Change often starts with the smallest of whispers. Like-minded people building it up to a roar.
My sister recommended me this book because she thought I would like it.
She wasn’t wrong.
Don’t You Wish You Were Here?
Linus Baker is a by-the-books caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) whose life is taken up by work but enjoys music and fantasizing of the beach while taking care of his cat, Calliope. He’s good at his job which is why he’s assigned to look after a house full of extremely powerful children and make sure their caretaker, Arthur, is following the rules.
But he has no idea what’s waiting for him and must open his mind and realize not everything is as it seems.
“You’re too precious to put into words. I think … it’s like one of Theodore’s buttons. If you asked him why he cared about them so, he would tell you it’s because they exist at all.”
Home Isn’t Always A House
I’m a huge fan of the writing in this book. It’s descriptive but not too much that makes you glaze over long paragraphs. It’s also funny. I’m not sure the last time I laughed that much over a book.
Linus has this charm to him but still needs to see the world from a different way. He cares about the children but doesn’t think about what happens to them after he’s done his job.
Arthur has this whimsy to him. He’s open to everything and just wants best for the children but with them being so different, and rare, from other magical beings, doesn’t want to let them go.
Both are fascinated by one another and their relationship is a slow burn which I liked to read. It wasn’t forced or felt off.
It doesn’t take long to connect to the kids either. When you have the Antichrist (Lucy, they don’t use the “a” word) living in the house, it’s bound to be interesting, but based on so many intirations of Lucifer, you should expect Lucy isn’t an abomination. He loves music. And that’s the point of this book, to make you look at things differently and just not assume.
“People suck, but sometimes, they should just drown in their own suckage without our help.”
Overall
amazon
As a writer, this is the kind of book that is a huge inspiration to me, especially when it comes to the genre and mix of comedy and seriousness. It makes you laugh, cry, and feel a warm cuteness just from the fact that Chauncey, a little blob with tentacles, wants to be a bellhop.
He just wants to be a bellhop *cries.*
Or Theodore, a wyvern who loves collecting things, especially buttons.
Once the story starts and Linus gets to the island, you can tell where it’s going to go and how it will end, but it’s how he gets there that’s the important part. To see his mind change and look at the kids differently, especially Lucy, who he fainted over when realizing the Antichrist lived at the house.
I would love to read another book about these characters. It wouldn’t even have to have an actual plot, just their day-to-day lives, doing whatever. The closer I got to the end, the more I didn’t want it to end but I also wanted to keep reading. It sucked.
The House in the Cerulean Sea is a huge recommendation.
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