(no subject)

[skygiants]

When I first read the setup of The House in the Cerulean Sea, in which our kind but blinkered bureaucrat hero gets sent to audit the mysterious foster home on the abandoned island with the potentially sinister proprietor and the six ominously magical children including the Antichrist, I was like "oh, I know what this is! This is a queer Gothic!"

As it turns out I was not in the least correct about this. The House in the Cerulean Sea is not at all a Gothic; what it is, in fact, is kidfic. From the moment Linus Baker first encounters Arthur Parnassus and his six magical kids, there is never any doubt about the fact that a.) Arthur is a perfectly charming and wonderful human and parent b.) the kids, including the Antichrist, have various quirks and backstory traumas but are at heart affectionate and adorable and c.) over the course of the month that he spends there, Linus is going to fall head over heels in love with all of them as he learns Important Lessons about prejudice, thinking outside the box, and the role that theoretically benevolent bureaucratic institutions such as his own DICOMY (the Department In Charge of Magical Youth) play in maintaining hegemonical systems of oppression.

So, if what you are looking for is soothing gay kidfic about a bureaucrat opening his heart to a perfect man and a new magical family, The House in the Cerulean Sea may be a good choice! I do want to emphasize the soothing and fuzzy element, like ... this is not really a book that's super interested in the emotional complexities of children? Two weeks and about one heartfelt interaction per kid is all it takes, more or less, for all of them to welcome Linus into their hearts as a second father figure. After that, the threats are all external. The kids are sometimes rude to Linus when he shows up, but they're never jerks to each other, or to Arthur, and their different needs never compete; Arthur never screws up as a guardian or feels anything but absolutely infinite love and protectiveness towards the kids, and once Linus Gets Over His Prejudices, his attitude is more or less the same.

I mean, I guess the thing is that this is not a book in which providing for the various physical and emotional needs of kids with wildly different backgrounds, or with a history of abuse or trauma, or indeed with destructive magical powers, is ever really a difficult thing to do. Like, as an example -- one of the kids is a wyvern, straight up just a different species, and Arthur and Linus are passionately willing to defend his intelligence and right to be treated as a child rather than a magical pet, and that's great, but then that's ... enough? That's as far as the book goes. The wyvern is a kid, and we treat him as a kid, and we have learned to understand his chirps, and we respect his hoard, and that's fine. He cherishes the beautiful bronze buttons we give him. Nothing about kids or dragons or adoption is harder than this.

(Also it's a book about prejudice and oppressive systems which is all centered on the fake thing [magic] and not on any of the real things; racism and homophobia do not seem to exist in this world that is otherwise similar enough to our own that Buddy Holly died in a tragic plane crash, all prejudice has been displaced onto distrust of magic. Not sure how I feel about this as a strategy although I understand the desire for worlds without homophobia etc. which is another element that may contribute to the soothing nature of this book.)

(I also had worldbuilding questions about the fact that nobody else seems to have any religious or existential questions about the existence of Little Lucy The Antichrist and his Real Dad who is the devil, but again I think that is probably looking harder at this gay magical kidfic than it's really intended to be looked at.)

Comments

[raven]

Hmmm. I had that one on my list, but I think I may reconsider! Kidfic. Ahh.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I mean, it is doing the thing that it is doing and that is wonderful if that is one's trope, and if it is not one's trope ... you know.

[happydork]

Yeah, it's very, very kidfic. I feel like you would love the set up (beleaguered civil servant in over his head! layers upon layers of weirdness gradually revealed!) and absolutely hate everything from about the 1/3 mark onwards. It has more conflict and plot that That One Cat Sebastian Book With The Vicar And The Navy Dude, but not by as much as you, personally, might wish.

[evewithanapple]

That one Cat Sebastian book was exactly what I thought of when I read this review! And I suspect I'd have the exact same issues with it.

[happydork]

To be fair, it does at least maintain a thin facade of plot, structure and conflict throughout the book, rather than just merrily throwing away any potential conflict by the 1/2 mark and pulling the blankets of soft fluff over its head for the rest of the book. But yeah, people who do not enjoy this sort of thing will not enjoy this sort of thing.

(I should add that I really enjoyed That One Cat Sebastian Book! It was soft and lovely and very charming! But I fully understand why it is not to everyone’s taste.)

[evewithanapple]

I enjoyed it too! But it's not my favourite of her books. I wished the kids had gotten a lot more development - Simon in The Lawrence Browne Affair felt like a real, fully-fleshed person, so I was disappointed that the Dacre kids were just like, The Dyslexic One, The Oldest One, and The Girl.

[raven]

Oh, Cat Sebastian. I could forgive a lot about that book, it was very charming, but was undone by the ducklings.

