Gentle Reads: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Author: TJ Klune

Title:The House in the Cerulean Sea

Genre: Gentle Reads

Publication Date: March 16, 2020

Number of Pages: 396 pages

Geographical Setting: Marsyas Island

Time Period: Unspecified

Series (If applicable): The House in the Cerulean Sea Book 1

Plot Summary: Linus Baker works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) as a case worker that takes pride in the fact that he is able to be impartial and avoid forming attachments with the children and masters of the orphanages owned by DICOMY. One day, he is called into the offices of Extremely Upper Management. There is no explanation as to why he was summoned, but once he gets to the meeting, he learns that he is being sent to an island with an orphanage that has six highly "dangerous" youths. He has been chosen because of his ability to be impartial, not form relationships, and his lack of personal attachments. The morning after the meeting, Linus loads up his cat Calliope and leave for Marsyas Island to observe the orphanage. 

Once he arrives, he is instructed to read over the files of the six children living at the orphanage. The first child he reads about is Lucifer, who is the son of the Devil. Reading this causes Linus to panic and pass out before the person who is driving him to the island arrives at the train station. He then spends the next four weeks observing and learning about all six children, Arthur Parnassus (the master of the orphanage), and Zoe (the island sprite that guards the island). 

For me, this was the kind of story that you finish and have to process that the book is finished. I loved the overarching theme of "not everything is as it first seems" and that there is the subtle love story between Arthur and Linus. I highly recommend this book and am impatiently waiting for the next book in the series to be published in September.

Subject Headings:

Magic > Fiction

Orphanages > Fiction

Appeal:

    According to Wyatt and Saricks, the genre Gentle Reads falls under the overarching Relationship Fiction. They define Relation Fiction as “emotion-based stories revolving around a character’s arc of personal development.”  (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, pp. 194). This is fitting for The House in the Cerulean Sea because Linus Baker is able to grow as a person throughout the entire story. At the beginning, Linus couldn’t be bothered to form attachments to people, and actually avoided it as much as he could. He was good at his job, but never really got the recognition for it until the assignment that led him to Marsysas Island. There he was able to form bonds with all six children at the orphanage as well as Zoe and Arthur. Throughout the novel you can see the bonds that are being formed between all the characters and the personal growth that Linus is experiencing through the weekly reports that he send to DICHOMY.

3 terms that best describe this book:

Charming

Amusing

Uplifting

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

Hempel, J. (2022). The family outing.HarperOne. 

The Hempel family all had secrets of their own, and by the time Jessi was an adult, everyone in her family had come out. Jessi and her father are gay, her sister is bisexual, her brother is transgender, and her mother is a survivor of a traumatic experience with an alleged serial killer. This memoir delves into the lives of a family that is “picture-perfect” from the outside, but looks can be deceiving. Through the events of everyone in her family accepting who they are, it began a chain reaction of more personal revelations and reckonings that led to the Hempel family questioning their place in the world in liberating ways.

Common Appeals: LGBTQIA+

RuPaul. (2024). The house of hidden meanings. Dey Street Books. 

RuPaul delves into his life in a memoir that goes back to his childhood, growing up in a broken home, poor, and queer in San Diego. He also looks back on his success in the drag world and as a producer of one of the world’s largest television franchises. He also recounts his search for enduring love found with his husband Georges LeBar and his journey with finding self- acceptance in sobriety. 

Common Appeals: LGBTQIA+

Nicholas, H. (2023). A trans man walks into a gay bar. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Through this memoir, Harry learns that he is a transmasculine man that, after breaking up with his girlfriend, learns that he is gay. While there is literature about being gay and literature about being trans, there isn’t anything on the shelves about being a trans gay man. There were concerns that plagued Harry, among them being would the gay community accept him, how could he be a gay man when he was still learning how to be a man, etc. Throughout the journey, Harry navigates the sometimes fraught and contradictory woulds of contemporary gay culture as a trans gay man.

Common Appeals: LGBTQIA+

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

Mandanna, S. (2022). The very secret society of irregular witches. Berkley.

Mika Moon is a witch living in Britain that knows she has to hide her magic, making sure to avoid going near any other witches. She knows how to be alone having grown up as an orphan, and is a rule follower with one exception: she posts videos online pretending to be a witch. These videos draw the attention of the caretaker of three young witches that live at Nowhere House and they invite her to come teach the girls how to control their magic. The only problem Jamie, the librarian of Nowhere House who would do anything to protect the children, and he thinks Mika is a threat. Will Mika be able to find the one place she truly belongs?

Appeals: orphans, travel to remote locations, relationships, outsiders

Rowell, S. (2021). The guncle. G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Patrick, or GUP as his niece Maisie and nephew Grant call him, lives in Palm Springs and has always enjoyed the occasional visits when they come o see him or he returns home to Connecticut. But when his sister-in-law passes away and his brother faces a major health crisis, he takes Maisie and Grant on full-time. While Patrick knows nothing about raising children, he attempts to follow his “Guncle Rules” to help with t learning curve. He also faces the loss of his one true love as well as a stalled career and the fact that his lifestyle is not suited to raising a nine and six year old. 

Appeals: LGBTQIA+, likeable characters

McGuire, S. (2016). Every heart a doorway. Tor.com.

Nancy is an orphan at Eleanor West's home for Wayward Children. Under the right conditions, children have been able to disappear from the home, whether it be through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe. Nancy has disappeared once, and is now back under the care of Eleanor West, and she along with the other children are searching for the way back to their own fantasy world. 

Appeals: Fantasy, magical abilities

References

Wyatt, N. And Saricks, J. G.(2019). The readers’ advisory guide to genre fiction. ALA Editions.