A review by thereadinghammock
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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

This is a beautifully queer story about the importance of finding your voice, standing up for a better tomorrow, and the love of a found family.

Linus Baker's humdrum life is completely turned upside down when he is sent to the  Marsyas Island Orphanage by Extremely Upper Management of the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, where he has worked, unremarkably, for 17 years. Enter, the most adorable and diverse group of magical children and their caretakers Zoe Chapelwhite and Arthur Parnassus. Not only is this house run quite differently to any other home Linus has inspected, but the children there are quite unlike anything Linus could have ever anticipated either.

I fell in love with each of the children immediately upon their introductions to the story. They were written so perfectly as children, and never acted any other way. They asked blunt children questions, argued with child logic, and were generally so adorably wholesome (which is no easy feat when one of your main characters it the Antichrist) that it was so easy to picture them exactly as described. Zoe and Arthur were phenomenal caretakers for these children. Arthur's comment early on about "orphanages is a misnomer; no one comes to these homes looking to adopt" hit like a ton of bricks. The fear and "otherness" these children had been label with their entire lives left them alone in the world, and Arthur was right. Because of that fear of "the other" these children would never be adopted in a traditional way.

Linus' departure from the Island after his assessment was both heartbreaking and made sense. If he hadn't left, I doubt that Extremely Upper Management would have taken his recommendation seriously enough and by the sounds of their discussions, they already had a course of action they wanted to pursue, they were just looking for the excuse to pull the plug on it. However, it took Linus standing up to them, in person; seeing that their assumptions about these children--all of them, the entire DICOMY system--are just that. Children. They have no preconceived notions about the world, only what the world tells them they are. That with them, the world can be in color, not a dreary gray half-life. The relief that flooded through Linus once he received word that the home wouldn't be closed was palpable and beautiful. The shift in his inner voice and attitude no longer fit with the humdrum of office life. He could do more; he <i>needed</i> to do more. And by returning to the island, to his found family, he could do just that.
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