Screenwriter Rowley's sensitive, hilarious, and emotionally rewarding debut novel explores the effect that pets can have on human lives. Teddy is unhappily single in L.A. In between sessions with his therapist and dates with men he meets online, it is his beloved 12-year-old dachshund, Lily, who occupies his heart. Curiously, Teddy is able to communicate with Lily, with whom he debates the attractiveness of male celebrities and plays board games. Distressingly, he is also able to communicate with the "octopus" attached to the little dog's head, which is soon revealed to be a metaphor for Lily's lethal cranial tumor. Complicating matters is the increasing prevalence of Lily's seizures and the looming inevitability of her demise. The intimacy of pet ownership is sweetly suffused throughout this heartwarming autobiographical fiction, originally written as self-therapy for the author's own grief. In generous helpings of bittersweet humanity, Rowley has written an immensely poignant and touchingly relatable tale that readers (particularly animal lovers) will love. Agent: Rob Weisbach, Rob Weisbach Creative Management. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

*Starred Review* Lily is Ted's best friend. She's short and has big eyes and an infectious personality. Her Match.com profile would list her likes as playing Monopoly, watching old movies, and eating mint chocolate-chip ice cream. She's also a 12-year-old dachshund with a brain tumor. Ted, who visualizes the mass growing inside Lily's head as a sentient being with a personality all its own, refuses to acknowledge it for what it is and so refers to it as an octopus. As such, Ted faces this monster that is robbing him of his dearest companion, engaging it in a battle of wills that take on epic proportions. Rowley's portrait of a sensitive, single man facing a pet owner's worst nightmare brims with the honest emotions that come from unconditional love. This debut novel is being strongly touted, but for all its giddiness and gusto, it is about the death of a loved one, and readers who have faced similar situations will want to think before reaching for this gut-wrenching tale. Once readers commit however, the emotional toll is well worth it because Rowley has written an exceedingly authentic, keenly insightful, and heartbreakingly poignant tribute to the purity of love between a pet and its human.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2016 Booklist

Screenwriter Rowley's poignant debut novel offers an anthropomorphic story that will be recognized by listeners who have faced a loved one's illness. Ted, lonely and single in Los Angeles, finds solace in his companion Lily, a dachshund. He raises her from a pup, and their lives are melded. Aging together, Lily and Ted chat, play Monopoly, and discuss cute boys. One day Ted notices something on Lily's head that resembles an octopus and wonders why he never noticed it before. Ted can't bring himself to say out loud the word tumor and calls the growth the Octopus-he even gets the vet to use the term. The Octopus, sarcastic and caustic, yet with a sly wit, won't leave. And thus begins a major battle that reaches epic proportions. Rowley captures with tenderness, humor, and creativity Ted's feeling of powerlessness, the nuances of his grief, and the fierceness people can summon when faced with an overwhelming foe. Michael Urie captures well Lily's manic yet innocent voice, as well as Ted's calmer tones and the Octopus's sly taunting. VERDICT Urie's skillful narration adds another dimension to this tale of loss of a beloved pet. Recommended. ["This funny and heartbreaking first novel will appeal to dog lovers": LJ 5/15/16 review of the S. & S. hc.]-Judy Murray, Monroe Cty. Lib. Syst., MI © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A lonely writer and his aging dachshund confront a mythic enemy. If it wasn't for one thing, Rowley's debut novel might be viewed as a lightly fictionalized, heart-wrenching account of the author's last six months with his adored 12-year-old dog, Lily, who succumbed to a brain tumor. That one thing, however, is pretty big. It's the "octopus" of the title. "It's Thursday the first time I see it. I know that it's Thursday because Thursday nights are the nights my dog, Lily, and I set aside to talk about boys we think are cute.We get into long debates over the Ryans. I'm a Gosling man, whereas she's a Reynolds gal." The thing Ted notices that fateful Thursday is an octopus. It "has a good grip and clings tightly over her eye." For almost all of this novel that thing over Lily's eye remains an "octopus," an evil eight-legged sea creature that snarks and schemes and wages battle. Even Ted's best friend and therapist give in and call it an octopus, and a good deal of plot is built around pretending that it is, in an elaborately developed, magical realist way. This is not the best thing about the book. In fact, it becomes a little much. But more than balancing it are the portrait of Lily in all her bedclothes-burrowing, ice cream-eating, stubborn dachshund glory and the intensity of this particular interspecies bond. The octopus talks to Ted, but Lily does too, for example when she's licking tears off his face: "THIS! EYE! RAIN! YOU! MAKE! IS! FANTASTIC! I! LOVE! THE! SALTY! TASTE! YOU! SHOULD! MAKE! THIS! EVERY! DAY!" As anyone who has a dachshund knows, this is exactly how they talk. If you have an older dog, or any dog, he or she is going to be licking plenty of eye rain off your face through the final chapters of this book. In his funny, ardent, and staunchly kooky way, Rowley expresses exactly what it's like to love a dog. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.