It has been most likely 3-ish years since I read TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea for the first time. Back then, I wasn’t really getting the hype surrounding it. When I read it for a second time however, I understood. Timing is everything guys, let me tell you. When the sequel Somewhere Beyond the Sea was announced, I wasn’t thrilled to be honest. On the contrary, I wasn’t really eager for this novel to see the light of day. The first book was perfect the way it was and why did it need a sequel? I often find sequels ruining my reading experience, especially with a lovely book as The House in the Cerulean Sea. Anyway, curiosity got the better of me and I picked it up. Is this a worthy sequel?

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune
Series: The Cerulean Chronicles #2
Published by Tor Books on September 10, 2024
Pages: 416
ISBN: 9781250881205
Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade. Featuring gorgeous orange sprayed edges!

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.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.

Since I really enjoyed the first book in this cycle, I wasn’t truly excited for Somewhere Beyond the Sea as I stated just before. My expectations were therefore quite neutral. Cozy fantasy is a hit or miss for me and I find character growth – Something I find of high importance in books – lacking in this subgenre. It’s more of a vibe genre which doesn’t really focus on action-packed scenes and character growth. I was wondering how these characters would even grow more, since this only applied to Linus in the previous book. I wanted to know how Arthur and Linus would grow as a couple nevertheless.

Yes, they indeed grow as a couple. This book evolves around Arthur and his storyline. We learn more of his background and his past, as well as his relationships and how they started. Zoe plays an important role in his life from a very young age, which she continues to do so in his adult life. Arthur is facing a lot of backlash from the non-magical community, even to the point he needs to face a tribunal. Of course he has Linus by his side to deal with everything he has to deal with. The children also support them and truly seem happy. When a new child enters their home, they welcome him with open arms. I think this new child, David, undergoes the biggest development of them all. He is really anxious and cautious at the start, but opens up a lot when he arrives on the island. The instant trust and sense of belonging the community provides him with helps a lot as well. In my opinion, the other characters don’t grow as much, but this isn’t really necessary as they did so in the previous book.

I had to get used to the writing. Even though this book is written well, I wasn’t used to really long chapters anymore. Most books I’m reading these days have quite short chapters and that isn’t the case for this novel. So, if you’re a reader who needs to finish their chapter before being able to put the book down, you need to be prepared for this. I also had to get used to third person POV again. It makes you more of a spectator to the events instead of really “living” them through the characters’ eyes. This doesn’t work for all genres, but for cozy fantasy it does.

As stated before, this is more of a vibes than an action-packed novel. The vibes are warm, cozy and positive. There are antagonists involved, but all the characters try to se the good in everything even though it’s quite bad. This makes this story less eventful and for me, a bit boring. I mean, it’s not bad and this book meets it’s aim to be all cozy and such, but I crave more of an action-packed fantasy novel. I sometimes even zoned out and that’s not quite positive when reading. Of course I was aware of this, but I’m always too curious for my own good. It was a bit too long and felt dragging at times. The plot is very predictable, which is unfortunate, but really fits this genre.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune is a nice, cozy and positive read. Even the darker parts of this story get turned into light-hearted moments. Personally, I love to have more of an action-packed fantasy than a cozy one. Even though this book didn’t suit my needs, it was a warm comfort read that fits the darker months of the year which are fast approaching.