The House in the Cerulean Sea
Ratings1,115
Average rating4.3
I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory issues. Read them at your peril!
Linus, a Repressed, but decent man working for a grim magical supervisory department is sent to a mysterious far away island. Here he finds 6 especially different magical children Lucy (Lucifer), son of the devil; Talia, a gnome; Chauncey, a jelly-fish-like creature who wants to be a bellhop; Sal, a frightened and damaged shape-shifter; Theodore, a wyvern; and Phee, a forest sprite. Two adults care for the children Arthur, who eventually turns out to also be magical, a phoenix; and Zoe, and island sprite. Linus is afraid of them all at first, but gradually loosens up, and helps them to branch out as well. Tension introduced by way of hostility from bigots in the nearby village.
Meh.
The best part of this one is the dialogue involving the kids. Very funny and well written.
The rest is entirely predictable and fairytale-ish. There's very little depth here. Standard morality tales. Hate is bad. Love is good. Boring.
There's one “big reveal”, but it is telegraphed quite early on and fairly easy to predict, so not very surprising. And the consequences of it are fairly minor.
As so many others have said, it's saccharine and obvious.
If you want a simple, gentle, mildly amusing read, this is that.
Un vrai plaisir à lire ce livre en compagnie de ma copine @juju_lecture ! (Aussi bien la compagnie que la lecture). Ca fait très longtemps que je n'ai pas lu de lecture « doudou » ou confort, où nous ne sommes pas face à des quêtes, des monstres, des prophéties ou quelque chose d'épic. Quelle agréable aventure quand même de suivre Linus sortir de sa petite routine et découvrir un nouveau monde, une nouvelle façon de vivre et ainsi, pouvoir changer sa façon de penser et de percevoir les choses ! Je le recommande chaudement à toute personne voulant passer un bon moment et avoir un bon mood en lisant un livre :D
✅ Points Positifs ✅
- Cosy Lecture
- Personnages très attachants
- Développement de la façon de penser de Linus
- Pas mal de réflexions sur la société et les lois
❌ Points Négatifs ❌
- Il manque quand même un peu d'action (légerement influencé sur mes lectures habituelles ahah)
- Légèrement déçu des révélations sur Mr Parnassus, je m'attendais à pire/mieux
- Des fois, c'était dur de suivre les réflexions internes de Linus, genre ça partait dans un sens mais ça revenait vite dans l'autre
Cute, cozy, feels like a cousin to Good Omens or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. (Is this a mini genre of like, British bureaucratic fabulism?)
Very whimsical and charming, with the sort of dreamy reality that you'd find in a Roald Dahl or Lemony Snicket novel...I'll admit I was not immune to the sweetness of the adorable kids, and I was tearing up at the end. I have a lot of complicated feelings about the inspiration and the author, but I will not tell anyone else how they should or should not feel about that.
Book-wise, I felt that the writing could get a little repetitive (and redundant) (and repetitive) (and redundant) at times and though the romance was nice enough, it felt a little insta-lovey and I wasn't quite sure I understood their connection. But overall I enjoyed the humor and gentle tone. 3.5 bellhops out of 5, rounded up.
I thought it was boring...took me a really long time to finish because I was never really excited to pick it up but it was a sweet story
En cualquier momento, no importa cuándo en tu vida, puedes tener la oportunidad de romper la burbuja y elegir una vida nueva, más aún, que ella te elija también.
My notes:
- Is this Young Albus Dumbledore fan fiction?
- this is fun and cute. Predictable, but fun and cute.
- kind of like a hallmark movie (stiff business person travels to the country for work, finds love...)
- People in this book use the phrase “seeing as how” all the time...including in a formal business letter. Every character.
- This book is very cozy and cute while still having some stakes. Even though it's a little annoying I still want to keep reading.
- Ok the Young Albus Dumbledore fanfiction has intensified. This MUST be deliberate...
- People speak in idioms and “lessons” a little weirdly often in this book. I guess in the moments that they are talking with children it could make sense. But not between adults...“You are a fire, and they need to know how you burn.” ??
- Ok based on this scene towards the end of the book I can deduce that this author is a big fan of the movie Erin Brocovitch... “did you even read her report? Because I did.”
