The House in the Cerulean Sea

This story is set in a fantasy world in which some people have magic, while most don’t. Magical folk are deemed harmful to society for no reason other than being who they are. They’re raised in orphanages, isolated, tagged, and watched, in the interest of protecting the rest of society.

The protagonist, Linus Baker, is a forty-year-old man, stuck in a life that’s boring, repetitive, and lonely. He has a job, a cat, a house, a nosy neighbour, and his collection of music. He works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). He’s a caseworker whose job involves visiting the orphanages that magical children are raised in, studying the conditions, and making recommendations.

Like the rest of his colleagues, he lives by the Rules and Regulations, a manual that tells him that he has to be objective, keep his distance from the children, and stay neutral.

The bland routine of his life is broken when he’s given a highly classified assignment. He’s sent to an orphanage on a remote island, which houses six magical children with unusual, even dangerous powers. He’s told to stay on that island for a month, observe and record everything.

The orphanage is run by Arthur Parnassus, a genial man, who’s devoted to the children under his care. The six children have distinct personalities, they’re eccentric, quirky and engaging.

There’s Talia, the gnome, who loves gardening, Theodore, the wyvern, who likes to collect buttons and other little treasures, Phee, a sprite who loves trees, Chauncey, who wants to grow up and be a bell-hop, because he likes to help people, Sal, a shapeshifter, who can turn into a dog. And finally, there’s Lucy, short for Lucifer, so named because he’s known to be the son of the devil.

Linus is terrified when he comes across this bit of information in the files about the orphanage that were given to him. But what he finds when he gets to the island, is a curious, engaging, intelligent, six-year-old boy, who’s occasionally troubled by terrible nightmares, but is just a child, like the rest of them.

As Linus spends time with and around the children, he realises that they’re more than just kids in an orphanage, they’re a family. They’re fiercely loyal to each other, and to Arthur, who adores them.

Linus made the trip to the island intending to keep his distance, but he finds himself caring deeply about all of them, and wanting to protect them, even if it means defying the organisation that employs him.

This is a book about inclusion, about people who are different from the norm, misfits, if you will, finding a place to belong. It’s about confronting prejudice, and the importance of standing up for yourself. This is a lovely story with well-crafted characters, an excellent plot, and a narrative that’s paced just right.