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thoughts on the house in the cerulean sea

* mild spoilers ahead if you haven't read the book!*

I recently finished reading The House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune after wanting to read it since it came out in 2020 and my God was it worth it! I'm actually surprised that I liked the book as much as I did since the beginning was a little slow and it's a little longer than the stuff I usually read (almost 400 pages, I wasn't sure my attention span would hold) but I enjoyed it and my heart feels so full after reading it. There were even some parts that made me tear up a little (which doesn't happen very often)

I'm also a big fan of found family stories, witty dialogue and quirky fantasy so this was right up my alley. I don't normally enjoy romance in books but this was subtle and sweet enough that I didn't really mind. (And also because it's queer romance, obvs)

And I know the whole "magical creatures are supposed to be a metaphor for queer people” thing, but (and I don't know if this is me just projecting) it works just as well (or maybe even better) if you think of the orphanage children as disabled/neurodivergent.

I mean…

• The whole idea of there being a system for magical children who are separated from the rest of society, and then when they become adults they have to try to fit in without any help for magical adults (the system for disabled adults irl kinda sucks, if you didn't know)
• The people in the town think that the magical creatures are "freaks” and "monsters” and not letting other human kids play with them because they could "catch” their weirdness.
• The orphanage kids are very intelligent for their age and have very specific niche interests (Chauncey and his obsession with bellhops, Lucy with old music, Talia with gardening and dead bodies etc.) I got strong neurodivergent coded vibes off of all of them tbh.
• One of the kids is a wyvern named Theodore who only speaks in chirps/non verbally
• Sal as a character in general (he was my favourite) A tall, quiet teenage boy who gets easily scared by loud noises (which causes him to accidentally shapeshift into a dog), doesn't like making eye contact and prefers to be with animals (and Theodore) instead of people? It's right there you guys! And he's also a very talented poet. (Also the part where he said he likes to write but sometimes it's difficult because thoughts and words get all jumbled in his brain and he doesn't know how best to express them. ME TOO, DUDE)

Anyways I don't know if I'm still making sense here but the point is I loved the book and I definitely will be reading more of TJ Klune's stuff in the future!

*I'd also really like to see a movie adaptation of this someday. Preferably animated (but I wouldn't mind live action if they did it well) I just think this story would make a great movie ^_^