The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune · Book review

Linus works as a caseworker for magical children living in orphanages. He's a very boring, by-the-books type of person but this all changes when he spends a month investigating an orphanage with potentially dangerous children who all have highly classified case files.

I went in with high expectations considering its 4.47 rating on Goodreads but was left feeling quite disappointed. It felt very, very cheesy at times, especially the romance subplot which really didn't make much sense at all. Honestly I cringed a bit while reading it.

It goes for a lighthearted, kooky tone (Linus's bosses are literally called Extremely Upper Management). But at the same time they live in a world where magical beings must be registered and monitored, and there is a large amount of discrimination towards them in society. And so the combination of those two things feels weird for the very happy, good vibes ending that we get.

I don't really want to give this a 3, the writing isn't bad. I think I'm just completely the wrong demographic for this book. I could see it being targeted towards YA or even lower.