A review by missjuniperbell
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, TJ Klune
3.0
I think this is a 4 for children, and a 2.5 for adults. So that evens out to about a 3.5 for me as it's currently marketed (confusingly) as an adult book. It's much more streamlined than Wolfsong, which I also read by Klune, but I think it was just a bit saccharine and sort of basic in its lessons about prejudice for me--but for children who need that basic level of introduction, I'm sure it would suit wonderfully. Aside from the Queer angle, it owes some debts to the general premises of X-Men and Miss Peregrine's House, I think.
I fully admit that my reaction to this book, if the other glowing reviews are to be judged, may be just my own pickiness about child characters that sound like they're written by adults (to be fair, I think most writers really struggle to write children), and there are a half-dozen of them here. Klune's style can also get a little meme-y in its humour (which sometimes is quite fun and sometimes can feel a little artificial--there are *two* "maybe the real [...] are the friends we made along the way" gags). In the end, what one readers finds affirming and touching may strike another as cheesy and overly twee, and I found I oscillated between which of those readers I was throughout the book.
So that's where I land: I'm sure children would love this; but for adults, I don't think it has the wit or imagination of someone like Diana Wynne-Jones or Eva Ibbotson (authors this book feels indebted to); rather, its strengths are in being nice and cozy and happily Queer, for which your mileage may vary.
I fully admit that my reaction to this book, if the other glowing reviews are to be judged, may be just my own pickiness about child characters that sound like they're written by adults (to be fair, I think most writers really struggle to write children), and there are a half-dozen of them here. Klune's style can also get a little meme-y in its humour (which sometimes is quite fun and sometimes can feel a little artificial--there are *two* "maybe the real [...] are the friends we made along the way" gags). In the end, what one readers finds affirming and touching may strike another as cheesy and overly twee, and I found I oscillated between which of those readers I was throughout the book.
So that's where I land: I'm sure children would love this; but for adults, I don't think it has the wit or imagination of someone like Diana Wynne-Jones or Eva Ibbotson (authors this book feels indebted to); rather, its strengths are in being nice and cozy and happily Queer, for which your mileage may vary.