TJ Klune is another talented writer, but I did not get the point of "The House in the Cerulean Sea." This is not to say the novel was bad: it had many redeeming qualities.
The first thing I will discuss is that it seemed a little too whimsical. While I believe Klune intended for it to be a work of fantasy, a lot of it seemed grounded in the real world as well. He really didn't fit his writing well into either.
For background: the novel looks like it is set in an alternate version of this world, one with magical creatures. However, there are things that make it seem the same, such as the fact this world and ours seem to have the same musical history; many artists from the real world are mentioned.
Klune writes beautiful descriptions of the scenery in the novel. A few of my favorites were, "There was green. Bright and beautiful greens of waving grass, and what appeared to be flowers in pinks and purples and golds. They disappeared into white sand. And beyond the white was cerulean." (51) and "The garden itself was blooming wildly. He didn't see any sunflowers, but there were calla and Asiatic lilies. Dahlias. Celosias. Chrysanthemums, orange geberas, and Chinese bellflowers. There were even beautyberries...." (74).
I will make a complaint about the main character: while this did seem like the point of the book, he is somewhat of a caricature.
He fits in very much with the cliche of a man who has worked at the same job for years and always does it by the book. While I don't disagree with this in and of itself, Klune makes him deliberately not interesting. I won't spoil anything, but more action was necessary both with him and with what happened.
Which brings me to my next point: to Klune's credit, the book did not feel too long, and it was an enjoyable read. However, the plot did take a while. I probably would have cut a little bit from the middle of the book (most of what happened in Chapter 10 was not that necessary).
"The House in the Cerulean Sea" also needed more conflict. I get that a lot of it was internal, but I felt like it could have been more interesting. Maybe that wasn't the point, but I feel like it should have been.
I will also credit Klune with his creativity. He has thought up magical creatures possibly found nowhere else in literature for this book.
I almost gave four stars, especially since it got better as it went along. However, it was really not that memorable. I would recommend it for someone looking for something light and fluffy, but if you want more, probably not.
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