diff --git a/src/prelude/index.ts b/src/prelude/index.ts
index 6834b8c..facf4b8 100644
--- a/src/prelude/index.ts
+++ b/src/prelude/index.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ export const globals = {
   inspect: (v: any) => formatValue(toValue(v)),
   describe: (v: any) => {
     const val = toValue(v)
-    return { [val.type]: formatValue(toValue(v)) }
+    return `#<${val.type}: ${formatValue(val)}>`
   },
   length: (v: any) => {
     const value = toValue(v)
@@ -122,13 +122,15 @@ export function formatValue(value: Value, inner = false): string {
       return `${colors.dim}null${colors.reset}`
     case 'array': {
       const items = value.value.map(x => formatValue(x, true)).join(' ')
-      return `${inner ? '(' : ''}${colors.blue}list${colors.reset} ${items}${inner ? ')' : ''}`
+      return `${colors.blue}[${colors.reset}${items}${colors.blue}]${colors.reset}`
     }
     case 'dict': {
       const entries = Array.from(value.value.entries())
-        .map(([k, v]) => `${k}=${formatValue(v, true)}`)
+        .map(([k, v]) => `${k}${colors.blue}=${colors.reset}${formatValue(v, true)}`)
         .join(' ')
-      return `${inner ? '(' : ''}${colors.magenta}dict${colors.reset} ${entries}${inner ? ')' : ''}`
+      if (entries.length === 0)
+        return `${colors.blue}[=]${colors.reset}`
+      return `${colors.blue}[${colors.reset}${entries}${colors.blue}]${colors.reset}`
     }
     case 'function': {
       const params = value.params.length ? '(' + value.params.join(' ') + ')' : ''
diff --git a/src/prelude/tests/prelude.test.ts b/src/prelude/tests/prelude.test.ts
index b7eb8ed..90ea2c6 100644
--- a/src/prelude/tests/prelude.test.ts
+++ b/src/prelude/tests/prelude.test.ts
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ describe('introspection', () => {
   test('describe describes values', async () => {
     // Just test that inspect returns something for now
     // (we'd need more complex assertion to check the actual format)
-    await expect(`describe 'hello'`).toEvaluateTo({ string: "\u001b[32m'hello\u001b[32m'\u001b[0m" }, globals)
+    await expect(`describe 'hello'`).toEvaluateTo("#<string: \u001b[32m'hello\u001b[32m'\u001b[0m>", globals)
   })
 })