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A review by taelights
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
This book truly deserves all the praise it gets and more. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would because it was truly that perfect of a book. It has definitely become one of my top favorite books ever now and is probably tied for number one if I'm being honest.
I have never read any of TJ Klune's books before this one, but now I intend on reading many of them, but his style of writing is just so good and enjoyable. I could easily see him becoming my favorite author if all his books are written this way and contain such lovely stories.
The House in the Cerulean Sea was just so good. There were so many sweet moments in it and it was just such a comforting and relaxing read. I found the book hard to put down especially in the second half and I hated whenever I had to stop reading it.
The characters were all amazing and what made the book so perfect.
All the children were so adorable and charming in their own ways and were very memorable to me. I really enjoyed getting to know all of them throughout the book. Especially Lucy, I loved his character so much. He was so overdramatic and created so many funny moments (but also emotional ones as well).
Linus I grew to love so much and really care about his character. His development was great throughout the book, his interactions with the children were super sweet and it was cute to see him grow to care about them, and his interactions with Arthur were perfect as well. Speaking of Arthur I also loved him so much as well. He was the perfect father and caregiver to his little found family.
I am a huge fan of found family and this was honestly the sweetest example of found family. They started out so sweet already and seeing Linus find his place in this family was just such a beautiful thing to read.
I do wish there had been more romance in the book. I would love to have seen more of Linus and Arthur after they got together but that's really the only criticism I have.
Overall this book is just such a lovely and entertaining read. It will definitely be a story I reread in the future because I already find myself missing all these characters so much.
I have never read any of TJ Klune's books before this one, but now I intend on reading many of them, but his style of writing is just so good and enjoyable. I could easily see him becoming my favorite author if all his books are written this way and contain such lovely stories.
The House in the Cerulean Sea was just so good. There were so many sweet moments in it and it was just such a comforting and relaxing read. I found the book hard to put down especially in the second half and I hated whenever I had to stop reading it.
The characters were all amazing and what made the book so perfect.
All the children were so adorable and charming in their own ways and were very memorable to me. I really enjoyed getting to know all of them throughout the book. Especially Lucy, I loved his character so much. He was so overdramatic and created so many funny moments (but also emotional ones as well).
Linus I grew to love so much and really care about his character. His development was great throughout the book, his interactions with the children were super sweet and it was cute to see him grow to care about them, and his interactions with Arthur were perfect as well. Speaking of Arthur I also loved him so much as well. He was the perfect father and caregiver to his little found family.
I am a huge fan of found family and this was honestly the sweetest example of found family. They started out so sweet already and seeing Linus find his place in this family was just such a beautiful thing to read.
I do wish there had been more romance in the book. I would love to have seen more of Linus and Arthur after they got together but that's really the only criticism I have.
Overall this book is just such a lovely and entertaining read. It will definitely be a story I reread in the future because I already find myself missing all these characters so much.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry
All the abuse tags I added are mentioned in passing. There is no "on screen" abuse but many of the characters have backgrounds that feature abuse and these are addressed in the book.