- The whole cultural appropriation criticism seems complicated and valid, and I'd like to read more about it. Seems like if the author simply had not revealed his “inspiration” he probably would have been a lot better off...
- I do wish the actual world building was more...existant. So many things just mentioned and not explored. Also this is somehow the second book I've read this year that establishes the existence of Hell/the Devil as unquestionably real, and does not explore the theological or societal ramifications of that at all. Like religion is still a maybe/maybe not thing? What do the non religious people make of the existence of the devil? Huh. Is Hell a geographic location or do you go there when you die? Unclear...
- Despite all this I would still say this is an enjoyable book. A fun quick read, very feel-good happy ending...pretty idealistic. But without being boring throughout.
It feel like a movie from the 80s including all the cliches that it has, however if you don't care about them it's a good distraction, I'll say that by the end of the book I was getting a tad bit bored because it's predictable.
solid 4 star until the last quarter of the book, still a great book but the end kinda sucks
This book was so gorgeous I just couldn't put it down. Every character was so endearing and it was one of the only books that has put a smile on my face recently. I needed an escape and this fantasy world was exactly what I was craving. Found family, little homosexuality, hilarious children, and a sense of belonging I wish I could have in real life. <3
I loved this reading this novel. I loved the children (especially Lucy and Thalia). This was a very wholesome and quite funny read. The only reason I didn't rate it 5 stars is ‘cause I found the start to be a little slow and tedious to read. I liked how much Linus changed by the end. And lastly, fuck you Merle.
A slow starter for me, but I grew to love the characters. The beginning dragged on a bit too long for me, but once the story got going it had me not wanting to put it down. Lots of messaging about not discriminating and accepting people as they are. Absolutely adorable and heartwarming.
Pretty sure this is the only book that has made me happy cry multiple times. While it took me about 100 pages to get into the story I was hooked right after.
I have grown so attached to all of these characters and found types of people and creatures I would want in my life.
Everyone should (want to) read this.
For someone who doesn't really like YA, I sure seem to be reading a lot of YA lately. I blame my friends. In particular, this small group of remarkable people, kind & smart & patient, each one apparently feeling obligated to make me a better more open-minded person by foisting books on me that I would otherwise turn my snobby nose up at.This one, like [b:that other book I just finished 58388343 Some Desperate Glory Emily Tesh https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1668621616l/58388343.SY75.jpg 91580340], was almost unbearably painful at the start. This one, too, paid off after initial effort. Here the setup was cartoonish; the protagonist a humorless, soulless, unlikable bureaucrat; and the dialog made my teeth hurt from gritting them. But I kept going, because see above. And then somewhere near page 50 my brain just did a flip of sorts and I started getting it... and, soon, really enjoying it. This is escapist fantasy, a chance to snuggle safely with warm lovely marginalized people – which is why we read [a:Becky Chambers 17650479 Becky Chambers https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], after all, though that's a parallel that only just came to me; I didn't make the connection while reading.The story arc is predictable, but only broadly speaking: you know Plot Trope X is coming, but when it does it's not quite how you thought it would be. Maybe the best way I can describe the book is “charming”: it charmed me.Thank you, friends.
A fun little book, striking at the heart of discrimination and fear of someone or something purely from not understanding it. I listened to the audio book and it was very enjoyable, I'm not usually fond of audio books that put on accents but this worked well.
I decided to join my library's book club this year, and this was our first read of the year.
It was an alright read - I loved a lot of the characters, especially Arthur. I thought the perspective of this story was pretty interesting as well. The themes and setting of this book are ones that will be familiar to a lot of YA readers - you have a group of misfits in a magical school setting, and this theme of finding yourself and standing up for your beliefs in a vaguely dystopian setting. All that seems kind of familiar. However, what was unique was seeing that from the perspective of Linus, a middle-aged man, rather than from a precocious teen. That changes how we experience the story in a big way, I think.
One thing that I wish the story did better was to give us a more well-rounded world - the world beyond Marsyas felt very underdeveloped and vaguely sketched out. I think it would have made the story stronger to have a greater sense of just how different the world is from our own.
