The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

 

5/5 stars

So this was a re-read before reading the sequel. I first read it back in 2022 and it was a 5 then and it's still a 5 now.

Linus works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth and he's been sent to investigate a rather unorthodox orphanage based on Marsyas Island. Unorthodox in the sense that it houses several children considered especially dangerous including Lucy, son of the antichrist, and Sal, a dog shifter who can pass his condition on with a bite, plus Chauncey so rare his species is completely unknown, there are also concerns about the master himself one Arthur Parnassus.

Overall I love this book, the characters are so well-written and the way the relationships develop and they grow into a family are so heart-warming. Found family at it's best 💕

Steff Out x

All Of This Is True by Lygia Day Penaflor

Ebook originally provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

3/5 stars

So I originally started reading this in 2018 as a NetGalley eArc. I ended up marking it as Did Not Finish at 20%. At the time I struggled to connect to the characters and the formatting of the ebook wasn't working in those early stages (I presume this was fixed for official release?). I later found a paperback in a charity shop without realising it was the same book. Then this month it just so happens that it fit one of my reading prompts that I'm doing, the word "All". Even then I didn't connect that I'd previously attempted it until I went to Goodreads to mark it as "currently reading".

The way the book is laid out is unusual. We have video transcripts for the characters Miri and Penny, complete with a video graphic style header for the show "The Whole Truth". Then we have Soleil whose journal entries are being serialised in a newspaper. Lastly there are extracts from Fatima's new book, some scenes of which will cause deja vu.

The central plot point of this seems to be discussing this new book and the events that led to an attack on Jonah, the girls' friend. The kick off of everything is a book called The Undertow, written by local author Fatima Ro. Miri is a superfan who has a plan to get to know Fatima and become her friend. Her plan works but gradually everything changes. Not least of the changes is a secret that Jonah has been carrying with him that will turn them all upside down...

This was a very fast paced read and it drew me in but the characters aren't super likeable. Penny was the most "human" but there was a whiny quality to her and a lack of backbone to change her own situation, she was too much of a doormat. As soon as a certain event was mentioned in relation to a certain character I guessed the truth of what happened. It felt very naive of the other characters to assume what they did. It was fairly enjoyable but I won't reread, it's lost its mystery now.

Stef Out x