Casey’s Reviews
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
“Like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket”
The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune came out in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. I first read it while quarantining, and it really was, as V.E. Schwab writes, “like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket.”
For a long time, stories about LGBT characters were always sad or violent, thanks to censorship restrictions in publishing, TV, and film. Books like Cerulean Sea are so healing because they make space for sweet, cozy stories where being queer isn’t a crime or a death sentence, but instead a normal — and even beautiful — thing.
Plot
Linus Baker is a boring man with a boring job. He lives alone with his cat, fills out paperwork — always very, very diligently — and keeps his head down at his job. The most unusual thing about Linus is his line of work. He’s a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth.
Linus’s detailed reports catch the eye of Extremely Upper Management, and he’s subsequently given a very special assignment: he’s to travel to a remote group home for “difficult” magical children in the foster care system and report back on the conditions there.