[happydork]

I love how ridiculously perfectly itself that book is! It made me so happy, but I fucking love me some soothing gay kidfic with magic and civil servants and remarkably little thought for the psychological implications of anything that cannot be fixed by a single moment of catharsis and/or kindness! It was exactly as soft as I needed it to be, but yeah, no, the moment you start asking questions about any part of it, the whole thing just collapses in a pile of (really sweet! very personally satisfying for me!) candyfloss.

*gently puts book in the Things That Please My Id But I Would Think Carefully About Who I Recommended It To pile, right next to Gideon The Ninth and The Sparrow*

[skygiants]

Yeah, it is very much being its own charming candyfloss self as hard as it possibly can! Kidfic is not my genre personally except under very specific circumstances, but I definitely know lots of people for whom it will be exactly the id and I am really happy it exists for you to cherish. <3

[sandrylene]

Yeah, I enjoyed it, it's obviously not perfect, but also it feels like an antidote to the needlessly crushing things that happen elsewhere, particularly when there's queer romance involved.

Cute and fluffy but not profound is a completely reasonable thing to read... I could do with more of that this year. XD

[sovay]

(I also had worldbuilding questions about the fact that nobody else seems to have any religious or existential questions about the existence of Little Lucy The Antichrist and his Real Dad who is the devil, but again I think that is probably looking harder at this gay magical kidfic than it's really intended to be looked at.)

I appreciate whenever a supernatural fantasy doesn't default to the reality of Christianity, though.

[skygiants]

The book is sort of like. Carefully not engaging with the fact that canonizing The Devil is kind of an implicit statement about Christianity? We're just not looking at that very hard, little Lucy does like making dire threats about the end of the world but that's just his way!

[sovay]

The book is sort of like. Carefully not engaging with the fact that canonizing The Devil is kind of an implicit statement about Christianity?

Alas.

(I am a little disappointed because many of the elements of this book sound like things I like, but not in the key I like them best in.)

[skygiants]

(Yeah, same -- I was really excited for the first chapter or two, and then it sort of veered off into, as you say, a different key than I was expecting.)

[sovay]

(Yeah, same -- I was really excited for the first chapter or two, and then it sort of veered off into, as you say, a different key than I was expecting.)

Is it a children's book? (If it's not for me, I might still be able to send it to my godchild.)

[sara]

Mmmnope.

I'd consider it as a teen option but tbh there are a lot of better teen options. And I say this as someone who has one teen who only wants novels about lesbian princesses and another who only wants novels about cats, robots, or robot cats, which aren't criteria that inherently make for a LOT of options.

[sovay]

Mmmnope.

Well, I am glad there are very soft and fluffy novels for adults, because God knows they need them right now.

. . . as we speak, my mother is looking for a copy of this novel, case in point.

I'd consider it as a teen option but tbh there are a lot of better teen options.

Check. Thanks. My godchild is ten years old, but their reading comprehension is at least middle school, so I am always on the lookout for options. (They live eight hours away, so I send them a lot of books.)

I have to ask, how many teen novels are there about robot cats?

[skygiants]

I very much hope your mom enjoys it!

[sovay]

I very much hope your mom enjoys it!

I hope she does, too! She is professionally a clinical psychologist for children and adolescents (who in the last couple of decades shifted over to working primarily with the elderly and other people in assisted living—midlife, you're on your own), so I think this book is either really going to work for her or really not!

[brainwane]

It felt like a children's book. I see I ended my review: "As a whole the book felt obvious, at the level of characterization and moral complexity of a picture book."

I'm also gonna repeat another complaint I had there: in this 400-page book, for the first 70 pages, our main character is being treated to relentless abuse from his supervisors, colleagues, and neighbor. I do not find that fun! At some point I don't think "this poor guy"; I think "this author is loading on the suffering to make me sympathize with this comprehensively dumped-on protagonist" and I wish I were reading a short story in Strange Horizons where the author took, like, 150 words to make this point.

[sbrackett]

YEah that part of it was really slow going. I don't want to read about relentless abuse from his environment for that long!

[ekaterinn]

I've heard good things about this book, but not in detail, so thank you for the review! Soothing gay kidfic sounds exactly what I need right now (though I do prefer the kids to be a bit more fleshed out than it seems here). I've been barely able to read anything but fic and work stuff through this pandemic, but I might make a go of this. ^_^

[skygiants]

The kids all definitely have distinct personalities, I do understand that it's rough, when there's six of them, to do detailed psychological exploration ... anyway I'm glad the review is useful and I really hope you enjoy it!

[ekaterinn]

Six is tough, though I think Cesperanza did a fairly good job in her due South fic With Six You Get Eggroll: https://archiveofourown.org/works/442926

(I'm in education, so I can be picky about kids in fics. Kids are often more weird, hilarious, and horrifying than depicted. And gross. So gross.)

