The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Linus Baker is a by-the-book caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records for company. But his quiet life is about to change.

Linus is summoned by Extremely Upper Management and given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to an orphanage on a distant island and determine whether six dangerous magical children are so dangerous, in fact, that they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

When Linus arrives at that strangest o islands he’s greeted by a series of mysterious figures, the greatest mystery of which is Arthur Parnassus, the master of the orphanage. As Linus and Arthur grow closer, Linus discovers the master would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world has to burn. Or worse, his secret comes to light.

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I have very mixed feelings on this book. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the characters. I think Klune wrote whimsical children very well and this type of story was very reminiscent of my favourite Neil Gaiman tales so I was immediately entertained. I liked the isolated island and how the house had kind of a “magic school” vibe. It’s also very much focused on the “found family” trope which I absolutely love. However, I didn’t like the main character very much. Sure, Linus had some great “heroic” moments but of the whole he was a very bland and boring character. This book would have been ten times more exciting written from literally any other characters point of view. I would petition for an entire spin-off of the same story but completely from Lucy’s perspective. When I’m reading a book about a bunch of magic children that are powerful enough to bring about the end of the world, I’m looking for chaos not stability. I also went into this book well aware of the inspiration behind it (the Sixties Scoop in Canada) so I definitely went into this with a hyper-critical eye. I considered for a long time whether I wanted to read this when I found out, but I absolutely hate judging a book that I haven’t read yet. If it’s problematic, I want to know why. I did end up enjoying the story-telling but I can see where people might have problems. This book is pure hopes and dreams, representing a world better than ours where things can change THAT easily. It cannot be equated to real life nor compared. However, I do think it’s good to have an open eye while reading this to understand where the faults are.

Note: If you’re looking for some good reads on the topic written by Indigenous Canadian authors here’s a couple of recommendations: Bearskin Diary by Carol Daniels, Ohpikiihaakan-ohpihmeh (Raised Somewhere Else) by Colleen Cardinal

Linus Baker is a caseworker who loves children and does his job of literally shutting down “orphanages” full of magical “unwanted” children because he just cares for them so damn much. Yet once he shuts down the centres, he never bothers to follow-up on what ever happened to these kids. I hated that representation because there are a lot of good social workers in the world who truly care and want to do whats best for children in potentially dangerous or abusive situations. Linus is represented as one of the “good ones” but once his job is done, the empathy shuts off. I don’t get it. His character growth was good but it still felt very surface level to me and I wish we could see more of that. What inspired him to be in his line of work? WHY did he never ask questions when it was obvious he was smarter than that? How, exactly, did he overcome his pre-conceived notions of “dangerous” children? I want to know the mechanics of how his development came about. I think seeing the journey of Linus turning from a brainwashed “follower” with discriminatory learnings into a loving person bent on creating change would have made this story so much better.

One thing I absolutely LOVED about this book was the children. Klune did a great job of representing the innocence of childhood and the complex thought process’ of children while still delving into the more serious aspects of what it might be like to be a child lost in the world. Lucy was my personal favourite but I really enjoyed Talia as well. I guess I’m drawn to aggressive characters because they stood out the most as relatable to my childhood self. Even though we are reading about the characters from another persons point of view, they still had so much complexity (something that was lacking from the MC himself strangely enough). In comparison to the adults of this book, the children seemed to leap off the page, fully developed with great characterization. It was like a zap of colour in a black and white movie when they came onto the scene.

Overall, I think the book was pretty whimsical and innocent. I did go into this read knowing that this book was inspired by the Sixties Scoop so I kept that at the forefront of my mind while reading. I did find a few moments of saviourism that felt a bit phony when compared to real life, however, the plot of “magic children being feared and hated” in a book isn’t new. MOST fantasy books with magical main characters face this discrimination. I think the problematic aspects mainly come in the few times that Linus and other non-magic adults become a bit performative in their ally-ship which, in all honesty, may have contributed to my dislike for the main character point of view. I think if you read this, go into it with a critical eye and knowledge of what inspired it.

I rated this 3.5 on GoodReads for the characterization of the children and the whimsical nature of the writing however I didn’t like the main character and it felt just a bit too hopeful for me given circumstances (but maybe I’m just a cynic).