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snystrom92 's review for:
The House in the Cerulean Sea
by TJ Klune
The children in this book are adorable and really make the story. Their individual personalities, dark humor, and backgrounds were well done and really touching.
That said, I found that the morals--don't judge a book by its cover, improving your local community can make larger change, be yourself, tolerance vs acceptance--came across as too didactic and the teaching moments felt a bit saccharine because the world the characters exist in didn't feel fleshed out at all. Along those lines, I think the author was using magical creatures as a stand-in for indigenous / othered people, which is problematic to say the least.
That said, I found that the morals--don't judge a book by its cover, improving your local community can make larger change, be yourself, tolerance vs acceptance--came across as too didactic and the teaching moments felt a bit saccharine because the world the characters exist in didn't feel fleshed out at all. Along those lines, I think the author was using magical creatures as a stand-in for indigenous / othered people, which is problematic to say the least.