The House in the Cerulean Sea

This is a difficult book to rate. The story at face value is delightful, heartwarming and inspiring. I fell in love with these characters and their stories. I laughed and teared up in so many moments! I think this story will stay with me forever. The writing and tone of the book reminded me of reading a children's story, while also being incredibly profound.

While reading it, I thought it was quite effective at discussing the harms of queerphobia, xenophobia, and the power of found families. However, I have read that the author took inspiration from The 60s Scoop to develop this plot, an abhorrent period of indigenous genocide in Canada. The final text is not really about that, but it does feel a bit icky to use events from that period as plot points of a feel-good fantasy book.

Ultimately, my rating reflects my experience and enjoyment of the book in its final form, not the author's sources of inspiration. You're free to take that context into account when choosing wether or not to read this book.