A review by miller8d
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I absolutely loved the personalities in this story and the palpable familial love. Everyone was very charming and it was delightful and charming to follow their stories. My only complaint is that

the actual core story of the book, about the rip-off Harry Potter ministry and the backstory at the end blah blah, was quite boring to me and took up far too much time in the book. I wish there had been a more original and more enticing foundation of logic/exposition for the story’s characters to work off of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Moderate: Xenophobia and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

I really liked this book but, until the very end,

the main character is very frequently described as fat in a demeaning/self-hating way (from his own POV), until the VERY end when the author very briefly mentions that maybe now he doesn’t mind his extra fat so much because now he has found love/confidence (basically). In the end, I guess that’s technically a win, but the whole narrative is extremely negative toward fat bodies for the entire book, literally for no reason at all. It didn’t need to be in the story at all.