Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

420 reviews

aleyaericson's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

bookishmrsnelson's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

“There is magic in the ordinary,” and this book is EXTRAordinary. Hopeful, loving, accepting. Inspirational and heartwarming. So very very beautiful.

Content Warnings

mxfrazzle's review against another edition

3.75

hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

luise96's review against another edition

3.0

emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Im not sure if the first book needed a sequel tbh. This is clearly written as an antithesis to JK Rowling. In my opinion the plot suffered a bit from this overarching idea. I’m sure it was nice for some people, it was just a bit too shallow and predictable for me.

Content Warnings

calebcarr1's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think that the story ended on kind of a weird note and some of the writing felt repetitive. That being said, it was cute and I put they book down feeling satisfied. It’s a good read if you don’t think about it too hard and try to bring realistic political trends and behaviors into this fantasy.

Content Warnings

smilerev's review against another edition

2.0

emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

rateatingraccoon's review against another edition

3.5

funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Honestly, I remember liking The House in the Cerulean Sea when I read it two years ago. This, however, is a somewhat disappointing sequel. Let me just say that the children are amazing; they're hilarious in the beginning, and while the humor tends to stray into "FaceBook meme" territory as the book progresses, the children (especially Lucy) still got a few chuckles.

Arthur is a... well, he's a main character. Unfortunately, his personality can be summed up into this: traumatized in an orphanage. Loves his kids. Loves his fiancé. Mad at government. And... that's about it. He's overprotective and the kids want to be independent, that's the struggle, and yet we only see fragments of this when Sal stands up to him or one of the kids handles something on their own. There's quite a few times where it was simply "Arthur was about to do something to protect the kids, but then the kids protected themselves", and

suddenly he's a changed man in the end.

It's disappointing.

Arthur also comes off as very self-inserty. There were multiple times where it felt like something was thrown into the book just for Klune to say "hey, doesn't this suck? Doesn't it suck that this happens??"

For example, David, the new child introduced in this book, asks Arthur if they have enough food in the house. Arthur mourns that any child would have to struggle with food scarcity. David not having food in his past is not relevant (to David or the situation of the orphanages) and is never brought up again. We see topics, like homophobia and racism, brought up but never represented or appearing as much more than an afterthought of "hey, this world sucks" or "this person sucks! Not only is she evil and horrible and awful, but also she's homophobic, but she will not say anything about Linus and Arthur's relationship or actually act homophobic directly in any way!"

On that note: Jeanine Rowder. This woman is so comically evil that it's hard to believe this book's target audience is adults.

But I don't feel like being negative much longer. I did enjoy the book at several parts, and I would recommend it to anyone who isn't majorly annoyed by the flaws mentioned above. I only saw one typo in the whole 400-page book! Klune has some habits as a writer that annoyed me, and also as a storyteller, but if you don't take the book too seriously it's still a good time. You can skip the whole court scene, though. It's pretty useless.

Content Warnings