The House in the Cerulean Sea

A very sweet book that I read quickly and enjoyed most every minute of. For my taste, it was definitely a little too on the nose for its message, but, honestly, it just felt so earnest, it's hard to hold it against it. I will say the weight of some of the “reveals” didn't really land, because of all the things that were over-explained in this book, the reason why some things were important in the fantasy world weren't explained at all.

One of my most common complaints in books are relationships that feel un- or underdeveloped, and I did feel that annoyance in this book, but the story was so much more about family rather than romance, so, again, I ended up not really caring by the end.

One thing, though, and I'm not sure if it just means I'm old and remember too many things, but some passages in this book felt like they were ripped straight from other sources. The description of Arthur's face, down to the crooked nose, was beat-by-beat the original Dumbledore description. A silly scene was nearly word-for-word a scene from Lilo & Stitch; even the italics were in the same spot! It was kind of jarring to be taken out of this story because I was instantly transported into another one.