A beautiful story about belonging, friendship, and home.

TJ Klune deserves all the accolades this book has received and more.

  • A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
  • A 2021 Alex Award winner
  • The 2021 RUSA Reading List: Fantasy Winner
  • An Indie Next Pick
  • One of Publishers Weekly‘s “Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2020”
  • One of Book Riot’s “20 Must-Read Feel-Good Fantasies”

Lambda Literary Award-winning author TJ Klune’s bestselling The House in the Cerulean Sea is considered his breakout contemporary fantasy — “1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in.” (Gail Carriger)

I am happy to read more from this author. The story is cheeky, magical, and funny (yet somber at times).

Linus Baker is a caseworker with DICOMY, the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Imagine a caseworker who shows up at places like the X-Men school. But then add the layer of ridiculous bureaucracy.

Linus is full of reports. He sits at a small wooden desk, Row L Desk 7, in a room with 26 rows with 14 desks in each row. It’s stifling. No personal items. No talking. The threat of demerits.

Then one day he is summoned to the fifth floor, Extremely Upper Management, and assigned to a highly classified assignment: visit a far-gone orphanage where only the children with the most dangerous powers are kept. Gulp.

Linus meets a female garden gnome, a sprite, a wyvern (winged creature), an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist.

There are so many great moments in this book where Linus is struggling with his interior monologue (all fear based) and what actually needs to come out of his mouth (words of support and encouragement). In the quote below he has been dragged on a forest adventure with the children. The son of Lucifer is in charge today. He’s six.

“Okay,” Lucy said, stopping at the edge of the trees. He turned back toward the group, eyes wide. “As you all know, there is an evil sprite—”

“Hey!” Phee cried.

“Lucy, we don’t call people evil,” Arthur reminded him as Theodore settled on his shoulder. “It isn’t polite.”

Lucy rolled his eyes. “Fine. I take it back. There is a murderous sprite…” He paused, as if waiting for any objections. There were none. Even Phee seemed gleeful. Linus felt the point had been missed entirely, but thought it wise to keep his mouth shut. “A murderous sprite who has a treasure hidden deep in the woods that is ours for the taking. I cannot promise your survival. In fact, most likely even if you make it to the treasure, I will betray you and feed you to the alligators and laugh as they crunch your bones—”

“Lucy,” Arthur said again.

Lucy signed. “It’s my turn to be in charge.” He pouted.

chapter 10

Linus’ job is to report back to Extremely Upper Management on the house manager Arthur and the children’s welfare. He’s to recommend either it stays open or not. What he finds is a home full of magic—the fantasy kind and the kind that’s fostered by love.

This is a fairy tale for adults and any kid wise enough to understand the nuances of prejudice.