I just gave up on Lily and the Octopus (by Steven Rowley) and had to give up on it half way through. It's about a guy who's dog is getting old and has cancer. He calls the tumor on her head an octopus. And he acts like it's a real octopus, and maybe he can convince it to leave and go back to the ocean. No one else sees it this way, but it's not clear whether the MC is nuts, or if this is just supposed to be a cute twist of reality. But at one point he slaps the octopus, and since hes' already unlikable and I can't tell if he just straight-up smacked his sick dog, I cannot continue.