Review by thecriticalreader - The House in the Cerulean Sea

thecriticalreader 's review for:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

4.75

emotional funny 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

I found The House in the Cerulean Sea while searching for a feel-good standalone fantasy book. The back-cover blurb immediately hooked me: "the main character is a 'by-the-book caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth?'" Count me in!

Plot: The book is more character-driven than plot-driven. In fact, the plot is skeletal.

It serves the story’s purpose well enough and remains low-stakes throughout the book. As someone who wanted to read a cheerful story, the lack of danger and despair was a nice change of pace.

However, the book was quite predictable, so it would have been nice to have a bit more excitement towards the end.

Characters: The characters in this story are wonderful. I have not read a story with such creative characters in a long time. It took less than a few pages for me to fall in love with the orphans from Marsyas Island. Most of them are not entirely fleshed out, but they have distinct personalities and flaws to make them believable. The main character, Linus Baker, is masterfully written. The novel is essentially about his character development. T.J. Klune establishes Linus's character beautifully within the first couple of chapters, and the reader quickly understands his flaws, strengths, and individual quirks. He slowly but steadily develops throughout the book, and it easy to track each step along the way. Linus is likable, relatable, flawed, and sympathetic.

Setting: The setting in The House in the Cerulean Sea is a bit unsteady, but it did not detract from the story. Much of the setting is mundane and reflects the real world completely. The world has modern technology, religions, historical figures, etc. However, it also has magical species ranging from witches to the AntiChrist. It works as long as one does not think too hard about the worldbuilding implications. In addition to the supernatural mixed with the realistic, much of the "realistic" aspect has a cartoonish feel to it. For example, the bureaucratic quagmire that is the Department in Charge of Magical Youth is hyperbolized as commonly seen in children's movies. This clashes tonally with the realistic parts of the setting, but it is not hard to overlook because the characters and writing are so engaging.

Themes: The House in the Cerulean Sea boasts themes of love, found-family, equality, tolerance, and self-worth. T.J. Klune unapologetically presents a feel-good, optimistic story. This is precisely why the book is so popular, although some might find it a bit overly sentimental.

Writing: T.J. Klune's writing is clever, engaging, and funny. He adds an ingenious bit of snark and humor on every page. I found myself smiling after the first two pages, which is saying something! I will pick up anything else this man has written, no questions asked. That being said, characters frequently spout statements of suspiciously quotable wisdom such as "Hate is loud, but I thnk you'll learn it's because it's only a few people shouting, desperate to be heard. You might not ever be able to change their minds, but so long as you remember you're not alone, you will overcome." (p.276) These philosophical professions pulled me out of the story because people don't talk like that in real life (at least not often). However, many will likely find these words comforting and inspiring, even if they are a bit on the nose.

Other points:

One character, Arthur Parnassus, reminded me a lot of a younger Albus Dumbledore. I'm not sure if this is deliberate, but it seemed almost as if Klune wrote Parnassus as the Dumbledore he wished J.K. Rowling wrote.

Content Warnings