Don’t you wish you were here?
The House in the Cerulean Sea, T.J. Klune, 2020
Yes. Yes, I do wish I was there, you lovely, sweet book.
But in some ways, I do feel like I’m there already. Because this book deals sensitively with systemic, government-sanctioned oppression and prejudice. It also deals with finding the courage to stand up to said oppression and prejudice, not as a hotheaded and hormone-driven teenager but rather as a kindhearted but unremarkable midlevel bureaucrat. How to turn the system against itself. That might, you know, possibly have more relevance to the current cultural moment than T.J. Klune ever dreamed when he wrote it not long ago.
This isn’t a dystopian novel or an Issue novel, though. Quite the opposite. It’s a romantic comedy and character study, a lovely piece of contemporary fantasy. If you’re like me and adore Good Omens, or grew up loving the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series (but in your old age find the latter a bit too much, if you’re being honest), then reading this book will feel like settling into a wonderfully comfy chair from your past that you’d forgotten you missed.
THE STORY
Linus Baker lives in a version of our world that looks very much like our own, except that magical beings and creatures exist. He’s a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, just one agency in a giant government arm dedicated to registering, isolating, and keeping tabs on magical beings. Linus isn’t a bad person. He genuinely cares about the magical children in the “orphanages” (read: homes, as it’s pointed out that none of the children are actually up for adoption) that he inspects for work. He just happens to be a cog in a system so large that he can’t get a birds-eye view, and has to trust that the work he does truly helps these children in the long run. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.) He is a good-natured, Arthur Dentish-type fellow who lives a quiet, lonely life with a cat for company.
[FROM HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. YE HAVE BEEN WARNED.]
Without warning he receives a special assignment from Extremely Upper Management to investigate a mysterious, isolated home for magical youth. He will leave for a month, effective immediately. When he arrives at the foreboding house on a magic-drenched island, he meets the home’s child tenants: a young Antichrist, a female Gnome, a powerful forest sprite, a wyvern who speaks in a series of squeaks, and a werewolf who transforms into a Pomeranian. He also meets Arthur Parnassus, the master of the “orphanage,” with whom he slowly falls in love and begins a tentative relationship. Over a course of his monthlong stay, the island’s inhabitants welcome him into their home and prove to him that he knows exactly how to make a difference.
“I can have spiders in my head as long as I don’t let them consume me and destroy the world as we know it.”
The House in the Cerulean Sea, T.J. Klune
the babble
Folks, I loved this book. I loved it so much. I think it would be truly difficult to not love this book.
The humor remains light and never falters. The children are undeniably cutesy, but each has his or her own distinct personality. The whole thing has an air of myth or fable about it. It would make a great movie. (But I hope no one actually tries to make it into a movie, because this is one of those stories that would be so, so easy to ruin in the wrong filmmaker’s hands. It’s all about tone.) Linus’ gradual awakening of the soul is a delicate wonder to behold and to experience secondhand.
It is a perfect book? Not quite. Does the uplifting resolution in the last few chapters feel a bit pat? Yes. Did I catch myself thinking more than once about South Park‘s opinions regarding Nice Little Heartfelt Speeches? You betcha. (Linus gives a LOT of Nice Little Heartfelt Speeches toward the end. But in Klune’s defense, they’re pretty good speeches.) Do I care about these quibbles at all? Not really.
The experience of reading this novel feels a lot like Linus’ experience of finding himself on a lovely, magical island. I really, really needed this book right now. You might need it, too.
RATING
***1/2 out of 4
random babble
- Apparently Klune is American. He must love all the same British authors that I love, then, because he has that distinctly British, dry-humor narrative voice thing down. It’s flawless. Feels like reading Adams, or Pratchett, or Gaiman.
- The city where Linus lives and works is never identified as London, nor are any country names ever mentioned, but I think it’s safe to assume that this world is set up as an England parallel?
- One of the best things about this book is that Linus is gay, but it’s not a big deal. It’s just another fact about him. When he and Arthur begin a relationship, the fact that Arthur is another man is a non-issue. Even Linus’ otherwise horrible and nosy neighbor is fine with his sexual orientation. It’s so lovely. We need more books like this.
- Calliope is a great cat. Cats in British books (or American books masquerading in British style) are the best book cats.
Bookshelves & Babble 