The House in the Cerulean Sea
core novel 2020 The Cerulean Chronicles
Record
| First published | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.35 (1,103,202 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781250217318 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The House in the Cerulean Sea opens the Cerulean Chronicles by introducing Linus Baker, a case worker for a government agency that oversees orphanages for magical children, whose life follows a careful, unremarkable routine shaped by rules and regulations. He is unexpectedly sent on a confidential assignment to a remote island orphanage run by the enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, tasked with evaluating whether the home and its six unusual children meet the agency's standards for continued operation. As Linus settles into the household and gets to know its residents, including a boy rumored to be the literal son of the Devil, he finds his rigid worldview challenged by the warmth of daily life among children the wider world views with suspicion and fear. The longer he stays, the more his professional detachment gives way to a genuine attachment to Arthur, the children, and the sanctuary they have built together.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Cerulean Chronicles
- Series: The Cerulean Chronicles core; position 1 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: TJ Klune
Awards (verified)
- Alex Award (YALSA), 2021: won; ALA/YALSA's own announcement, confirmed directly (not from an aggregator).
Notes
- From the series record (The Cerulean Chronicles): Publisher/rating-platform-labelled 'Cerulean Chronicles' -- a whimsical contemporary-set fantasy about an orphanage for magical children. Open-ended: no confirmation found that Klune considers the series permanently closed at 2 books, so registered as 'sequence' rather than 'duology'.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Cerulean Chronicles: position 1 of 2: next Somewhere Beyond the Sea (2024)
Sources
- Wikipedia: The House in the Cerulean Sea
- Rating-platform listing: Cerulean Chronicles series page
- ALA/YALSA: An Interview with Alex Award Winner TJ Klune
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