There isn’t much that hasn’t already been said about Bookstagram’s darling, The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. ❤️

This book is all things charming, delightful, and endearing.

This fantasy tale follows the main character, Linus Baker, a rule-following case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth as he is sent to investigate an orphanage with six dangerous and unpredictable magical children. Linus is tasked by Extremely Upper Management with determining whether the orphanage should remain open or whether it should be shut down for the safety of the children.

Here are a few questions from our Book Banter bookmark that stood out in our discussion:

Which character steals the show? Lucy, Chauncy, Talia, Zoe, Helen… so basically all of the characters. They are a cast of wonderfully endearing magical (and some non-magical) beings that will warm your heart. 🥰

Does the author get the ending right? Yes! (no spoilers here) 😂

Could the story work as a movie? Definitely, in fact, many of us said that we read this as a Disney movie, picturing animated scenes in our heads. Weird, right? BTW, we would all go to see this movie.

There is one idea that our conversation kept circling back to again and again - Who was this book written for?

If this is a book intended for middle schoolers or YAs, why is the main character a 40-year-old? Hmmm… 🤔 If the book is meant for adults why are the messages so overt? (As adult readers, we like to have to work a bit harder to connect all the dots and figure out all the layers.) So, the bottom line is we aren’t sure if this is a slight criticism of the book that we can’t tell who it was written for or if it is a genius writer’s move. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Regardless, The House in the Cerulean Sea is a book worth reading and we recommend it for all ages! 😂