Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

17 reviews

abbiechron's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Seriously cannot recommend this book enough. The audiobook added lots of quirky character building with different voices. There were many smiles, heartaches, and times where I just sat laughing literally out loud. Fantastic comfort book with an undertone of mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Murder, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Gaslighting

isaaah's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, and Self harm

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Body shaming

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Misogyny, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, and Homophobia

leighmayon's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Child abuse

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Murder, Sexual content, Confinement, Death, Cursing, and Excrement

jfield351's review

emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This was truly a wonderful, lovely, heartwarming book and I did shed a few tears at the end! I read it from the 23rd-26th of Feb and was instantly amazed and relieved that the author - TJ Klune - can write. As in, can write wonderfully. This book is going in my dymocks challenge checklist for ‘book with 5+ words in the title’. The title was perfect and somehow summed up the whole book very well. I was reading the book right up until I had to leave home and I had about 10 pages left, and when i got home i immediately finished it because I had to know what happened. I absolutely loved all the main characters, they were written so well with so much depth and I rooted for them a lot. It was just so well written, I felt what Linus felt. It’s one of the only books I’ve ever read where I didn’t care that the ending was predictable. I was also gripped when tense moments came about such as

arthur taking linus down to the cellar, linus fighting with Upper management and linus returning to the island

. The twist that

arthur was a phoenix that had abused in this orphanage

was sad and interesting but wasn’t as shocking as some other twists i’ve read. Obviously loved the epilogue that was super cute. None of the book was cheesy at all, it was genuinely so wonderful. This book was all over booktok and so it was really hyped up for me and it was well worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Cursing, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Confinement

winters_night's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Panic attacks/disorders

keen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I came into this book immensely hesitant. I'm not a fan of romance. I find most stories to be either be too quick with the development, or so slow I forget it was even a part of the book. And overall, it's just not my thing. Additionally, I'm a fan of horror and thriller stories. So, aside from the urban fantasy and found family aspects, I thought I wouldn't get much from a "lighthearted" and "romance" book. This was not helped by me finding the main character, Linus, to be a very different protagonist than I expected: A 40-something year old child service worker with a stuffy, distant attitude.

I teared up three times, and by the epilogue, my eyes were so wet I had to wipe them with a paper towel to be able to see the words on the screen.

I very rarely cry from any story. When I do, I know it has ensnared me. I also very rarely think about books in terms of "Boy, I really wish people would write fanfiction about this." So imagine my surprise when I read nearly seven chapters straight.

The romance isn't the main aspect of this story. The main love story is Linus taking on a fatherly role towards the children in the 'orphanage' and how those kids grow to love him. The way each character developed was so subtle I barely noticed how much had changed until the end.

One complaint I had while reading this story was, "How is this described as lighthearted and middle-school reading?" The story almost feels dystopian at first. A society blatantly prejudiced against the supernatural, going as far as to harm children in its hatred. I'm a black, trans-masc person, so some parts of this story took me by such surprise that I was actually uncomfortable.

But that's not an actually a complaint. By the end of the story, I understood. It's a story about overcoming your own bigotry, learning from people you never expected to interact with (much less care for), and taking the first steps in changing society. Parts of this story gets dark, but I would happily hand this book to a pre-teen.

This story literally made me feel brighter. It made me more confident about choosing the best path in my life, no matter what society says it should be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cursing and Murder