An Empath’s World: The House In the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

 

When identity politics begins to seem overwhelming you enough to want to get away from it entirely, the go-to book is The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. It’s a go-to book on any bad day when hope seems too far away, life doesn’t make much sense, meaninglessness reigns, and peace is forgotten. To me, it was a return to the real world, a world I had shut myself away from because it seemed too cruel and hopeless to change. It was a resurrection of faith in kindness.

MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT

Linus Baker works as a caseworker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He visits orphanages for magical children, interacts with the masters of the place, and at times, with children if needed. He files a report recommending whether the orphanage should remain as it is, or be shut down. He lives a quiet, solitary life, abides by RULES AND REGULATIONS of DICOMY. He is so good at what he does that he is selected by the Extremely Upper Management for a highly classified job – to be a caseworker for an orphanage whose existence isn’t known because one of the kids is devil’s son, the anti-christ. Along with him are five other children who are unacceptable anywhere else. The master of that orphanage also requires a report which is strange because Linus only studies the conditions of living and children, not the masters. As his work duty will have it, he sets on board a train to go to an island far away, seeing an ocean for the very first time beyond his mousepad.

The one word for the house that Linus finds in the island is inclusive, once he gets accustomed to its inhabitants. Klune makes the physical appearances of the people very clear. Zoe is tall and dark and wears no shoes because she is an island sprite. Talia is a garden gnome, she is a round girl who has a long beard. She loves threatening trespassers with wanting to dig their graves. Theodore is somewhat of a tiny dragon, he flies really well, is learning the use of his legs, and absolutely loves buttons. Phee is a forest sprite who has wings. Sal is the oldest of them all at 14, taller and dark with a heavy built, turns into a Pomeranian when afraid. Chauncey is somewhat of a jellyfish whose gender is unknown. Chauncey dreams to be a bellhop while still trying to get out of the old life of being the monster under the bed. Finally, there’s Lucy(/ifer) who threatens people with the end of the world because it’s entertaining to look at people’s prejudices. Guarding these children is Arthur, charmingly tall, with wisest of words, and a past so dark that he chooses to work for it to be no one else’s present.

When Linus meets them, he is bound to look at his own prejudices, to look beyond appearances and remind himself that anything is possible and he doesn’t know everything. It’s not the appearances that he finds difficult to get used to, but the absence of rules known to him and presence of imagination and creativity. He couldn’t have imagined a differently disciplined life for himself, and most definitely didn’t consider kids should be left unsupervised for a couple of hours each day to pursue their own interest. Or go on adventures. Yet, in the course of his one-month stay he finds out that life can be so much more beyond his wildest imaginations.

He begins to understand the politics between the ‘normal’ and ‘magical’ people. Normal ones in the government claimed to protect the magical folks, help them adjust to ‘normal’ life, live with ‘normal’ people. Magical folks questioned this need to be trained into a life that’s not theirs. They want various forms of living to co-exist instead of everyone having to follow just one set of rules that might not be in their best interests.

The house on the island is an example of equity over equality, nurture beyond nature. Everyone gets to decorate their rooms as they please, suiting their interests and requirements. They have common classes reading literature beginning from Chaucer to philosophy of Kant to finding words for self-expression. They eat the same food. However, Zoe helps Phee understand her powers because they are both sprites. Lucy lives with Arthur, a walk in closet turned into his room, because he needs help with his nightmares and some extra classes to control his powers. Talia finds an experienced ‘human’ gardener, Helen, eventually to help with her garden.

The story focuses on the idea that one’s birth or past doesn’t define one’s present. There is always a way to change the stories that have been written with prejudices. ‘We fear what we don’t understand’  becomes somewhat of a mantra in the course of the novel. The island has been isolated for it is a residence to children who found home nowhere else, meaning, they are seen as so dangerous that they cannot be relied on to be amongst people of their kind or otherwise. One short trip to the nearby village changes that. Children don’t fear them, their parents take them away. The good and the bad is shown together, it’s not an ideal world. There are people who want to harm magical children and there are those who accept that they have been too blinded by their prejudices, by what’s been fit in their heads rather than what they see and experience.

The story preaches everything that the world should be from the eyes of an empath – a place where everyone has hope, is given a chance to change their story, walk beyond prejudices, dream a little, and become who they want to be. It takes away the shame associated with being fat, having body hair, being different and uncategorised. It focuses on turning rage and sadness, the ghosts of the past, into something much more beautiful, turning into a space open to receive others who don’t belong to certain labels. It doesn’t give up on people, doesn’t define them by their one mistake. It looks them as a whole set of everything they were, are and could become. There’s kindness.

TJ Klune builds an alternate world without eliminating the problems of the real world. It is a fantasy filled with love, desire, choices, and resilience. It celebrates plurality without reducing everyone’s experiences to a singularity. They are all children but their experiences are varied, the darkness they have seen cannot be compared. And, yet, in the end they are children. If this doesn’t bring one back to reality, then what does? All lives matter but all experiences cannot be reduced to a box. Some people suffer much more than others because of their race and gender. There’s prejudice that needs fighting, there’s entitlement and privilege that needs to be called out. We are reminded of our agency to change things around us. We might not be able to change the whole world but we can make way for change in our own little ways, and sometimes in a really loud way.

The beautiful enchanting story with whimsical characters is a reminder that children need spaces to make mistakes, learn, and dream. Even if many a times these children are stuck in adult bodies. And love, love is pure and unbound and people thrive in life when they let love guide them.

‘Sometimes you were able to choose the life you wanted. And if you were lucky enough, sometimes that life chose you back.’