House in the Cerulean Sea, The

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The story also encourages one to be brave, both in terms of standing up for those around you and challenging views, but also in terms of living one's own life.

With every day like the last, Linus has a very routine life, but that all changes when he receives a summons to see Extremely Upper Management, a quartet of men and women who have moved through the ranks to become the overseers, the people who watch the watchers. All of the children are unique, from Sal who is nervous at the thought of meeting with and being around new people and, when startled, transforms into a Pomeranian to Talia, a confident green-fingered garden gnome who spends her time threatening harm to those who cause her offence. Maybe I'm just a cold person but to me this book felt over the top with saccharine sweetness, went into overkill with the morality lessons, and the odd humor fell flat.

There is something vital and wondrous about Arthur and the magical children that came to him with tragedies already packed in their suitcases, and Linus Baker is more or less the human opposite of vitality and wonder. TJ KLUNE is a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and an ex-claims examiner for an insurance company.

This is an amazing YA fantasy focused around found family with a heavy central theme of kindness, and if that sounds like something you would enjoy, I think you'll love this book. When he gets his latest secret assignment from Extremely Upper Management to visit an orphanage on a remote island, he doesn't know what to expect. But when he is summoned by Extremely Upper Management for an urgent meeting, he realizes his simple life will change forever.

Shoddy worldbuilding can wander over into offensively appropriating the genocidal traumas of real groups of people, simply because the author didn’t think things through.

It’s at this Island Orphanage that we meet the rest of our cast in the form of six magical children (a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist), the charming (and handsome) caretaker Arthur Parnassus, and a lovely lady named Zoe Chapelwhite who is more than she initially appears. Mix these elements, bake until sweet golden brown, take out of the oven and enjoy fresh and hot with your best friends . J. Klune fan, as I'm sure many of you are, I know you are asking yourself what this book will be like now that T. Perhaps a birthday cake dressed up in scary themes, but ultimately, a heart-warming, delicious concoction of a story that just skirts being teeth-tinglingly sweet. So, of course Linus' heart grows three sizes, and he has to learn to stop being such a rule-follower and start actually standing up for a principle.

i won't tell you how you should feel about this, but i think that taking the unbearable trauma (a trauma that included not just the murder of a culture but also murder in a quite literal sense) of real-world Native children and turning that into a happy-go-lucky tale of how Hate Is Bad but the fantastical equivalent of those disgusting and reprehensible nonfiction orphanages is good. The House in the Cerulean Sea is a love letter to those who should be allowed to feel small and cared for when the world seems dark. Linus had never experienced love and Arthur seemingly hadn’t allowed himself the luxury of feeling anything for anyone but the children in his care.

Why, yes there is that too, absolutely: a tender, touching love story about how finding a true soulmate can make you the best version of yourself and give you courage to fight for what you care about. This contemporary fantasy can satisfy any sweet tooth with its found family story and its gentle queer romance. Sal, the oldest, is a quiet, reserved, and shy boy who’s seen and experienced more evils than any kid of his age should and still holds out hope for better. Linus has always had the best interests of the children he oversees in mind, even in the face of the de-attached bureaucracy he works for, however until he is sent to the House in the Cerulean Sea what he understands and what it is children truly need are completely different. But then Extremely Upper Management sends Linus on a special mission that is top secret: He is to spend one month evaluating the Marsyas Island Orphanage, run by Arthur Parnassus, and decide whether it should remain open.The House in the Cerulean Sea is a big, warm, comforting hug wrapped up in a novel, and it’s one of the most hopeful fantasy novels I’ve read. I had just finished writing my YA debut, “The Extraordinaires,” and I was looking into wanting to continue along in that vein with something a little bit different.