I've ordered the book, so I'll try to let you know if I like it!

[skygiants]

Yes, please do -- I'll be very curious about your take on the kids in particular!

[cyphomandra]

I am about halfway through this atm and am finding it super hard to stay engaged as it’s like swimming through treacle. I’d bailed previously on a number of Klunes’ m/m novels for being way too sappy but so many people seemed to love this that I thought I’d give it a go, but no.

[skygiants]

Yeah, for me it was definitely also too much soft, not enough sharp -- I think it was sophia_sol who said in their review that nothing about the book ever felt at all unexpected, which accords with my experience.

[ceitfianna]

Huh, this sounds odd, sweet but like something that DWJ did better. It also seems like something that would be requested for Yuletide.

Oh and I've been reading and loving Beyond Silk and Cyanide, Marks is a great writer and its fascinating to read this after so many of Lynne Olson's books. And understand all the personalities involved, while having so much sympathy. That sense of not understanding where you work and that worry that those in charge don't either.

[skygiants]

Yeah, these kids as written by DWJ would have a lot of messier edges, I think, and be vastly more compelling to me as a result.

Between Silk and Cyanide is so good!! I'm really glad you're liking it. I've actually not read any Lynne Olson; seems like perhaps I ought?

[ceitfianna]

Yes, she provides some great takes on the WWII era by looking at some people who often get forgotten like Polish pilots. The books I've read and loved are; Last Hope Island, Madame Fourcade's War, and then the one about the Polish squardron: A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II. She's also one of those historians who does a great job of showing their work in an interesting way and since the history is fascinating, they're wonderful reads.

[lirazel]

I absolutely love the premise, but yeah, the rest of it sounds a little too fluffy. Loved reading your thoughts though!

[skygiants]

I'm glad it was useful -- also glad to have happydork in comments repping the contingent of folks who really loved this book because I know it is significant. :D

[happydork]

\o/ I am always here to uncritically love charming queer fluff!

[evewithanapple]

Aw, man. I do like kidfic, but kidfic that skates over the actual issues involved with raising children always gets on my nerves. They're people! They have independent wants, needs, and thoughts! No kid is 100% in harmony with their parents 100% of the time, and making them cute plot moppets just . . . grates.

[skygiants]

Yeah, and like ... goodness knows writing realistic kids is hard, but kids are so interesting and weird and rude and unexpected and for me it's always kind of a shame to see those edges get sanded down into fluff.

[evewithanapple]

For me it's the dehumanization, you know? When a fictional kid clearly just exists to be cute and support the adult plot, they stop feeling like a person, and it kills any sense of investment I have in the story. Why care about these people and their relationship with the kids when the kids are such blank slates?

(Admittedly I am saying this as a person who currently has a Word doc open entitled "kidfic I GUESS." But I like to think I give the kids at least some personality!)

[skygiants]

Yeah, absolutely. I will say, I don't think the focus is on the adult romance to the detriment of the kids, they're ... about equally sketched out? But if I had to pick one to add a little more emotional realism to, it would be the kid plot for sure.

[troisoiseaux]

It definitely read to me like a book for kids - minimal conflict, simplistic approach to complicated topics, and a capital-M Moral - but I enjoyed it in a soothing, chicken soup kind of a way.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I saw someone compare it to Eva Ibbotson and I definitely think that's kind of the vibe it's going for, though I actually have no idea if it's being marketed as for kids or for adults or what.

[troisoiseaux]

Based on the comments on GoodReads, that seems to be a pretty widespread point of confusion? (IIRC, many of the commenters that classified it as YA or adult lit. seemed to have a distinct, if subtextual, "this can't be for kids because the protagonist is a middle-aged gay man!" vibe, but I may be unfairly remembering a minority opinion as the majority.)

ETA: I've also started reading Between Silk and Cyanide! I only got a couple of chapters in before getting, uh, somewhat sidetracked, but it's delightfully written and I kept mentally screaming HOW HAS THIS NOT BEEN MADE INTO A MOVIE YET?!

[sbrackett]

What exactly is "Kidfic"? Is it another word for middle grade? Help! I've never heard this term before.

I enjoyed this book! I don't know that I have that much more to say about it. It was very cozy.

[hippogriff13]

It's fanfic involving the protagonist(s) bonding with kids, basically--often in a sort of "found family" way.

[sbrackett]

Ahhh. I don't really read much fanfic so I thought maybe it was a new term for middle grade fiction or something. I had no idea that the plot of this story was a whole tyype of fiction!

[ethelmay]

Oh! I was assuming you just meant "children's book." Good to have that clarified. (I should have recognized that -fic is a more specific suffix than that, but, well, I forgot. It has been a long week.)