zewonderfulwhale

[zewonderfulwhale]

House in the Cerulean Sea is Absolute Bliss

I finished this gem of a book earlier this week. One of my friends read it, and The House in the Cerulean Sea has spread like wildfire through my social circles ever since. One reviewer described this novel as “Simply perfect... like being wrapped in a big gay blanket.” I couldn’t agree more! Anyone looking for a therapeutic comfort-read during LGBTQ+ Pride Month: TJ Klune has got you covered.

To be honest, I can’t tell if The House in the Cerulean Sea is written for children or adults. The premise is kid-friendly; a caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) goes on a highly-classified investigation of one particularly supernatural orphanage, run by the charming Arthur Parnassus. That said, TJ Klune explores very adult themes in this framework, including prejudice, life dissatisfaction, systemic discrimination, and child abuse. Listed like that, this light-hearted fantasy sounds more like a dystopia, but the author tackles those topics with utmost respect and intention. It’s refreshing to see a fantasy novel fully realize the gravity of its darker plot elements.

Another refresher: diverse characters! After years of reading books and watching movies about rail-thin mid to late teens falling in love and saving the world, forty year-old (overweight) protagonist Linus Baker and his love interest, the forty-five year-old Arthur Parnassus, are a DELIGHT. They have real quirks, character flaws, personalities, and their story is all the better for it. And the KIDS! Goodness, the kids. They’re wonderful. I won’t list them all here, much better to meet them yourself, but my personal favorite was Chauncey, the translucent jelly / sea creature who dreams of becoming a bellhop. I was completely charmed.

I could ramble on and on about this book. Closing The House in the Cerulean Sea for the final time, I didn’t just feel whimsically happy, I felt inspired. Seeing a found-family accept themselves, embrace each other, and spark change in an unjust world... it drives readers to do the same. For all who’ve already journeyed to the Marsyas Orphanage, I hope you loved it as much as I did. Those who’ve yet to depart, enjoy your stay. 

[zewonderfulwhale]

Welcome + Idle Thoughts on Twilight

Hello hello! Welcome to Whale’s Rec Room! Here’s a spot to channel all those ideas and theories on the stories you just can’t get out of your head. 

To start, I have to tell y’all about Twilight, Stephenie Meyers’s YA vampire romance (a more literal thirst trap). The first book came out nearly fifteen years ago, but because of a jokingly suggested group-read, I only fell into Forks at the start of 2021. And to be honest, I sort of loved it. As I read, I was constantly torn between my ironic “this is so terrible, it’s hilarious” pretense and the buried middle school me who ~just knew they were different~. A few times I caught myself relating to Bella Swan because she does homework. And I do homework. That’s when I began to understand: Twilight is EXPERTLY designed for reader self-insertion. Its characters may suffer for it (Alice is my favorite, by the way), but goodness me does it know how to pander. Bella is delightfully nondescript; any reader, especially women, can see themselves as the beautiful, smart, though sometimes self-conscious and mistake-making girl on the page. Edward, as many have noted before, is the sublime fantasy for that part of ourselves. He’s gorgeous, first of all. He plays the piano (*swoon*), and he has virtually ZERO human needs (even breathing is optional), so he’s free to spend all of his attention on the object of his affection: the Bella Swan in all of us.

In this setup, it’s easy to understand how Meyers swayed millions of readers to root for Bella and Edward - it’s like seeing the part of us who needs love most find it unconditionally in the most perfect human possible. It’s really powerful fantasy, but I have to wonder: how can this power become dangerous? From Twilight’s story, it’s easy to feel swept up by the need to be loved. Bella herself makes plenty of sacrifices for Edward, and Edward even states that he’s dangerous, that he’ll consume her. Isn’t it equally as dangerous that he consumes her life in a less literal way? At the end of the book, Edward explains that he doesn’t want Bella to give up her life for him - and not in the typical vampire sense, but in the “you-have-your-own-life-to-live” sense. And as much I enjoyed escaping into this couple, not thinking, I have to agree. To what extent is love worth giving ourselves up? If you have to give yourself up for love, is that even love? When is it right to listen to our inner Bella Swan? These are the questions that a teenage sparkly vampire lust-fantasy leaves me with. 

Besides reading the first book, my only experience with Twilight is watching Breaking Dawn Part 2, so I’m sure there’s plenty to this discussion that I’m missing. What do you think about Twilight? Any insight from the other books/movies?