Review: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

If you are looking for a book that is a huge hug, has excellent own voices queer representation, is the most found family of found family books, and is about dismantling oppressive power structures, man do I have the book for you!

This book is so joyous. It starts with Linus Baker, a caseworker inspecting orphanages full of magical children. He is a cog in a machine he has no desire to know more about; he is unhappy in his life and lacks social connection. One day Extremely Upper Management (of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, DICOMY), they are incredibly Orwellian, calls Linus to their office to give him a classified assignment. He is so thorough and objective that they wish to send him to a secret island to inspect a secret orphanage. The kids on this island are extremely unusual (and maybe dangerous) cases, and the proprietor of the orphanage, Arthus Parnassus, has an unusual manner of running his orphanage.

I don't want to spoil much; all the little reveals are truly so much fun to experience. I really loved meeting all the children. My favorite might be Sal, but it also seems very rude to have a favorite; they are all wacky and very enjoyable to read about. You will laugh and cry, or at least I did.

As mentioned earlier, if you love the found-family trope, you really need to pick this book up. It is such a delightful finding your home and people story. I also really loved how Klune had gay men being the main, very excellent caregivers to the children. I can see this story being very meaningful to anyone who wants to see a version of parenthood that is still too often denied.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph. I did take about a week break in reading this book, election stress, but once that stress dissipated, I jumped right back into this wonderful world. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.