The House in the Cerulean Sea

 

The House in the Cerulean Sea follows dreadfully boring Linus Baker, who is a single forty-year-old and looks like there’s a tire around his midriff. Linus is a Case Worker at DICOMY, or Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, and spends his days overseeing and inspecting government sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is summoned by Extremely Upper Management, given an extremely classified case, and shipped off to Marsyas Island in the middle of nowhere, he is met with his most peculiar case yet. The Marsyas Island Orphanage is home to six dangerous children: a gnome, a sprite, an unidentifiable green blob, a wyvern, a were-Pomeranian, and the son of Lucifer himself. As Linus spends more time on the island with these six children and their charming caretaker Arthur, he discovers that the children aren’t the only secrets this island is harboring.

This book was amazing. I loved it. It’s one of my favorite books ever. At first I found Linus’ square character to be slightly annoying, but later I found that that’s exactly the way he’s supposed to be. One of my favorite things about this book was the character growth, particularly Linus’, because watching him grow was beautiful. I’ve never read a book with such smooth and natural character development, especially from a standalone. The House in the Cerulean Sea is more character-based than plot-based which I liked because it really allows you to connect with the characters. The book was in no way boring, and it was a pretty quick read. The House in the Cerulean Sea is the sweetest, most wholesome, and heartwarming book I’ve read, and everyone needs a piece of this in their lives. On a side note, this book contains queer representation and the author, who is queer himself, "believes it's important-now more than ever-to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories," which I think is amazing. The House in the Cerulean Sea is also labeled as adult, but I think that’s only because our main character is forty. Regardless of this I recommend this book to everyone because it’s just that good :p. Thanks for reading! (4.8 stars/5)

-       Bridget