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aimzthereader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN WITH THIS BOOK?!?!? Just go pick up this book and read it, its a hug in a book, it is amazing, it is everything you need I promise.
I actually tried to read this book in March 2020 and I DNFed it, I think I just wasn't in the right place for it but I had to come back to it because LITERALLY everyone loved it. I am SOOOo happy I came back, once I got past the little bit of slowness at the beginning I never wanted to put it down and I didnt want to leave the world this book created for me. I would adopt all of these children. I want to live on this island, I want to be part of this found family.
Just an overwhelming feeling of love and passion for this book. Everyone should read it, so fantastic!
I actually tried to read this book in March 2020 and I DNFed it, I think I just wasn't in the right place for it but I had to come back to it because LITERALLY everyone loved it. I am SOOOo happy I came back, once I got past the little bit of slowness at the beginning I never wanted to put it down and I didnt want to leave the world this book created for me. I would adopt all of these children. I want to live on this island, I want to be part of this found family.
Just an overwhelming feeling of love and passion for this book. Everyone should read it, so fantastic!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Homophobia
cleo_wylde's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Forced institutionalization
honeybadger11492's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime and Xenophobia
Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent
powellki's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Racism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, and Misogyny
booksthatburn's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I originally gave this a 4.5 but I updated it to a 1 upon learning that this was based on (or at least partially inspired by) the Sixties Scoop, an decades-spanning event in which thousands of Indigenous children in Canada were forcibly removed from their homes and adopted elsewhere. That real-world context makes the "these orphans have powers" marginalization plot into a fantasy version of a real-world genocide. I'd waffled on whether to even bring up implications about race in the original review since the book seemed like it was trying to be about queerness rather than ethnicity, but it's horrible that it is actually about a major series of events in a racially/ethnically motivated genocide that hasn't really stopped in the present day. It also perpetuates a long-standing and racist tradition of depicting Indigenous people as magical or otherworldly, in this case many of the kids are literally inhuman. My original review is left intact below.
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The House in the Cerulean Sea is lovely and perfect and amazing; a fantastic found-family story about how things can be okay even when people are terrible and awful people don’t like the idea of marginalized people being happy.
The marginalization in question is specifically that of being a magical creature of some kind. It's set at an orphanage and deals with the evils and prejudices in the kind of system which creates orphanages for magical children but never tries to get them adopted, which may be triggering for some readers. The traumas are mostly handled as backstory, and most of them aren't fully described but rather hinted at, but there are depictions of characters being triggered by events in the present. This book has so much care and was really cathartic to read.
Woven throughout the story is an awareness of other kinds of marginalization and identities which are discriminated against, in a way that subtly nudges to say that these particular kids have lost their homes for turning into a small dog or being the literal son of Satan, but the way that this happens and the hate that their existence engenders due to bigotry and ignorance is coded as an analogue for queerphobia, specifically. It depicts internalized fatphobia/body shaming, as well as homophobic micoraggressions (the kind which pretend to be nice but still hurt).
The characters are excellent, I love everyone on the island and I'm so happy without how this book handles their stories and gives them space to be happy even though things aren't perfect. The setting is lovely, the contrast between the island and the city is cartoonishly stark because it conveys how it feels to the MC to be in each of those places. The people at the agency are well-written and terribly bureaucratic, the secondary characters at each location fit their spaces well while also informing the setting.
It's about learning how to relax, to enjoy things and have fun, to be okay and be yourself, but without pretending that bad things don't happen.
-----
The House in the Cerulean Sea is lovely and perfect and amazing; a fantastic found-family story about how things can be okay even when people are terrible and awful people don’t like the idea of marginalized people being happy.
The marginalization in question is specifically that of being a magical creature of some kind. It's set at an orphanage and deals with the evils and prejudices in the kind of system which creates orphanages for magical children but never tries to get them adopted, which may be triggering for some readers. The traumas are mostly handled as backstory, and most of them aren't fully described but rather hinted at, but there are depictions of characters being triggered by events in the present. This book has so much care and was really cathartic to read.
Woven throughout the story is an awareness of other kinds of marginalization and identities which are discriminated against, in a way that subtly nudges to say that these particular kids have lost their homes for turning into a small dog or being the literal son of Satan, but the way that this happens and the hate that their existence engenders due to bigotry and ignorance is coded as an analogue for queerphobia, specifically. It depicts internalized fatphobia/body shaming, as well as homophobic micoraggressions (the kind which pretend to be nice but still hurt).
The characters are excellent, I love everyone on the island and I'm so happy without how this book handles their stories and gives them space to be happy even though things aren't perfect. The setting is lovely, the contrast between the island and the city is cartoonishly stark because it conveys how it feels to the MC to be in each of those places. The people at the agency are well-written and terribly bureaucratic, the secondary characters at each location fit their spaces well while also informing the setting.
It's about learning how to relax, to enjoy things and have fun, to be okay and be yourself, but without pretending that bad things don't happen.
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Homophobia
CW for ableist language, microaggressions, homophobia/queerphobia, fatphobia, bigotry, body shaming, child abuse (backstory).