Member-only story

My First 5 Star Read of 2025: “Somewhere Beyond the Sea”

A review of TJ Klune’s 2024 fantasy novel

J. S. Wong
The Book Cafe
4 min readJan 10, 2025

--

Photo from Goodreads

Having loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, I was excited that TJ Klune decided to revisit Marsyas Island. Somewhere Beyond the Sea was one of my most anticipated reads of last fall. Fortunately, the sequel lived up to the hype and started my reading year on a high note.

As the master of an orphanage, Arthur Parnassus hopes to become the adoptive father of the six magical children who live there. When Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his past, he finds himself in a position to fight for the future of his family and magical people. When a new child joins their island home, and the government sends another inspector, Arthur and his loved ones will do anything to protect their family.

“You see me, and you wish you hadn’t. You wish I was invisible. Out of sight, out of mind. Unseen, faded, muted. You want my color. You want my joy. You want a monochrome world with monochrome beliefs. You see me, and you want to take it all away. But you can’t. You want me lost, but I am found in the breaths I take, in the spaces between heartbeats. I am found because I refuse to be in black and white, or any shade of gray. I am color. I am fire. I am the sun, and I will burn away the shadows until only light remains. And then you…

--

--

The Book Cafe
The Book Cafe

Published in The Book Cafe

Hello, fellow reader. We’re just a bunch of book lovers who love writing about books. Fiction and non-fiction are both welcome. Why not pour a coffee or tea and join us?

J. S. Wong
J. S. Wong

Written by J. S. Wong

Top Writer (x3) in Reading, Books, and Fiction. Follow me if you like to read articles on writing, books, and reading! https://jswwongwriter.wordpress.com/

No responses yet