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A review by readingrobyn
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
3.0
I want to say a bunch of nice things about this book, but I think it is important start with my biggest complaint: The fat-shaming in this is ridiculous. The book goes out of its way to mention the protagonist's "spare tire" what feels like 18000 billion times and it is always a source of deep personal shame for the character. As a fat person, I want to see more plus-size protagonists in popular novels and it would be great to see more positive representation of plus-size men, especially within the LGBT community. Although the book does pull up on the clutch at the last possible minute, for a book with so much talk about the value of being more than the sum of your parts, it was incredibly disappointing to see this aspect handled so poorly.
For the things I did like about the story, I really enjoyed how utterly whimsical it was. The world building of magic meeting bureaucracy felt very stylized and I enjoyed following Linus along on this little adventure into something new. the character arc was expected, but satisfying. I connected with Linus and really enjoyed rooting for him to grow and embrace change.
I also enjoyed how the story has such a strong focus on childhood and the imagination of children, especially in relation to early childhood trauma and discrimination. Despite the serious nature of the children's experiences, the story itself also has a lighter feel to it. I think the writing skews closer in tone to what you might expect in YA, but I think it works really well. I became very attached to the younger characters and was invested in seeing them be happy. With that noted, I would also say don't go into this expecting a ton of romance. The adults' story is very much secondary to the experiences of the children, so the 'romance' is more subtext in the background than something you are going to write home about.
Overall, worth it if you are a fan of lighter fantasy and are looking for something that will grab your attention. I read this over the course of one night and was engrossed enough that I couldn't put it down.
For the things I did like about the story, I really enjoyed how utterly whimsical it was. The world building of magic meeting bureaucracy felt very stylized and I enjoyed following Linus along on this little adventure into something new. the character arc was expected, but satisfying. I connected with Linus and really enjoyed rooting for him to grow and embrace change.
I also enjoyed how the story has such a strong focus on childhood and the imagination of children, especially in relation to early childhood trauma and discrimination. Despite the serious nature of the children's experiences, the story itself also has a lighter feel to it. I think the writing skews closer in tone to what you might expect in YA, but I think it works really well. I became very attached to the younger characters and was invested in seeing them be happy. With that noted, I would also say don't go into this expecting a ton of romance. The adults' story is very much secondary to the experiences of the children, so the 'romance' is more subtext in the background than something you are going to write home about.
Overall, worth it if you are a fan of lighter fantasy and are looking for something that will grab your attention. I read this over the course of one night and was engrossed enough that I couldn't put it down.