Published: September 2024
Pages: 416
Summary
A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.
Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.
He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.
Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.
But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.
And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.
Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.
My thoughts
Oh boy, I think this might be a long one. Let me preface this by saying how much I adored House on the Cerulean Sea. I LOVED that book. I read it in one afternoon, I could not put it down. It was like reading a warm hug. Beautiful writing, beautiful characters, plenty of character development and I loved the overall message of the book. Which is why I was so excited for a second book I immediately preordered an Illumicrate version and that book only arrived this week. I finished it last time and I am so disapointed.
What did I like?
I love the kids in this series. They are the highlight of the show. They are funny and adventurous and kind and caring. It was great to come back and see their interactions, Chauncey is my favourite and he was even funnier in this book.
“Chauncey,” Sal said. “Did you eat Frank?”
“What! Of course not! That goes against everything I stand for! I would never–”
“We can see him in your stomach,” Phee said.
The other highlight of this book is David, the new magical child that needs a home. He was a great character, and although I was frustrated by the untapped potential of this storyline, I really loved the dynamic of helping another child and giving them the love and autonomy that a child needs. I just really loved seeing more of Linus and Arthur together as a couple, their life on Marsyas and the daily comings and goings with the children.
“I worry all the time about the children. I worry about them when they sleep. When they wake up. When they run, when they eat, when they laugh or cry or sneeze. When they ask questions or when they answer questions. What does that make me?” Linus snorted. “That makes you a father.”
My challenges
Let’s start with the children, the shift between book one and two is dramatic. The children have grown up overnight. They are the same age but their behaviour, their speech, their articulation has completely changed. It’s as if they’ve all aged into young adults, especially with how they were portrayed in book one it didn’t feel natural.
This book is mostly dialogue, which again, is another stark difference between book one which was focused on showing and not telling. Somewhere Beyond the Sea is telling us what to think and what to believe. We are not allowed to critically think, develop our thoughts and draw our own conclusions. It’s as if Klune doesn’t trust his readers to determine for themselves what is right and wrong. And for clarity, I am onboard with the overall message. I am right there with you already, there is no need to spend the entire book preaching the same message that most readers already believe in.
You don’t need to convince us, we’re already there, you need to show us.
And that leads me to my next challenge with this book. The dialogue is not natural and it truly feels like I am being preached at every couple pages. The characters lost a lot of their personality, all the dialogue felt and sounded like it came from the same singular person. There is a difference between how a young child and a grown adult speak and articulate their thoughts. But in this book you don’t see that.
A common scenario of this book is the children saying something and Arthur or Linus asking them to explain. I like giving children the opportunity to express themselves. I do it with my own children, it allows them to critically think and form their thoughts into coherent sentences. However in this book, this is a plot device used to create an opportunity to preach the same message. It is used so often that Arthur must have gotten sick of using the word ‘explain’ he started using ‘expound’ on a seven year old.
What I loved most about book one was that I could reflect inwards. I could challenge my thoughts, my feelings, and open myself up to a different perspective. This book does not allow it’s readers to pause for self reflection. I believe that there’s always something we can learn, and books are fantastic for challenging minds when done correctly.
‘This is Arthur’s story’
This is not Arthur’s story, let me be clear. I only learnt one thing about Arthur that we didn’t already know from book one. I wanted to see more. Maybe flashbacks to his childhood, scenes that made him who he is today. Flashbacks from his travels? Some insight from what he did before he came back to Marsyas. But we don’t get that. He does explain some of the situations right at the start of the book, however we already know about those.
There was an opportunity to explore this deeper with a new magical child, David. We could have seen more of David’s development. How the safe environment, loving guardians can help heal and what that looks like for David. What that opportunity allows for David’s future. How the children unite together through the highs and the lows. There was so much untapped potential to show the reader why a change in behaviour and laws are needed to help children. Instead of telling us every second page, show us.
Would I recommend?
I wouldn’t, no. I know that may upset many people but I have to stay true to my own thoughts. I loved book one with a huge passion, it sits on my shelf and I’m drawn to it when I need to read a warm hug. However, Somewhere Beyond the Sea felt flat and left me overall disappointed. I don’t think this book was needed for the story and the world Klune created. I loved seeing more of the children, I loved seeing Arthur and Linus together, and I am fully onboard with the message of the book. However, I do think that the message was written in a way that sacrificed pieces of the story that I loved so much with book one.