2006-2007, and present day in the novel 2015-2016, all by virtue of a set of antique metal keys bearing a 3D octopus swirled into the design, check.

And, by the way, the octopus is having a moment. They seem to be everywhere. In the news, in movies, in books, on merch. My favorite podcast, Currently Reading, hosted by Kaytee Cobb and Meredith Monday Schwartz, is in its 7th season. New episodes drop every Monday. They discuss all things bookish and the two hosts are charming and well-spoken, well-read, well…they are awesome. And, Kaytee is obsessed with octopuses. Kaytee, if you read this, you NEED to read this book!

Okay, so how do I feel about The White Octopus Hotel? I enjoyed it, and yes, it was a stretch for me. I like magical realism in small spurts, like Evie Woods’ beautiful book, The Lost Bookshop. So, this was a whole lot of magical realism. The main setting, the White Octopus Hotel, is a master class in magical realism. Things aren’t what they seem. Rooms aren’t where they should be. Whole floors of the hotel appear and disappear at odd times of the day and night. The key to all of it (see what I did there?) is this set of antique metal keys, all for rooms containing the number 7.

Eve Shaw, the female main character, is a young woman carrying a huge burden, a permanent backpack of sorrow that she can never fully free herself from. She would give anything, anything at all, to go back in time and fix something horrible that happened, something that was her fault. This desire consumes her very being, it is part of her every day, all day, no matter where she is or what she is doing. It is palpable. Bell did an excellent job of expressing this through her prose.

The male main character, Max Everly, also carries a similar burden, a moment in time that he can’t shake loose. He is so weighed down by this horrible incident he loses what makes him special and in a way, he loses what has the potential to make him immortal.

Bell’s treatment of Everly reminds me of the story that Ray Bradbury frequently told. When he was a young boy, a circus performer came to his town, tapped him on both shoulders and on the tip of his nose, and said, “Live, forever!”

Now, we all know that is impossible, although Bradbury lived to the age of 91, and Bradbury himself even knew he couldn’t live forever in the traditional sense. So right there and then, at the age of 12, he decided to become a writer, so he would live forever through his books, through the written word. And, indeed, Ray Bradbury’s books continue to keep him alive to this very day.

The White Octopus Hotel is a wild ride of a book. From the first few chapters I kept thinking that this book would make a great movie. Present (or almost) day London, the trenches of WWI France, an exclusive, luxury resort perched up high on the banks of a lake in the Swiss alps. The writing is very good, and I highlighted many passages throughout the ARC I was reading on my Kindle. Here’s a favorite from main character Eve:

Sometimes I think grief is a bit like an octopus. That sprawl of tentacles that reaches into every corner of your life and you can’t beat it or banish it, so you have to . . . find a way to make it your own somehow. A part of you that you can live with. A friend. And I like octopuses.

Not being an avid reader of time travel or magical realism, there were a few times in the book, mostly in the later chapters, where I got a bit lost, a bit confused as to what time period I was in at certain points, as Eve raced the clock to find the solution to her personal crisis, as she battled her own personal demons to make a decision that would affect not one, not two, but many people whom she loved deeply.

The White Octopus Hotel will be published in October, and I predict that it will be on a lot of lists of must-read books. I also predict that this will find its way on the big screen, with some heavy hitters playing the parts of Eve and Max. The octopuses? Well, I think some Hollywood graphic design geniuses will have a field day with that!