Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

La casa en el mar más azul. Edición especial: Edición especial con cantos tintados by TJ Klune, Carlos Abreu Fetter

49 reviews

thesunthesunthesunthesun's review against another edition

4.75

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Sometimes you pick up a romance book that seems like a fun romp, filled with the most exquisite tropes. And you think to yourself "that cannot be as fun as it appears to be? surely this is going to be mildly disappointing?"

I am glad to say that it did not disappoint at all. This was absolutely adorable.

Was the plot predictable? yes, and delightfully so! You know the steps that a romcom must take, and you gleefully expect how and when we'll get to that part!
This book is (I say this with only adoration) all the good bits of a Christmas romcom, but now placed in a wonderful summer setting, and it has none of the excruciating miscommunications that otherwise appear in a romcom.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! The cast of characters were all nicely written, the plot was a fun "bureaucrat learns the ~~magic of Christmas~~ to truly live life and to open up his heart to the hot single father of six magic children". There were some delightful little twists that you get to figure out along the way, and you get to feel clever when your suspicions are confirmed. Not a "I never saw it coming" but a "aha!! I knew it!", which is nice.

The writing style of the author lends itself perfectly for this story, the dialogue was very well done, and the scene descriptions were lovely. I started writing little pencil notes halfway through that only consisted of "yes! yes!!" and "it's cause you're so gay for him" whenever Linus thought about Arthur.

Even though I had to take a multi-month break halfway through the book, I could get right back in with minimal confusion. The pacing was ideal for this story as well.

All in all, this was SUCH a fun romp. I needed this book.

And yes, I did cry a little at the expected moments. I'm a simple man; my heartstrings are easily pulled.

Content Warnings

kat_smith24's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

Content Warnings

sadiaa's review against another edition

3.5

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

I didn't find myself in invested in the plot or characters, some parts just seemed so predictable.

Felt weird knowing this was based on residential schools, with how horrific we knew those were.

Content Warnings

novella42's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-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

It's hard to put into words why I didn't adore this the way everyone else seems to. It was a sweet book and I appreciated the gentle and positive queer representation. I guess the hype just led me to expect different things. It might also be because I DNF the audiobook version--the narrator just wasn't for me--and that initial experience made it harder for me to connect with the characters? I don't know.

I wanted this to hit me like Sangu Mandanna's The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, which I realize was written two years after The House in the Cerulean Sea. Why was I swept away by that one enough to buy a copy for my comfort bookshelf, but not by this one? Especially when I love queer romances of all genders, I really thought that'd tip the balance for me. Maybe the spice level was higher in the other? Maybe because I don't do well with body horror, which felt fairly graphic in The House in the Cerulean Sea? (Probably folks who read a lot of horror would consider it tame, but it kept repeating a trigger for my C-PTSD, so I'm biased here.)

Spoiler about a problematic theme related to the children's make-believe adventures:

I was very disappointed by the repetition of the "cannibal" theme they had in the children's fantasy adventures. I know it's meant to be a lighthearted "kids being kids" kind of thing, but the more Indigenous authors I read, the more something like that makes me cringe. All I can see is them playacting the story of "European colonizers and missionaries dehumanizing Indigenous people with unfounded racist fears." I know I'm a bleeding heart liberal killjoy, etc. but honestly, it's 2024, why are you writing "savage cannibal" themes into anything? They could have been imagining so many alternatives. It just was so dissonant with the book's overall message of celebrating differences and respecting the original inhabitant of the island.

Still a good book overall. I might pick up the second book at the library someday, when all the furor dies down.

Content Warnings

twoweeeeks's review against another edition

4.0

emotional 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

Content Warnings

a_l_reads's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

personal review notes:

C 7/10
A 8/10
W 5/10
P 5/10
I 4/10
L 7/10
E 5/10

-> 5.1/10
-> 3 stars

C: the characters were super adorable and diverse, i liked how they were described, i didn' really felt connected though & i personally don't really vibe with linus
W: some feelings and situations felt over-explained, sometimes it left way too hopeful und overly positive, especially towards the end i sometimes cringed at some of the dialogues and writing
P: the second half the story kinda dragged on, the over all outcome was very foreseeable
I: at first, i couldn't put it down and towards the end the only motivation to read was to get this book done.
E: in the beginning i really enjoyed it, was alright over all, glad that i read it, wouldn't read again

Content Warnings

elisavaz's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Um livro bastante leve e descontraído. É muito bom e tem uma história simples que deixa o coração quentinho. O livro tem um tom bastante infantil, então, embora tenha sido reflexivo, pareceu-me uma reflexão escrita para crianças. Além disso, o personagem Linos me irritou muito com a visão de algumas coisas dele. Ele recomendou que 5 orfanatos fossem fechados, mas nunca sentiu a necessidade de acompanhar a resolução disso porque não era o trabalho dele (a recomendação não implica que sera acatada). Mas ele aparentemente se importa com a qualidade de vida das crianças (???) Mas não questiona nada nunca. Claramente é uma pessoa que tem muita fé no sistema, embora ele seja crítico de religiões.
Além disso, acho muito estranho que o livro se passa no planeta Terra, na nossa sociedade. Isso tira a gente um pouco do livro porque não conseguimos entender a transição de inexistência de seres mágicos, pra existência e preconceito e depois existência (e preconceito) e regulação.
Ri diversas vezes, adorei as crianças e o final foi emocionante.

Content Warnings

friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

I loved the narrator!
The story is very wholesome, reminds me of the secret society of irregular witches, maybe even better:)

Content Warnings

miles's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

Content Warnings

minervacerridwen's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

After hearing so many good things about The House in the Cerulean Sea, I finally got around to reading it! (Thanks to my Secret Santa, Matty. <3)
The book definitely is hard to put down, so it was a fast read, and all the scenes with the children on the island were absolutely adorable. I loved their magical forest, and how much the main character sometimes reminded me of Aziraphale from Good Omens, who is one of my absolute favourites.
Still, I feel like this story didn't quite meet my (very high) expectations. It took about 150 pages before I finally had the feeling that it had really started, and while it makes sense that the reader needed to be given a lot of information about this world, I really felt this could have been tightened up with some thorough editing.
My biggest issue was that I didn't quite "feel" the romance.

To me, it felt a bit as if Linus at first fell for Arthur simply because he was the first handsome man who gave him as little as a friendly smile, but I generally prefer if romance stories give me, as the reader, some sense of "why that one?". By the time the story made me feel that a little more, even Linus had already realised he had fallen for him.

Looking back at my review for Under the Whispering Door, I'll have to conclude that TJ Klune's writing style is just a little bit too zoomed out for me. Seeing everything at a distance can be useful to maintain the sense of comfort that his books all have, but for me personally it makes it harder to really be as invested in the characters' emotions. Then again, I doubt I'd call The House in the Cerulean Sea a "comfort read" for myself, considering the underlying themes that made this world so unsafe for children that are "other", and I wasn't entirely satisfied with how Linus' internalised fatphobia was handled.
I'm definitely happy that many readers got to know this book and the cosy fantasy genre in general thanks to the marketing behind it, but for me personally, it didn't quite hit the spot I'd hoped it would.

Content Warnings

More...