seven late night thoughts with zoe

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune follows 40 year old Linus baker, a case worker at the department in charge of magical youth. Linus has been at the same job for years, following the same dull routine, living at home by himself with his cat and her record collection up until he is asked by extremely upper management to take on an extra special case and visit an orphanage on Marsyas island where six supposedly dangerous kids reside under the care of Arthur Parnassus. During his time on the island, Linus must decide whether the orphanage is safe enough, for those in but also those out, to stay open or if it should be condemn right away. Linus is in for a real adventure upon his arrival when things are not he expected them to be.

Goodreads

First of all, let’s acknowledge de hype this book has gotten – everybody who has read it and their mother have given it five stars and raved about how much they loved it… Well I am here to tell you, it lives you to the hype!

The characters

If you know me as a reader, you know i’ve always had a preference for character-driven stories over plot-driven stories. The house in the cerulean sea is filled with lovable, reliable and relatable characters who are all very distinct from one another. Our characters are flawed, they have dark and broken pasts but they fill the story with beautiful emotions, softness that i have never seen before in another story. I can say with a certainty that the characters were the best thing about this book and my love for all of them is eternal.

The love and acceptance

We can’t talk about The House in the Cerulean Sea without acknowledging how, even thought it deals with heavy subject matter, this is a story of love, acceptance, and happiness. Everything in this book is just freaking adorable. From the relationships between the different characters to their relationship with themselves and how they all grow and learn so much over the span of the story, this book is bound to make you smile and warm your heart a few times. Just like everyone else is saying, this book is just filled with pure love and embracing happiness and honestly it’s the best book to pick up when you need to feel a little bit of love.

The creative writing

Let’s talk about how this book was unlike anything i’ve ever read before. From the world to the concept to the characters everything was fresh, new and clever. This is a book that gave me the ”I wish I would have written that” feeling as I kept flying through the chapters. Every sentence were written in poetic but straightforward way and each paragraph carried so many emotions, so much pure love that knows limits. TJ Klune strung each words perfectly with one another and I can only say I am beyond excited to read more of his works.

The connection to real life situation

I think the thing I loved the most about this story was how the fictional fantasy setting and the characters were crafted out in a way that was relatable and applicable to real life. If you know me, you know that I have studied psychology, specifically children and youths’ mental health care and that I have a personal connection to things such as adoption, foster care, social systems etc. So of course this book was one I knew I would either love or hate and fortunately, I loved it with all my heart. Even the story is a fictional one with fantastical elements, it felt real and true on so many levels. I wish more people would read this book but especially people who work with young children because I think this book has a lot to teach the world.

To all my subscribers; Thank you for your support and your continuous love, you mean the world to me. 

ps; I will be posting different days and at different times for the next few weeks as i'm trying to see which day / what time has better traffic..