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

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The House in the Cerulean Sea is a gem of a book, & TJ Klune is a gem of an author.

Being queer & autistic, I have often felt othered throughout my life by virtue of who I am. The story of Arthur Parnassus & his wards teaches us that it's not who we're born to, or what we are, that defines us; it's how we treat others. & poor, misguided Linus Baker teaches us that it's never too late to change your mind, to learn to accept, to love, to let color into your life despite said color turning your world upside down.

Truly, Linus learns what really matters and where he belongs, casting aside his grey, corporate existence & finding his stride. He learns to love those who are different, & to use his connections (& newfound confidence) to keep them safe.

Klune's love stories, too, are flawlessly executed. As a queer person, it's important for me to see representation, but not just any representation - representation that's kind, & whole, & free of tragedy. The central love story (
Linus & Arthur,
though that's not hard to guess) isn't a story of coming out, or being hurt, or being discriminated against for their queerness; it's as normal as any non-queer relationship, & so little attention is drawn to the fact that they like men. It's so necessary to have queer stories where queerness is normalized.

This same principle shows up with the children, too. Talia - a female gnome, who is also a child - has a beard, as she should. I'm also a big fan of media where the dragons (or wyverns) are friends instead of enemies. Everything that the children are is normalized.
Truly, I don't think anyone else would've been able to pull off the Antichrist bit, too.


While I did love this book, it started to drag its feet by the end. It seems like the last quarter of it was just characters monologuing at each other, and then the other side just magically changing their minds after being lectured. (I do love a happy ending, but I love a realistic happy ending more.) It just moved so slowly, & was extremely heavy-handed in terms of the message. This was perhaps intentional, but the book was doing fine getting across the message without the monologuing. Reminds me of trying to hit an essay word count in high school. Really, though, this is a minor thing in comparison with the rest of the book, which I deeply, deeply, enjoyed.
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