The House in the Cerulean Sea, by T.J. Klune

[sophia_sol]

A lot of people seem to really love this book, so it disappointed me to find that it just didn't land for me. The things it's doing are things I like (it's sort of like an Eva Ibbotson kids book except with a gay romance!), but....idk, it felt to me like the characterizations and situations were all very broadly written with no nuance. Like, the opening part of the book with Linus and his workplace felt like nothing but a caricature of Bad Office Job With Bad Boss. And although the subject matter improves from there (found family between people who are seen as outsiders!), the general feel of didactic stereotypes and one-note characters continues. And I didn't feel particularly fond of Linus, and I never got much of a sense of what kind of person Arthur actually is.

Also the whole thing is extremely predictable. Not that there's anything wrong with that in its place, but I never got all sparkly with excitement over anything that happened in the book, because I saw it all coming and not in the "ooh I can't wait for that to happen!" kind of way.

Overall there's nothing wrong with the book, but the way it's written just doesn't suit my tastes. Sigh.

Comments

[sara]

Well, you're not alone in that, I had the same experience. Although I also found it painfully twee. It was right up against the line of "nope, can't finish" for me.

[sophia_sol]

yeahhhhh I nearly gave up on this book multiple times myself! And I'd agree with you on the tweeness. What really surprises me is that this book has a 4.9 star rating on amazon and 4.6 on goodreads, which is an astonishingly high rate of agreement among its readers.

[sara]

Weird. I mean, there wasn't anything wrong with it as such, so maybe other people just liked the things I didn't? I don't put a tremendous faith in online ratings.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah, I get a lot more value out of reading individual reviews than an aggregate star rating, because when people talk about the specifics of what they like (or don't like!) I can use that as data to apply towards what I know I do or don't like in a book. I was just surprised because I hardly ever see books with such high star ratings, and wondering what it is about this one that has such broad appeal when other books I think are better don't.

[chestnut_pod]

I've heard very mixed things -- still hoping it might be one that works for me, but not banking on it.

[sophia_sol]

I hope it does work for you! :) It might not have been for me but it seems to speak to many people, and I always want books to find their audience even if I'm not one of them.