Book Review | The House in the Cerulean Sea #sff #booksky

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune crept into my TBR and kept popping up to be added again, and again, until I bought it. I’m glad I did, although it took me less than five hours to read it. Then again, after the first two chapters, I couldn’t put it down…

The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles #1)

by T J Klune

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place – and realizing that family could be yours.

He expected nothing. But they gave him everything . . .

Linus Baker leads a quiet life. At forty, he has a tiny house with a devious cat and his beloved records for company. And at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, he’s spent many dull years monitoring their orphanages.

Then one day, Linus is summoned by Extremely Upper Management and given a highly classified assignment. He must travel to an orphanage where six dangerous children reside, including the Antichrist. There, Linus must somehow determine if they could bring on the end of days. But their guardian, charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, will do anything to protect his wards. As Arthur and Linus grow ever closer, Linus must choose between duty and his dreams. [goodreads]

My Review

We meet Linus Baker and his regimented, dreary life in the first two chapters. I wondered why I was reading it. But it turns out to be the perfect introduction: to him, to the system, and to everything wrong with his world.

Having put the book down to read later, I wondered who it was intended for. It was jerky enough for MG, but the content didn’t seem right… YA and adult were mentioned in the Goodreads metadata… So I continued, and the whole world exploded. Into colour, for a start! I found it utterly engrossing, charming, mysterious, wonderful, curious, realistic, and in the end, perfectly charming.

How can I say realistic when the story deals with non-humans in orphanages. Well, that’s rather the point. The reactions of some of the humans is exactly what you expect to something ‘not like them’ and as such, it echoes the propaganda that can be fed to us all to make us believe difference is bad and needs to be locked up or hounded out.

That makes it sound dark, but in fact the most part of this book is full of light, joy, uncertainty of feelings, and caring for each other whatever our differences. And adventure. And good food, and beautiful views.

I suspect that I will be reading more of the Cerulean Chronicles. I’m looking forward to it.