Author TJ Klune (Photo courtesy Tor Books)
Take a gnome, a sprite and an amorphous green blob, place them on an island and add a bit of mystery, and you have author TJ Klune’s newest book, “The House in the Cerulean Sea.” Released this month, Klune’s 25th book follows a group of extraordinary children sequestered on an island orphanage and feared by many for who they are. Geared toward young adults, the novel delves into topics of prejudice, discrimination and personal acceptance.
"The House in the Cerulean Sea" is author TJ Klune's 25th book. (Image courtesy Tor Books)
The lead character, Linus Baker, is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth or DICOMY. A simple man who strictly adheres to the “Rules and Regulations” textbook, all 947 pages, he inspects DICOMY’s orphanages to ensure the welfare of the children. He floats through life following his usual routine until one day, a request from Extremely Upper Management sends him to the isolated Marsyas Island to assess the orphanage; the master of the house, Arthur Parnassus; and the six unusual children who reside there. One particularly alarming child for Baker is Lucy, short for Lucifer, who is labeled as the antichrist. As he sets out to perform his duties with professional detachment, he begins to discover that perhaps the children are more than the sum of their parts, leaving Baker questioning if they are in fact dangerous. Complications from a budding relationship with Parnassus and mounting tension from nearby townspeople who want the children gone threaten Baker's ability to perform his job without getting personally involved.
For Klune, writing this book was a departure from other novels he has written, including his debut novel, “Bear, Otter, and the Kid,” which was selected by Amazon as one of its Top 10 LGBTQ Books in 2011, and his Lambda Literary Award-winning “Into This River I Drown.”
“I knew that I wanted to do something with magic involving children and discrimination about who they were and what they could do,” Klune says. “But I really wasn't quite sure I had all the pieces there to put the picture together that I wanted it to be.” That is, until he stumbled upon a Wikipedia article describing the Sixties Scoop, where indigenous children in Canada were taken from their families and placed in foster care or adopted. “I started researching more about children being taken from their families, and it's happened the world over. It’s not just in Canada, it’s happened in our own country. It's happening across Europe, Australia, and all of it was for one simple thing: assimilation to make those that we feared like ourselves, to make ourselves feel better.”
His research became the catalyst for “The House in the Cerulean Sea.” Just after he finished writing it in spring 2018 came the news of immigrant families along the U.S. border with Mexico being separated from their families and placed into government-run facilities. “I was just absolutely stunned and floored that history was once again repeating itself, that we don’t learn from our past mistakes. And it floored me that something like this could happen in what I had hoped and thought was a civilized society.”
Labeling is an underlying theme in “The House in the Cerulean Sea” that is called into question as the protagonist Baker’s view of the children morphs from what he had been told about them to what he is experiencing. Klune, who identifies as queer, is familiar with labels. “That's what people of color go through every day. That's what queer people go through every single day. We are not like everyone else, and therefore [people think] we are to be feared,” Klune says. Remarking that it was only five years ago that same-sex marriage was legalized, he notes that while progress has been made, discrimination is far from being an issue of the past.
These are heavy subjects woven into a lighthearted story full of magic and whimsy. From the sprite Phee’s ability to make things bloom and grow with her mind, the wyvern Theodore’s love of shiny buttons and the green blob Chauncey’s greatest wish to become a bellhop, the story is an entertaining journey that opens up the imagination.
Klune hopes the major takeaway for readers is one simple word: kindness. “The big thing that I want people to take away from this book, above all else, is that there is still kindness in this world. We are so angry all the time,” he says. “I wanted to write a book that showed kindness, and it’s probably a little trite, but that’s OK because the real world sometimes is.”
Published by Tor Books, “The House in the Cerulean Sea” is available on Amazon. The first book of Klune’s YA series published by Tor Teen, “The Extraordinaries” is scheduled for release on May 5. On Aug. 18, Klune will publish the final book in his popular Green Creek series, “Brothersong.” With three new releases in one year, Klune, a former claims examiner at an insurance company, has been typing away at his stories for years. At the age of 6 he began carrying a notebook with him to write stories, and he’s a voracious reader. He made the leap to full-time author in 2016, saying the decision to quit his 9-to-5 job was terrifying but worth the risk.
“I wanted this so bad that I knew that I was going to have to work my butt off to get this far,” he says. “I write, obviously, because I love it so much … I’m going to be doing this as long as I have fingers and can think clearly.”
TJ Klune’s April book reading at Carytown’s Chop Suey Books has been postponed to a later date. For updates, visit chopsueybooks.com.
