The House in the Cerulean Sea Review

Ebook, 393 Pages
Fantasy/ LGBT/ Contemporary
By: T.J. Klune
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

“We should always make time for the things we like. If we don’t, we might forget how to be happy.”

This book has been getting all kind of glowing reviews and I am jumping on the bandwagon and adding my voice to all the fans of this story. This is a book that just made me happy and made me cry and for that it deserves a full 5 stars which I rarely give.

I have not read Klune’s other books and although this is his latest, it was my first exposure to his works and I have a feeling he would become a favorite author of mine as I make my way through the rest of his books. The author mostly wrote adult fantasy books and he recently published in the YA world. This is a book that I think is simply for everyone, I am always making a list of mental list of books I want to read to my kids and I am pretty sure this will be one of them.

I honestly loved the writing because it was so easy to connect to everything in this book. The writing is very easy and that’s why I think it is a book for all. That does not mean it lacks memorable quotes because it had a fair share of those. The author can sometimes be spoon-feeding us the info but I did not care, I did not mind it because I was just so freaking happy while reading it.

“Change often starts with the smallest of whispers. Like-minded people building it up to a roar.”

The characters are all memorable for me, I was initially planning to discuss all characters but I thought it is a better thing to discover them on the go. Ît has been more than 2 months since I finished the book and I still remember everything about it and that’s really rare for me unless I connect to the characters on a mythological level and I think Klune succeeded in doing that. There is the found family trope which was so well done, I loved how we were introduced to the characters slowly and then we get to know each of them on depth! Every single character was unique and I think that is challenging but the author simply nailed it. An additional thing I liked was that Linus the MC was 40 and he is unlike the too perfect male characters that are toxic and most YA books market for!

The plot is not complicated and if I am being transparent her, it is very predictable but I think it is not about the plot at all. We have Linus who is a case-worker making sure that orphanages are fitting for the magical children and as the title implies he gets send to the house in the cerulean sea which is a top secret magic and the rest is history. But as I said above, the book is full of positive messages and it can be fluffy sometimes but I just needed that dose of serotonin very much and this book simply delivered!

“A home isn’t always the house we live in. It’s also the people we choose to surround ourselves with.”

Summary: I consider this more a contemporary story with some magical settings so don’t expect something very fantasy driven. There is something magical about the story and I connected to everything very much that it left me crying in the hospital when I was reading the last pages! I simply love everything about this book and highly recommend it for all!