The house in the Cerulean Sea – T J Klune

This book was gifted by my cousin Ponnu and the way she raved on about the book, I stopped all other pursuits and jumped straight to this one. The book did not disappoint me, and rather I finished the read on a pleasant tone, like the feeling one gets towards a “feel-good” movie. But it lacked the ‘exciting’ part on a personal level, and feels like the story got offloaded from mind as soon as I hit the last page.

Under the genre of fiction, this book travels through a period where magical community and non-magical community co-exist, in thin line of tolerance. The central character Linus Baker, a quiet Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management and given an assignment, he travels to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. The rest of the plot develops around the island where Linus gets to know more about the kids and their caretaker the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe.

Though I have not noted down catchy phrases or lines that stole my heart, here are a few things I liked about the book.

Things I liked

-          The concept, the story, the characters are all kept simple, despite their ‘magical characterization’.

-          (Slightly spoiler alert) There are no big surprises or jump scares along the reading course.

-          The book is small and short and can be finished in one go by a fast reader.

-          The book has something to offer for all ages, the message and feeling being different with different ages.

Things I did not like

-          Couldn’t help finding uncanny resemblances with the Harry Potter books. It might be because that is the only series I have read in this genre.

 

Overall, the book is a good read and maybe if I got it many years back, a carefree dreamer’s eyes would have received this with more love and passion. Saying that, reading this book will not be a waste of time if you are a fan of “simple happy times”