Staff Review – Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune

TJ Klune is taking us back to Marsyas Island! Perhaps you read The House in the Cerulean Sea - a feel-good fantasy story that followed Linus Baker as he took to Marsyas Island to visit an orphanage for children with magical abilities. Run by Arthur Parnassus, it was Linus' job to check on the wellbeing of the children in a world where not everyone is magical, and not everyone is kind to those who are. Unhappy and dreary at the start of the novel, Linus found love with Arthur and the children, and quit his government job to stay with his found family. In the brand new sequel, "Somewhere Beyond the Sea", we follow Arthur's perspective as the orphanage gets a new child, and Arthur fights for the rights of magical beings.

It had been some time since I read the first novel, but I was quickly reminded of why I loved it so much, and of this wonderful magical world. "Somewhere Beyond the Sea" is a powerful yet light-hearted novel that focuses on two main changes from the first - the addition of David to the orphanage, and the trail and government interference with the orphanage. David, a yeti, is skeptical to move to the island, but quickly becomes part of the family as the other children eagerly take him in. The love the children show to each other, and to Linus and Arthur, is so heartwarming, it's a magic all in itself. The novel deals heavily with discrimination and prejudices against magical beings, which all of the children have faced, as well as Arthur in his youth. We learn more about Arthur in this novel, and gain a better understanding of the horrors that can come with prejudice. One cannot help but think of real-life groups that have faced prejudice, whether racial discrimination or against the LGBTQ+ community. Klune, a gay man, talks in his acknowledgements at the end of the novel about the legacy he wants to leave behind, talking in length about the discrimination trans people have faced, especially recently from author J.K. Rowling. This book not only featured trans characters, but reminds readers that, no matter how they may be seen as "different", that they are still worthy of love. The children (mainly Sal) write a poem that tells just how they feel:

“See me.
See me for who I am. I am magic. I am human. I am inhuman.
See me.
I am a boy. I am a girl. I am everything and nothing in between.
See me.
You do. You see me. You recoil in fear. You scream in anger.
See me.
I bleed. I ache. You see me, and you wish you hadn’t. You wish I was invisible.
Out of sight, out of mind. Unseen, faded, muted. You want my color. You want my joy. You want a monochrome world with monochrome beliefs. You see me, and you want to take it all away. But you can’t.
You want me lost, but I am found in the breaths I take, in the spaces between heartbeats.
I am found because I refuse to be in black and white, or any shade of gray.
I am color. I am fire.
I am the sun, and I will burn away the shadows until only light remains.
And then you will have no choice but to see me.”

I would have loved to learn more about Arthur's childhood and youth - this book does have a bit of an open ending, so many a trilogy is afoot? Fingers crossed we get another story with more of one of my favourite literary found families! Once you've read the first novel, you simply must pick up Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune next!